Populists employ truth as a tool for aligning the people against the elite. Citizenship education rarely takes up critiques of liberal democracy, discussions of populism, or conversations about what truth is. This paper provides an alternative pragmatist vision of truth that builds on the populist call for democracy to better reflect the will of…

We report a new online suite of tools that enables inquiry-based active-learning activities to develop students' representational competence about atomic orbitals. Orbital Explorer is a Web site for the visualization and interactive investigation of atomic orbital properties. Orbital Explorer contains two integrated tools, namely, Atomic Orbital…

A laboratory experiment was developed that connects the interpretation of computer-generated models to the self-assembly of macrocycles. Students compare the reactions of terephthalaldehyde and isophthalaldehyde by reacting each with (R,R)-(-)-1,2-diaminocyclohexane. These isomeric systems serve as the foundation for a discussion about the impact…

Inspired by the work of the social and cultural historian Tim Cole, Stuart Farley decided to look again at the way he teaches the Holocaust. He wanted to focus on the geographical concept of place as a way of enabling his Year 9 students to build far more diverse narratives, which took full account of the chronological diversity of people's…

Acquiring conceptual understanding seems to be one of the main challenges students face when studying organic chemistry. Traditionally, organic chemistry presents an extensive variety of chemical transformations, which often lead students to recall an organic transformation rather than apply conceptual knowledge. Strong surface level focus and…

Remote camera-traps are commonly used to estimate the abundance, diversity, behavior and habitat use of wildlife in an inexpensive and nonintrusive manner. Because of the increasing use of remote-cameras in wildlife studies, students interested in wildlife biology should be exposed to the use of remote-cameras early in their academic careers.…

Kentucky's elementary social studies curriculum includes introductory knowledge in state and national history, providing an opportunity for teachers to include instruction on the influence of slavery on society before and after the Civil War, and sometimes on current events. For example, following the violent events in 2017 in Charlottesville,…

A recent trend in school mathematics has been to launch student inquiry with real-world contexts that capture student interest and intrigue (Meyer 2011, 2012; Kane 2015). Often these starting points harness the immediacy and power of the Internet to provide strong visuals and timely relevance. The goal of the resulting student inquiry is to foster…

In a recent report, the American Association of Physics Teachers has developed an updated set of recommendations for curriculum of undergraduate physics labs. This document focuses on six major themes: constructing knowledge, modeling, designing experiments, developing technical and practical laboratory skills, analyzing and visualizing data, and…

Individuals and teams engaging in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) in multidisciplinary higher education settings must make decisions regarding choice of research methodology and methods. These decisions are guided by the research context and the goals of the inquiry. With reference to our own recent experiences investigating…

Almost eighty years ago, Lucy Sprague Mitchell, founder of Bank Street College of Education in New York City, wrote about social studies in ways that sound remarkably contemporary: "In the first place, we shall say that the curriculum should continue the laboratory methods, which means it should furnish the children with as many first-hand…

Academic advising research aids faculty members and advisors in detecting, explaining, and addressing macro-level trends beyond their local campus. It also helps legitimize the professional nature of academic advising, moving it beyond mere prescriptive models that focus on rules and course selection. Due to the erroneous belief that skills in…

Undergraduate biology education is undergoing dramatic changes, emphasizing student training in the "tools and practices" of science, particularly quantitative and problem-solving skills. We redesigned a freshman ecology lab to emphasize the importance of scientific inquiry and quantitative reasoning in biology. This multi-week investigation uses…

Why can't colleges act more like businesses? For the past century, legislators, boards of trustees, and private sector leaders have been befuddled by academic traditions. The scions of law-making and industry have scratched their heads and wondered why institutions of higher learning do not respond to the same prompts and incentives that work well…

Implementation of a guided-inquiry lab in introductory biology classes, along with scaffolded instruction, improved students' understanding of the scientific method, their ability to design an experiment, and their identification of experimental variables. Pre- and postassessments from experimental versus control sections over three semesters…