Organic chemistry problems that interrelate and integrate synthesis with spectroscopy are presented. These synthesis-spectroscopy roadmap (SSR) problems uniquely engage second-year undergraduate organic chemistry students in the personal discovery of organic chemistry. SSR problems counter the memorize-or-bust strategy that many students tend to…

Road map problems ask students to integrate their knowledge of organic reactions with pattern recognition skills to "fill in the blanks" in the synthesis of an organic compound. Students are asked to identify familiar organic reactions in unfamiliar contexts. A practical context, such as a medicinally useful target compound, helps…

Education experts argue that using rich mathematical tasks in student-centered classrooms is especially conducive to student learning (NCTM 2000). That said, they also acknowledge that using complex tasks and developing student-centered classrooms can be intimidating and challenging for teachers (Chazan and Ball 1999). One difficulty associated…

As a teacher of technical writing, the author applauds the emphasis on the strategies of research and on documented, problem-solving writing across the curriculum and on bringing writing-for-the-workplace into the first-year writing classroom. However, as a teacher of literature, he rejects the notion that responding to literature has no practical…

This paper describes the use of diagrams as self-explanatory tools. It considers the use of diagrams, in general, and more specifically, examines research that is currently being undertaken in the broad field of visualisation. The research participants referred to in this article were Advanced Certificate of Education students and the paper…

It is important to use rich problem-solving tasks to develop students' understanding of important mathematical ideas (NCTM 2000). Rich tasks are complex, nonalgorithmic, and nonroutine, requiring reasoning, problem solving, and communication of thinking. Evidence has shown that using rich tasks in student-centered classrooms is especially…

This article provides the rationale for using Fermi questions with eighth graders studying algebra. It describes the students' reaction to such questions as well as their thinking processes and solutions to questions posed to them by their teacher. (Contains 1 figure.)

Teachers who attempt to use inquiry-based, student-centered instructional tasks face challenges that go beyond identifying well-designed tasks and setting them up appropriately in the classroom. Because solution paths are usually not specified for these kinds of tasks, students tend to approach them in unique and sometimes unanticipated ways.…

Mathematical reasoning is the cornerstone of mathematics learning and should be the focus of mathematics teaching. Two mathematical problems are presented, which describe students' responses, and highlight how students demonstrated mathematical reasoning in the midst of working on these problems.

Lists 12 reasons why college students have difficulty solving chemistry problems and 12 suggestions for improvement. Lists were compiled from students in an introductory chemistry course. (SK)

Argues that games with a simple communication structure and/or an abstract content have more virtues than games which introduce too many details into the roles and scenario. Four such "simple" games are described, one in detail, and four references are listed. (LLS)

Discusses the "Every Pupil Response" (EPR) strategy and its use in teaching basic facts, problem-solving, place value, and fractions. Basically, the technique involves children responding simultaneously to a question by holding up a card, using parts of their bodies, or stick figures. Advantages of EPR are noted. (JN)

Students are rarely given the opportunity of being decisionmakers in class, and when they are, they may feel unsure of how to organize their own learning. However, over time they come to appreciate the benefits of a more active engagement in learning English. In this paper, I describe a procedure based on Exploratory Practice (EP) for guiding…

Describes a class activity using graph theory in the form of finding the least number of firehouses needed to serve a town as mapped by a series of points and lines connecting the points. Notes that the third graders eagerly attacked the problem, and themselves suggested that the problem could be used in grades 2-8. (RS)

Describes a psychology course that implemented a problem-solving approach to provide students with a hands-on experience of community psychology in a multicultural South Africa. Traces the students' reactions to the course from their initial enthusiasm and emergence of frustration to their eventual understanding of other cultures. (CMK)