Self-regulated learning (SRL) is the metacognitive aspect of learning that goes beyond learning content and skills. With SRL, students are aware of their content understanding and learning progress and use advanced thinking skills to create goals and improve their academic achievement. In this action research, SRL strategies were integrated into…

Researcher innovation and leadership skills are fundamental for creating implementable solutions to pressing societal and market-based global problems. The Research to Innovation to Society (R2I2S) program is a transformative approach to graduate education, training students at the intersection of research, innovation, and leadership. In this…

The field of biology education--and other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines more broadly--has witnessed two major shifts in the past decade: (i) the increased awareness of research-based instructional strategies (RBIS) that are beneficial for student learning, and (ii) a recognition of the importance of computing…

In recent years, video-based lectures have been increasingly used in education as part of flipped classroom approaches, adult education, distance learning, and other applications. Though approaches in video-based lectures have been widely studied, less has been reported in the development of approaches to teach relevant technical skills, such as…

Multiple national reports have pushed for the integration of quantitative concepts into the context of disciplinary science courses. The aim of this study was to evaluate the quantitative and statistical literacy of biology students and explore learning gains when those skills were taught implicitly in the context of biology. I examined gains in…

Graduate teaching assistants (TAs) play an important role in undergraduate programs in our Earth Science Department. A course on teaching and learning was developed to train graduate students in student-centered pedagogy, in a discipline-specific context. The training course has been running for a decade and has been taken by over 100 graduate…

A climate-literate population, capable of making informed decisions related to climate change, is of critical importance as society faces ever-increasing global temperatures and changes in the climate system. This project evaluates the effectiveness of a novel instructional approach that incorporates climate change science into a first-year…

This study examined the development of peer mentoring skills and deepening of content knowledge by trained and supported undergraduate teaching assistants working with students in entry-level STEM courses across nine departments at a large research-intensive U.S. university.

This article explores how English-language learners' writing evolved during a first-year seminar in science course aimed at developing students' argumentation skills. We highlight how a science communications course was paired with a weekly academic English course in the context of a highly coordinated and enriched first-year experience program…

The learning goals of a lower division honors course, Science as a Way of Knowing, include critical thinking, scientific literacy, quantitative reasoning, communication, and teamwork. To help students develop skills and competencies for the course learning outcomes, we used a case study and developed scaffolded activities and assignments that…

We designed and implemented a first-year seminar in science course at the University of British Columbia to allow students to develop and improve their scientific writing and argumentation skills. To evaluate the efficacy of the course, we examined the progression that students made between the beginning and the end of the course as assessed by…

This article describes a collaborative mentoring program in which graduate students (fellows) from a university atmospheric science research department team-taught environmental science classes with professors in a liberal arts college. The mentorship allowed fellows to develop and test the effectiveness of curriculum based on the Process Oriented…

WIKIed Biology is a National Science Foundation Transforming Undergraduate Education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics interdisciplinary project in which the authors developed and implemented a model for student centered, inquiry-driven instruction using Web 2.0 technologies to increase inquiry and conceptual understanding in…

Describes a cooperative project that integrates the internet into the peer-review process to enhance student understanding of the nature of science through engagement in socially authentic scientific research and the double-blinded peer review process. Reports the ratings of faculty and students of the online peer review. (Author/YDS)

Determined if spatial training (independent of classroom, laboratories, and instructors) would improve achievement of organic chemistry students (N=67) at a small liberal arts college and if advanced chemistry students could benefit from such training. The spatial training program systematically developed skills required to use model kits…