Although active learning works, promoting it in large undergraduate science classes is difficult. Here, three students (F. Naji, L. Salci, and G. Hoit) join their teacher (P. K. Rangachari) in describing one such attempt. Two cohorts in a first-year undergraduate biology course explored the molecular underpinnings of human misbehavior. Students…

Education involves interactions between students and teachers in a societal framework. Teachers can best serve their students and society by making students flexible enough to thrive under uncertain conditions. They should, in a sense, nourish, nurture, provoke, and stimulate pluripotent "educatoblasts."

An active approach allowed undergraduates in Health Sciences to learn the dynamics of peer review at first hand. A four-stage process was used. In "stage 1", students formed self-selected groups to explore specific issues. In "stage 2", each group posted their interim reports online on a specific date. Each student read all the other reports and…

In this article, we describe a simplified approach to teach students to assess information obtained from diverse sources. Three broad categories (credibility, content, and currency; 3C) were used to evaluate information from textbooks, monographs, popular magazines, scholarly journals, and the World Wide Web. This 3C approach used in an inquiry…

Undergraduate science students took an Inquiry course in their second (sophomore) year. The course was designed to explore the social life of scientific knowledge. They were given a set of eight assessment options: personal logs, targeted oral examinations, commentaries, mini-lectures, individual explorations, research proposals, book reviews, and…

An oral examination for assessing senior undergraduate students is described. The examinations were conducted in a room with a one-way mirror so that all students could learn from each other. This procedure was much appreciated by the participants.

Describes a problem-based course in which students in an interdisciplinary program explored the manufacture of biological knowledge. Discusses how students gained an appreciation of the complex interactions between ideals, individuals, institutions, and investments that comprise modern biological research through study of a variety of problems and…

An undergraduate course in pharmacology in which problem-based self-directed learning in the context of small groups provides students with an opportunity to take greater responsibility for their own learning is described. The objectives, examples of problems used in the course, and student evaluations of the course and tutors are included. (KR)