Environmental science classes often ask students to examine changes in species or their environments to determine the human impact on a particular habitat or ecosystem. It is not always practical to take students out for a field study to do this kind of analysis; instead, the scientific method and diversity analyses can be utilized while students…

This qualitative study explores how educators can foster creativity across disciplines through a conceptual framework for creative interdisciplinary collaboration. The article introduces the Creativity Lab process model, which generates collaboratively developed, multifaceted but cohesive project ideas. The author argues that while creativity and…

Course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) exposes an entire class of students to scientific research and is thought to increase students' knowledge retention in science, technology, engineering and mathematics education. Microbial engineering is an interdisciplinary subject that combines science and engineering. We transformed a…

Universities are recognizing the need to prepare graduates to think conceptually and have the ability to take on complex, real-world problems. Strategies to assess conceptual knowledge are limited and often require more time and effort to complete than is accessible for most undergraduate courses. Card sorting is a very broad technique for…

In this article, we describe a multi-year writing intervention in a highenrollment professional pharmacy course, implemented by a multidisciplinary team of pharmacy and writing instructors. Built around one capstone writing assignment, the "drug information question" paper, the intervention was designed to specifically improve students'…

Biology students need analytical and critical thinking skills to analyze data and apply their knowledge to real-life situations. To meet this growing need while helping students to discover the relevance of learning through applications, we created an academic learning community (LC) between Ecology and Biostatistics courses. Selected case-studies…

Educational research supports incorporating active engagement into K-12 education using authentic STEM experiences. While there are discipline-specific resources to provide students with such experiences, there are limited transdisciplinary opportunities that integrate engineering education and technological skill-building to contextualize core…

While evidence supports the use of cadavers to facilitate the teaching and learning of human anatomy, cadaver-based teaching may not be present at the undergraduate level at many institutions due to limited laboratory access, financial constraints, and the lack of qualified faculty trained to teach in this type of setting. The following case…

St. Olaf College recently restructured its Summer Bridge Program (SBP) course for incoming low-income (LI) and first-generation (FG) college students from a non-major biology course, "Issues in Biology," to an interdisciplinary "Explorations in Science" course. Two significant changes were made with the intention of giving…

The increasingly interdisciplinary nature of today's scientific research is leading to the transformation of undergraduate education. In addressing these needs, the University of Houston's College of Technology has developed a new interdisciplinary research-based biotechnology laboratory curriculum. Using the pesticide degrading bacterium,…

The University of California has struggled for many years to build fair and workable policies and programs to develop the English literacy of its highly diverse student population. Considering past, present, and future, this essay describes how the UC's largest campus, UC Davis, with 50% of its 33,000 students L2 writers, has built a network of…

This report presents the findings for private four-year colleges that participated in ACT's 2010 What Works in Student Retention survey. The report contains information pertinent to only these institutions. Appended are: (1) Data for Private Four-Year Colleges and Universities; and (2) What Works in Student Retention: Instrument. (Contains 15…

This report presents the findings for public four-year colleges and universities that participated in ACT's 2010 What Works in Student Retention survey. The report contains information pertinent to only these institutions. Appended are: (1) Data for Public Four-Year Colleges and Universities; and (2) What Works in Student Retention: Instrument.…

A Biomedical Engineering Internship Program conducted within a Comprehensive Cancer Center over a 10 year period was assessed and evaluated. Although this is a non-traditional location for an internship, it is an ideal site for a multidisciplinary training program for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students. We made a…

In an attempt to improve its students' writing abilities, as well as their critical thinking skills, Lord Fairfax Community College, in Virginia, developed a program called "Thinking through Writing." The project designers believed that concept formation, classification, memory enhancement, and other learning/thinking skills could be…