All Journal of College Science Teaching resources

Journal Article

Preparing Undergraduates for Professional Writing

The inability to write scientific papers effectively remains a problem for many college students. To identify pedagogical constructs that help undergraduates write well in scientific formats, the authors evaluated the effect of the number and type of...

Journal Article

Society for College Science Teachers: Do You Need an Introductory Science Specialist?

For your next general science hire, provide your introductory level students with an expert. This article discusses the practical reasons why you should consider hiring an Introductory Science Specialist—someone who has the background, expertise, a...

Journal Article

Research and Teaching: Promoting Student Learning in a Large General Chemistry Course

Based on recent reports in the science education literature, curricular modifications were made to one section of a freshman-level general chemistry course. Assessment results indicate that these modifications resulted in a more student-centered lear...

Journal Article

Instructional Technology Jewels

The authors integrated four technology tools into a course to showcase their pedagogical usefulness. These were Course Compass, a web-based, course-management system; Moveable Type WebLog, an Open Source blog; recorded verbal critique, an evaluation ...

Journal Article

Editorial: A Time for Change

In this month’s column, Editor Lester G. Paldy says farewell to the Journal of College Science Teaching (JCST) with the same “panache” as the distinguished New York Times columnist, Anthony Lewis, whom he admired. He reflects on his early y...

Journal Article

Teaching Failure in the Laboratory

Many undergraduate science students are misled by “cookbook” laboratory experiments that make science appear to be easy and to always yield anticipated results. This is a direct consequence of the pedagogical approach normally used in science tea...

Journal Article

Cooperative Concept Mapping

The author used a repeated-measures design to compare students’ exam performance after their participation in a cooperative concept-mapping workshop in contrast to their exam performance after more traditional assignments. Cooperative concept-mappi...

Journal Article

Learning about Leadership

Peer leaders play a key role in the success of the peer learning teaching method. In this article, we discuss the effect team learning has had on peer leaders in chemistry and biology classes over the course of four years at the University of Portlan...

Journal Article

Biology of the Southeast

A learning community for science students gives participants an opportunity to design and implement a field biology research project. Integrated into the scientific emphasis on ecology, evolution, natural history, and data analysis is a humanities co...

Journal Article

Favorite Demonstration: Brown Bagging It

This simple and inexpensive technique was designed to catch the attention of introductory zoology students and complements any object-based demonstration, wakes students up, and draws their attention to what comes next. This effective strategy works ...