Quantitative reasoning, although included in most science courses, can be challenging to teach. In this article, we explore whether cooperative learning may help instructors teach quantitative reasoning and enhance students' understanding and learning experience. Our lesson was taught in a large introductory geoscience course. The lesson required…

Students in introductory college science courses often have a simplified understanding of the scientific method. To introduce students to the complexity of the scientific process and the value of empirical observations, I implemented a semester-long assignment that required introductory-level college science students to build and calibrate weather…

With only minimal changes to the course structure, classroom clickers were introduced in introductory chemistry to allow students to regularly compare their perceived abilities with their actual abilities, a measurement also known as calibration. Students used the clickers to provide knowledge judgments, an indication of their confidence in…

Many large-lecture introductory science courses for nonscience majors do not have a lab component and hence do not provide much opportunity for students to engage in the practice of science. I have developed a new instructional activity called Dorm Room Labs that enables students to conduct hands-on activities as homework (or dorm room work) to…

Passive, lecture-based forms of instruction are often ineffective in helping students develop deep conceptual understanding of scientific concepts. Student-centered forms of instruction based in a constructivist framework, where students are guided toward actively constructing their understanding, have been met with greater success. However,…

In this article, the author introduces the usage of case studies to be an excellent method for engaging students through stories. The author notes she developed a series of mini-case studies that can be implemented, with a little advance preparation, within a 10- to 15-minute window during lecture. What makes them "mini" case studies?…

This article details the aim, development, and implementation of the Chemistry-Genetics Course Collaborative (CGCC), a cotaught offering of a human genetics course with an honors introductory chemistry course. The CGCC was formed to fully integrate the two courses, along with the associated chemistry lab, to create an interdisciplinary scientific…

For over 4 decades, educational researchers have been studying best practices for introducing writing into the curriculum. One successful strategy, a low-stakes writing exercise called "writing to learn" (WTL), has been implemented across several disciplines within higher education. In light of a growing interest in the use of technology…

Students often struggle in introductory health sciences courses; some students have difficulty in upper level classes. To address this, we converted three lecture/lab courses, traditional first-year Anatomy and Physiology (A&P I), upper level Biomechanics, and upper level Microbiology to an integrated studio model. We used the Student…

Summative assessments are customarily used to evaluate ultimate student outcomes and typically occur less frequently during instruction than formative assessments. Few studies have examined how the use of summative assessments may influence student learning among at-risk groups of students. Summative assessments are typically used to evaluate how…

Clickers are often used as an active learning tool in face-to-face classes to enhance student engagement and assess student learning. In this article we share the variety of ways that we use clicker questions to promote deliberate practice in large science courses. Deliberate practice is the use of specifically structured exercises that develop…

A postexam review activity was implemented in an introductory biology course to help students learn from their mistakes and strengthen reasoning and self-regulatory skills. The goal of this study was to design and test a strategy to measure the effectiveness of the postexam review using student performance and attitudinal measures. We evaluated…

Deliberative democracy, a consensus model of decision making, has been used in real-life policy making involving controversial, science-related issues to increase citizen participation and engagement. Here, we describe a pedagogical approach based on this model implemented in a large, lecture-based, nonmajors introductory biology course at an…

We used surveys and classroom observations to examine student reactions to two-stage exams, where students first do the exam individually and then redo it collaboratively. Our results show why both students and instructors appreciate this examination format: Two-stage collaborative examinations are relatively easy to implement, have a high…

Several institutions have redesigned traditional learning spaces to better realize the potential of active, experiential learning. We compare student performance in traditional and active learning classrooms in a large, introductory biology course using the same syllabus, course goals, exams, and instructor. Using ACT scores as predictive, we…