Description
In this collection of ten articles reprinted from the Journal of College Science Teaching, college and university science professors show how they have used investigative learning—or inquiry-based instruction—to introduce students to the process of science. These first-person accounts demonstrate how students, including non-science majors, can learn to do science as it is done in the real world—through hypothesis building, observation, and experimental design.
The higher education faculty represented in this book is committed to the investigative approach. As one contributor writes, “Would I return to lecturing in a traditional fashion? Not a chance. The excitement and energy of a room of students working in groups, challenging each other, and questioning each other is what I’ll always want to see in my classroom.”
Ideas For Use
Practicing Science: The Investigative Approach in College Science Teaching describes how the skills and processes of investigative learning—inquiry—can be developed and nurtured in the college science classroom. To build this collection, reviewers chose articles from the Journal of College Science Teaching
Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
What Should Students Learn about the Nature of Science and How Should We Teach It? Applying the “If-And-Then-Therefore” Pattern to Develop Students’ Theoretical Reasoning Abilities in Science
Anton E. Lawson (May 1999)
A Science-in-the-Making Course for Non-science Majors: Reinforcing the Scientific Method Using an Inquiry Approach
Deborah A. Tolman (September/October 1999)
Investigative Learning in Undergraduate Freshman Biology Laboratories: A Pilot Project at Virginia Tech—New Roles for Students and Teachers in an Experimental Design Laboratory
George E. Glason and Woodrow L. McKenzie
(December 1997/January 1998)
Use of an Investigative Semester-Length Laboratory Project in an Introductory Microbiology Course: Acquainting Students with the Research Process and the Scientific Frame of Mind
Philip Stukus and John E. Lennox (November 1995)
Old Wine into New Bottles: How Traditional Lab Exercises Can Be Converted Into Investigative Ones
G. Douglas Crandall (May 1997)
Semester-Length Field Investigations in Undergraduate Animal Behavior and Ecology Courses: Making the Laboratory Experience the Linchpin of Science Education
Jeffrey D. Weld, Christopher M. Rogers, and Stephen B. Heard (March/April 1999)
Full Application of the Scientific Method in an Undergraduate Teaching Laboratory: A Reality-Based Approach to Experiential Student-Directed Instruction
Alan R. Harker (November 1999)
Student-Designed Physiology Laboratories: Creative Instructional Alternatives at a Resource-Poor New England University
Linda L. Tichenor (December 1996/January 1997)
Problem-Based Learning in Physics: The Power of Students Teaching Students—Discovering the Interplay Between Science and Today’s World
Barbara J. Duch (March/April 1996)
A Multi-dimensional Approach to Teaching Biology: Injecting Analytical Thought Into the Scientific Process
James W. Johnston (March/April 2000)
• Author’s Affiliations and Contact Information as of February 2001