Chemical laboratory safety education is often synonymous with boring, dry, drawn-out lectures. In an effort to challenge this norm and stimulate vivid learning opportunities about laboratory safety, college chemistry classes analyzed a short, humorous video clip of a character, named Mr. Bean, who visits a chemistry laboratory and commits several…

This column provides original articles on innovations in case study teaching, assessment of the method, as well as case studies with teaching notes. This month's issue describes incorporating a journal article into the classroom by first converting it into a case study.

Many methods have been developed for managing groups in active learning classes, but little research has been done on the effect of group structure itself. Results are presented for an active learning physics class in which half of the class was placed in academically homogeneous groups while the other half was in heterogeneous groups. Students…

Equity, as we define it, means striving to serve the needs of others and enhancing belonging by focusing on "whole humans" in emotional, sociocultural, and personal contexts. Integrating equitable practices in STEM classrooms has advantages ranging from helping students grasp concepts to better fostering student transitions into STEM…

The "Next Generation Science Standards" explicitly endorse argumentation as essential practices for K-12 science classrooms because it can concurrently engage the learners in the coordination of conceptual, epistemic, and social goals. It is important to develop students' capacities to interpret information and data to reasonable…

Teaching in the 21st century requires a modern teaching practice coherent with the evolutions of the Information Age. Interestingly, teaching practices have stretched beyond an art form and into the realm of science. Following these scientific trails, one can argue that one of the greatest challenges educators currently face is to maintain student…

Although research findings support elevated learning outcomes for students who engage in active science learning, faculty members are still resistant to using these practices. In this article we describe the observable features found in 17 evidence-based, active, science instructional practices to address the discrepancy between the effectiveness…

As strong proponents of problem-based learning (PBL), the authors designed and taught an interdisciplinary, team-taught PBL course on Writing Science for the Public at a midsize northeastern state university. This approach led to emphasizing collaboration and experiential learning and resulted in media-rich student projects.

A modified model of cooperative learning known as the GIG model (for group-individual-group) designed and implemented in a large enrollment freshman chemistry course. The goal of the model is to establish a cooperative environment while emphasizing greater individual accountability using both group and individual assignments. The assignments were…

The Five Minute Teach (5MT) serves as both a training tool for graduate teaching assistants (TAs) and a format for explicit discipline-based writing instruction. Here the authors describe the development and execution of the 5MT as part of a professional development course for TAs in the sciences. Specifically, the 5MT uses learning objectives and…

We describe a third-year undergraduate course that focuses on multiscale modeling and protein folding and has as its primary goal the encouragement of students to integrate thinking across and beyond disciplinary boundaries. The ability to perform innovative and successful research work in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics)…

We present the theory and implementation of a review strategy based on testing rather than lecturing. We also show the results of a beginning-of-course review using the format of a two-stage examination, in which students complete a set of questions individually, then again as a group. This format offers several benefits compared with the typical…

Eric Ribbens is a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Western Illinois University in Macomb, Illinois. In this piece, he writes of his observations about the first day of school. After the summer quiet is replaced with noise, motion, smells, and anticipation, students shuffle through the halls again, and all over the building…

Within higher education, science departments have been making efforts to place more emphasis on improving discipline-specific teaching and learning. One such shift is the increased hiring of science faculty with educational specialties (SFES). Although SFES have begun to multiply in number, there is little published on their teaching ideologies…

This case study involves the role of the kidneys in regulating blood pH and electrolytes. The case was used near the end of a two-semester Human Anatomy and Physiology course sequence, during the time when renal physiology was under study. Groups of two to three students were given the case and associated information (lab values, etc.). Students…