JoinAll Journal of College Science Teaching resources
Journal Article
Favorite Demonstration: MOM Teaches Chemistry
Bring in an expert to demonstrate simple chemistry concepts—MOM! Milk of Magnesia (MOM) is used in this practical demonstration that is simple to do, safe to perform, and engages students as they try to figure out and hypothesize what’s going on....
Journal Article
The Gateway Science Workshop is a peer-facilitated, problem-focused program designed to improve student retention in the sciences. This article discusses its development, implementation, and efficacy, which is demonstrated by higher retention of work...
Journal Article
Fostering Inquiry in Nonlaboratory Settings
Inquiry is an important learning strategy, even for students who cannot or do not perform actual experiments. The authors describe two activities, other than experimentation, that they used in introductory biology learning groups to emphasize inquiry...
Journal Article
Adventures in Exercise Physiology
The author altered the format of an exercise physiology course from traditional lecture to emphasizing daily reading quizzes and group problem-solving activities. The SALGains evaluation was used to compare the two approaches and significant improvem...
Journal Article
Zoo projects that encourage reflective learning and are legitimate undertakings for untrained undergraduates are hard to develop. The two themes of the author’s primate studies course lead students to observe and evaluate the social behavior of non...
Journal Article
There has been renewed discussion of the scientific method, with many voices arguing that it presents a very limited or even wholly incorrect image of the way science is really done. At the same time, the idea of a scientific method is pervasive. Thi...
Journal Article
Editorial: What <em> JCST </em> Can Do for You
In this month’s column, the new Field Editor, Randy Moore, introduces himself and outlines several goals for his 3-year term as editor of JCST. He hopes to continue the tradition of making JCST a leader in college science teaching—as it was u...
Journal Article
Favorite Demonstration: Tips for Using Demonstrations Effectively
Demonstrations are powerful learning tools when properly used in combination with other teaching strategies. They are effective ways to model scientific principles in a manner that allows students to visualize, practice, and apply the information bei...
Journal Article
College students often struggle to understand complex technical language inherent in scientific communication. In some cases, this struggle leads to plagiarism. We performed a statistical analysis to find which teaching strategies are best suited to ...
Journal Article
Powerful Ideas in Physical Science
Powerful Ideas in Physical Science (PIPS) is a preservice curriculum that provides modules for physical science courses designed for elementary education majors. Because the courses are built on the learning cycle approach, students develop concepts ...