Describes using the course question: "How does chemistry (or biology) impact my personal life and society?" This course question is presented to students and forms the basis of the final exam. Students evaluate a current-events article using the question as a framework. Students explore the relationship between chemistry (or biology) and their…

Describes the use of practice weighings and handling of fluorescent compounds to assist in teaching students safe-handling techniques. (PR)

Describes problems in teaching problem solving and summarizes research in this area. Presents Guided Design or Guided Decision Making as a problem-solving approach in which groups of students work their way through a model of the problem-solving process as they wrestle with a discipline-specific situation. (PR)

Presents historical background and modern explanations for the popular demonstration of showing conductivity of solutions through the insertion of a light-bulb conductivity tester into deionized water and water with salt in it. (PR)

Discusses the needs and ways for professional societies to invest time and effort in two-year institutions. (PR)

Provides suggestions for college science faculty that may encourage educational research in postsecondary science education with an emphasis upon what kinds of research questions are worth pursuing. (PR)

Discusses the following questions for science faculty: What do we teach? How do we teach? How do we evaluate or assess what we teach? (PR)

Explains that women were more likely than men to have earned science degrees in liberal arts colleges and the frequent remoteness of senior professors in research-intensive universities may be the problem. Describes what can be done to make teaching assistants more effective. (PR)

Argues that, to make nonscientist students scientifically literate, they need to know the process by which science works, the so-called scientific method. (PR)

Describes problems with teaching embryology in the traditional manner. Presents a new approach where students prepare presentations, questions, and discussion topics. During laboratory periods, students conducted their own long-term research projects. (PR)

Offers three reasons to teach science to nonscientists--curiosity, technological bewilderment, and technological necessity, and offers some ideas on how courses addressed to these ideas ought to be taught. (PR)

Describes four instructional techniques used to deliver specific developmental objectives in both an introductory chemistry course and a general course in science and technology. The four techniques described are miniresearch projects, scenario-based research projects, short essay examination questions, and issues-directed research project. (PR)

Describes the use of entomopathogenic bacteria for use in teaching general microbiology. (PR)

Describes an inexpensive, reproducible alternative assay that requires minimal preparation and equipment for water testing. It provides students with a direct method of detecting potentially biohazardous material in water by observing the reduction in bacterial luminescence. (PR)

Explains that trial and error learning is an important way for children and adults to learn. Open-ended activities have great opportunities for error and eventual feedback for error reduction. (PR)