Students in the United States discuss popular music all the time, but often outside the music classroom. How can music educators bring those conversations into the classroom in ways that students find engaging and meaningful? Podcasts offer a potential solution. By taking on the role of the popular music podcaster, students enrich their…

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a network of objects that can exchange data with other devices also connected to the Internet. One of the most common consumer examples of IoT is home automation, as a variety of smart devices, including doorbells, lightbulbs, thermostats, and refrigerators are now available which users can control remotely using…

The interest in achieving improved acoustical conditions in classrooms has increased in the last years. Some experiments on acoustics phenomena using smartphone applications appear in the recent bibliography. In this paper, we present a proposal for active learning about room acoustics for high school and undergraduate students. Students work on…

The field of geography especially lends itself to fieldwork, getting students out of the classrooms and into the real world. Furthermore, studies have shown that when traditional lecture style is replaced at least in part with approaches that incorporate active learning, students earn higher examination grades and have a greater chance of passing…

This active learning exercise demonstrates the fundamental problem in economics that resources are scarce, while wants are relatively infinite. Students are exposed to four mechanisms for rationing scare resources: markets, queue, coupons, and lottery. An Apple iPad® pre-loaded with music, videos, and games is used as the good to be rationed. The…

This paper describes the development of a mobile application to engage students in active learning in analytical chemistry. Colorimetry is a topic in analytical chemistry that can effectively be learned through the use of mobile devices to perform colorimetric measurement in the real-life environment. Previous attempts in the development of…

In this article, the authors describe an innovative charades-based educational game, HeadsUp! Econ, and its use for effective economics instruction. Results of a self-assessment survey of students demonstrate that implementing HeadsUp! Econ as an active learning game provides students opportunities to: (1) practice identifying which concepts are…

Socio-scientific inquiry-based learning (SSIBL) engages learners with local and global issues in which science and technology are interwoven, aiming to empower them to become active agents of change for their local communities. Within the PARRISE project, we worked with pre-service teachers on prioritising an "it matters" approach to…

This article describes an inquiry-based classroom activity for strategic management, human resource management, and related courses to enhance the understanding of organizational culture. We use visual methods to provide fresh insights into an organization's culture from which we can enable students to draw conclusions upon how this culture might…

We discuss a decade of initiatives to improve the teaching and learning of calculus at The Ohio State University. Calculus at OSU is taught in lecture/recitation format with large lectures and is tightly coordinated, so all innovations had to occur within that framework. We show how many smaller projects built upon one another to create a larger…

The advancement of mobile communication technology has contributed to an increasingly interconnected world; however, these devices are not being used as effectively as they could be to improve global challenges. One challenging issue is the lack of preparation college graduates receive to positively contribute to the needs of an interdependent…

Today's traditional-aged college students are avid users of mobile technology. Commonly referred to as the Net Generation, today's college students spend several hours each day using their smart phones, iPads, and laptops. Although some scholars initially opined that the Net Generation would grow into technologically savvy digital natives who…

Students struggle with the amount of information they are expected to learn in undergraduate human anatomy and physiology labs. Often, the models used in labs may look different from the figures or photos in the lab manuals purchased from publishing companies and therefore studying at home with lab manual diagrams can be an unnecessarily…

A novel smartphone microscope can be used to observe the dissolution and crystallization of sodium chloride at a microscopic level. Observation of these seemingly simple phenomena through the microscope at 100× magnification can actually reveal some surprising behavior. These experiments offer the opportunity to discuss some basic concepts such as…

Student Response Systems (SRS) can provide effective, immediate, and efficient feedback to students, particularly when undertaking formative assessment. Coupled with active learning approaches, the use of such systems can be beneficial for English language learners by providing opportunities for increased engagement with content and reflection on…