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Journal Article

The Case Study: The Benign Hamburger—Teaching the Nuclear Science Behind Food Irradiation

This column provides original articles on innovations in case study teaching, assessment of the method, as well as case studies with teaching notes. In this month’s issue the case is based on the Jack in the Box food poisoning incident but is super...

Journal Article

Errors as Teaching Tools—The Mass Media Mistake: Engendering in Students a Healthy Skepticism for the Printed Word

While scientists may recognize a mass media mistake, the level of basic scientific understanding among many students—even college students—is too often insufficient to recognize an error. This article describes a classroom exercise used in the in...

Journal Article

Journalism as a Path to Scientific Literacy: Helping Students Connect Important Science Concepts with Real World Issues at New York's Baruch College

Conceiving a means to help students see the relevancy of science to the world around them, and after extensive discussions between the natural sciences department and the journalism program, the faculty at Baruch College agreed on the merit of introd...

Journal Article

Favorite Demonstration: A Vivid Demonstration of Fall Leaf Color Changes—Assessing the Environmental Factors that Affect Plant Metabolism

Fall is a time when the splendors of nature are unveiled through the transformation of leaf colors. Daylight, temperature, and nutritional variations are factors that initiate the hormonal changes leading to the alteration of colors that is induced b...

Journal Article

Guest Editorial: Improving Undergraduate Science Education—National Initiatives, Local Implications

In this article, the Chair of the National Research Council's Committee on Undergraduate Science shares thoughts about the national attention on the important issue of effective teaching and learning of Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technolo...

Journal Article

Developing a Faculty Portfolio—Tips and Suggestions for Science Educators: Constructing a Portfolio That Won't Sell You Short

Faculty portfolios can serve as excellent repositories for a faculty member's scholarly activities. Using the guidelines provided, faculty portfolios can serve to integrate the areas of teaching, research, and service. They can be used for self-asses...

Journal Article

Integrating Experiential Learning into the Study of Nutrition: Weighing the Dietary Habits of Students at Maryland's Goucher College

Experiential learning allows students to apply knowledge learned in the classroom to real life problem solving and decision making. This article describes the experience at Goucher College, a small liberal arts college in Maryland, and focuses primar...

Journal Article

Heretical Thoughts II—On Lessons We Learned from Our Graduate Advisor That Have Impacted Our Undergraduate Teaching

A great deal was learned during our graduate education that we have consciously and unconsciously applied to undergraduate instruction. Instructional lessons emerged from the consistency of our educational experiences. This article features five of ...

Journal Article

Favorite Demonstration: Using Calcium and Calcium Binding Proteins To Teach Signal Transduction in Cell Physiology—Demonstrating Conformational Changes of Proteins Using the Simple yet Powerful Technique of PAGE

This exercise teaches students science by demonstrating the ability of calmodulin to bind and lose calcium with attendant alterations in protein conformation. To visualize conformation changes using the simple yet powerful technique PAGE provides stu...

Journal Article

How to Make Nonscience Majors More Receptive to Organic Chemistry: Building Student Intrigue in Chemistry—Brooklyn College’s “Stories-Behind-the-Story” Strategy

Stories of crime and punishment serve as the impetus for engaging students in science topics as part of a unique approach to teaching chemistry at Brooklyn College. This article describes a successful approach used to help students appreciate the maj...

Journal Article

The Case Study: Return to Mars—How Not to Teach a Case Study

This column provides original articles on innovations in case study teaching, assessment of the method, as well as case studies with teaching notes. This month's issue considers some of the common mistakes case study instrutors make....

Journal Article

SCST: Distance Learning—Meeting Our Educational Responsibilities with Technology

In this column the leadership of the Society for College Science Teaching (SCST) shares its views with JCST readers. This month’s issue focuses on the concerns of meeting our educational responsibilities with technology....

Journal Article

A Running Inquiry—Nature Asked the Questions During This Jog: Discovering in a Maine Forest a “Call of the Wild”

This column shares reflections or thoughtful opinions on issues of broad interest to the community. In this month’s issue, during a morning jog, the author vowed to interact with nature along the jogging path of the Maine forest in the context of d...

Journal Article

Research and Teaching: Small Group Instruction in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology—A Discipline Status Report and a Teaching Agenda for the Future

This paper is an attempt to place the recent flurry of activity into context for SMET faculty. It contains nearly 100 resources which may be useful to researchers, theorists, and practitioners in this area. The resources will be particularly helpful ...

Journal Article

A Curriculum for Recitation Sections in Introductory Biology: Designing Lesson Plans for TAs that Emphasize Open Communication and Spirited Interaction with Students

Recitation sections are led by a graduate teaching assistant (TA). Introductory biology is often the TAs' first recitation teaching experience, and the TA receives little guidance on how to direct the section. In this article, the author developed a ...

Journal Article

Editorial: Undergraduate Education in Science: The Message

The Journal of College Science Teaching’s editor shares thoughts regarding the current issue....

Journal Article

Research and Teaching: Tracking the Modern Geoscience Undergraduate—A University of North Carolina Case Study

Continued decreases in government funding, increasing enrollments, and the demand for accountability and assessment characterize the new landscape of higher education. One facet of the demand for accountability is a belief that undergraduate students...

Journal Article

The Case Study: Is There Life on Mars? Debating the Existence of Extraterrestrial Life in a Classroom Dilemma Case

In this case study, the word has leaked that evidence of life on Mars has been discovered. These findings were publicized in advance of Science magazine's report. This conflict sets the stage for this case study....

Journal Article

Favorite Demonstration: Teaching Chemistry Through Observation—The Exploding Can Demonstration: A Dramatic Demonstration of an Exothermic Reaction

Chemistry teachers are often encountered with the problem of how to introduce students to various subjects in a thought-provoking and insightful manner. One method is to modify teaching styles by presenting students with real world, attention-catchin...

Journal Article

Facilitating Research Between the Library and the Science Writing Classroom: Introducing Students to the Intricacies of Library Research

The idea that research is a process of continuing exploration and investigation is often a difficult one to instill in college students. Introducing the library and its resources as a part of that process in a scientific writing course has proven to ...