The increasing need for communicating science to the public suggests that future scientists and science educators should be educated in science outreach and trained to communicate with lay audiences. We present a recently developed novel graduate course, which trains students in outreach efforts aimed to increase the public's understanding of…

We studied student seating habits in both a traditional lecture hall with the instructor in the front and in a SCALE-UP (Student-Centered Activities for Large Enrollment Undergraduate Programs) studio-style classroom with the instructor in the middle. Like several previous authors, we find that students with higher course grades tend to sit in the…

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 authors describe an interdisciplinary approach to case study teaching that addresses the demand to balance the goals of process and content. The case study, Salem's Secrets…

This six-year study involved an evaluation of whether student-learning gains for an online homework system that emphasized areas in which students are known to have difficulties--molecular-level conceptualization and visualization, and being able to recognize and relate a concept when it is represented symbolically, numerically, or visually--could…

The ADDIE (analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation) model was applied to help redesign a General Chemistry course to improve student success in the course. A team of six professionals spent 18 months and over 1,000 man-hours in the redesign. The resultant course is a blend of online and face-to-face instruction that utilizes…

Undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory biology course for nonmajors during the fall semester of 2007 were administered the Biology Attitude Scale (Russell and Hollander 1975), a constructed Mathematics Attitude Scale, and a portion of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (Pintrich and Smith 1993). Together, the…

Pilot studies of an NSF-funded project called The Math You Need When You Need It (TMYN; http://serc.carleton.edu/mathyouneed) reveal that online, asynchronous learning modules are effective at remediating students' quantitative skills in introductory geoscience in both community college and university settings. TMYN uses a just-in-time and…

In the process of working through evaluation of efforts to transform undergraduate laboratory experiences at our institution, we developed a protocol for observing laboratory learning environments that could be used in varying institutional contexts. We began using the Instructional Practices Inventory and found many strengths in this protocol but…

This article describes a model of extended problem-based learning that instructed upper-level undergraduate students to focus on a single biological problem while improving their critical thinking, presentation, and scientific-writing skills. This course was developed in response to students' requests for formal training in oral presentation…

Two separate writing-to-learn activities in which students wrote to authentic audiences outside of the instructor were used in a college integrated science course, Science of Water. For the first task, students were asked to write to fourth-grade students, and for the second, students were asked to write to their academic advisor. An overview of…

In this paper, we discuss how a community of scholars came together to create assessments across science departments for the initial teacher preparation program in secondary science teaching. The steps of the process taken to meet accreditation standards are described, as well as some surprising findings from our road trip down the path of…

The beneficial outcomes of undergraduate research (UR) in science have been continuously supported in scholarly research. The reported outcomes are often discussed in terms of institutional goals for education. The purpose of this manuscript is to examine the outcomes of UR in science in relation to the individual expectations of students…

Four physiology courses participating in a science education program used concept maps for the first time. At the conclusion of the term, students responded to an end-of-term survey about the activity. Following varied results, we sought to identify factors that students indicated are important for the acceptance of the technique. To encourage…

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 case study focuses on the chemistry of cocaine to teach a number of core concepts in organic chemistry. It also requires that students read and analyze an original research paper on…

Demonstrations are used in chemistry lectures to improve conceptual understanding by direct observation. The visual aid described here is designed to demonstrate the change in state of matter with the change of temperature and the change of pressure with temperature. Temperature is presented by the rate of airflow and pressure is presented by…