We introduce learning modules in cryptography that can be crafted to motivate many abstract mathematical ideas, and we illustrate with a sample module. These modules can be used in a variety of ways, such as the core for a cryptography course or as motivating topics in other courses such as abstract and linear algebra or number theory.

This article describes a content analysis of 37 Inquiry Design Modules (https://c3teachers.org), conducted with the purpose of identifying the core teaching practices (CTP) necessary to successfully enact them. Although there has been research identifying CTP in other content areas, research on social studies inquiry at the elementary level is an…

Bioinformatics is an essential discipline for biologists. It also has a reputation of being difficult for those without a strong quantitative and computer science background. At Lancaster University, we have developed modules for the integration of bioinformatics skills training into our undergraduate biology degree portfolio. This article…

Research methods based on modelling and simulation (M&S) are gaining popularity among social scientists to study societal dynamics. Emphasising the importance of this research approach, the Department of Religion, Philosophy and History at the University of Agder initiated a methodology module to help students on the religious studies…

Learning synthetic biology is often seen as a far distant possibility, restricted to those who have the privilege of an academic career. We propose a student-centered discussion group around synthetic biology, aimed at people from high school onwards with different backgrounds to interact and learn about synthetic biology. We developed a 14-week…

The integration of biology with mathematics and computer science mandates the training of students capable of comfortably navigating among these fields. We address this formidable pedagogical challenge with the creation of transdisciplinary modules that guide students toward solving realistic problems with methods from different disciplines.…

Data literacy, or students' abilities to understand, interpret, and think critically about data, is an increasing need in K-16 science education. Ocean Tracks College Edition (OTCE) sought to address this need by creating a set of learning modules that engage students in using large-scale, professionally collected animal migration and physical…

There is an increasing need for research chemists and biochemists to have a basic familiarity with computer programming. Adding programming content to already crowded STEM undergraduate curricula, however, can be challenging. When programming content is introduced within the chemistry curriculum, it is most often incorporated into upper division…

The spring of 2020 brought a necessary pivot to emergency remote teaching for all faculty. As a team of instructional designers at the Indiana University School of Public Health, we developed a rapid response protocol to analyze faculty's instructional design needs and provide effective and efficient support strategies. In this reflective essay,…

The benefits of performance-based classroom approaches to teaching Shakespeare have been well-documented in pedagogical scholarship. This paper is an effort to push beyond the performance-based classroom and begin to incorporate ideas from the field of performance studies into a new pedagogical approach that capitalizes on my institution's…

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) has been at the center of a national conversation around the necessity to strengthen the STEM workforce starting with STEM education in K-12 schools. "The Next Generation Science Standards" (NGSS Lead States 2013) incorporate a prominent engineering component in both disciplinary…

This paper offers lessons learned from a partnership between the Texas A&M School of Innovation (I-School) and the Texas A&M Educational Technology program. Taking on the I-School as a "client," online graduate students in an Advanced Instructional Design course spent a semester designing the first of a set of online educational…

Over the past several years, we have contributed several articles to "TPT" that focused on a forensics-style reexamination of historical events. In each article, we presented a case study as a pedagogy for teaching topics from introductory-level physics courses. Recently, we assembled our prior work into a series of…

The purpose of this design case is to report on the design of a course template to be used for institutional training at a public university in Turkey and to be published on the in-house learning management system of the university. Following a detailed description of the design context, the step-by-step design process is explained in detail with…

Many large, undergraduate science courses, which still heavily rely on traditional lecture-based dissemination of content, passive learning, and exam-based assessments, have been forced online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To address the challenges facing students in regards to engagement, self-directed learning, and the development of soft…