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Journal Article

An Integrated Mechanics and Calculus Course for Poorly Prepared Students: Avoiding the All-too-Pervasive Assumption that Students have a Common Starting Point

This article reports on a new coordinated introductory precalculus, calculus, and mechanics course designed to overcome the barriers presented by traditional courses. The course is based on the premise that all students can succeed given appropriate ...

Journal Article

Targeted Test Revision—Another Approach to Science Testing: Treating Physics Learning as a Work in Progress

The essential feature of the "targeted test revision" process is that students are encouraged to rework exam problems that they did not complete successfully. Instead of punishing students for not doing their best work, more could be accomplished by ...

Journal Article

What Works in the Nonmajors' Science Laboratory: Some Practical Advice on How to Build a Workable and Meaningful Introductory Science Laboratory

Science laboratories can be "cookbook" or discovery based. Since nonmajors usually lack experience in and motivation for the laboratory, a balanced use of both these approaches works best. This article provides advice on how to build an introductory ...

Journal Article

Point of View: Is Learning Just a Matter of Tricks? So Why are We Educating? A Rude Awakening for a Science Educator—Promoting Meaning Becomes an Endangered Concept

This column shares reflections or thoughtful opinions on issues of broad interest to the community. In this month’s issue find out what the author faced while expressing interest in some summer part-time work to apply his teaching skills in a diffe...

Journal Article

Guest Editorial: Inner Guidelines for Undergraduate Teaching—Some Thoughts, News, and Views on K-16 Science Education

An opinion piece about undergraduate teaching where the author shares inner guidelines derived from more than 40 years of teaching in hope that they may be useful to others....

Journal Article

Introducing College Students to the Scientific Literature and the Library: Analyzing the Scientific Method of Researchers in the Library Component of a Washington State University Course for Nonmajors

In this article, the author helped incorporate a library component into an experimental section of Environmental Science/Resource Planning—a class for nonscience majors. Students were assigned readings from popular science literature followed by a ...

Journal Article

Research and Teaching: The Cognitive Profile Model of Learning Styles: Differences in Student Achievement in General Chemistry—Considering the Ways Our Students Learn and Teaching to Their Strengths

At Clemson University, a study was conducted to establish relevance and significance of a new model to describe individual differences in learning patterns among students. Results showed significant differences between populations defined by the mode...

Journal Article

Stressed Stream Analysis—Addressing Environmental Problems in Local Communities: Using Environmental Impact Analysis as a Unifying Theme

For environmental science education to be effective, students must be exposed to the way environmental science is done in the real world. In this article, the author uses an environmental impact analysis as a theme in describing his techniques for ev...

Journal Article

SCST: The Scholarship of College Science Teaching—A Statement from the Society for College Science Teachers

In this column the leadership of the SCST shares its views with JCST readers. This month's issue features the position statement on the scholarship of college science teaching adopted by the SCST executive board. ...

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 ...