Between April and December 1915, Maria Montessori and her son, Mario Montessori, spent time in California. Historical accounts of this period have emphasized Montessori's participation in San Francisco's world's fair, the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE), and identified this event as the crux of her travels. The following text and…

Graduate students focus the majority of their time honing their research skills and knowledge in a very narrow area of expertise. They are sent off to postdoctoral positions where they continue to grow as scholars and scientific investigators. In most graduate programs, there is very little opportunity to train graduate students to become lecture…

The authors describe several types of classroom assessment techniques (CATs) and cognitive scaffolding procedures that they have developed over the years. They then bring the procedures together in a sample lecture/group learning class presentation.

Criticism of the lecture method remains a staple of discussion and writing in academia--and most of the time it's deserved! Those interested in improving this aspect of their teaching might wish to consider some or all of the following suggestions for enhancing lectures. These include: (1) Lectures must start with a "grabber"; (2)…

Too often, students enter our classrooms with insufficient knowledge of physical science. As a result, they have a difficult time understanding content in texts, lectures, and laboratory activities. This lack of background knowledge can have an impact on their ability to ask questions and wonder--both key components of inquiry. In this article,…

This article discusses the challenges that bioinformatics education is facing and describes a bioinformatics course that is successfully taught at the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, to the fourth year undergraduate students in biological sciences, chemistry, and computer science. Information on lecture and computer practice…