The static equilibrium properties of a spool, resting on an incline and subject to the tension exerted by a string wrapped around the core cylinder, are studied by means of Newtonian mechanics. The overall behaviour of this system is imagined to be similar to that of a doggie kept on a leash. Starting from the well-known mechanical properties of…

Educating new generations of physicists is often seen as a matter of attracting good students, teaching them physics and making sure that they stay at the university. Sometimes, questions are also raised about what could be done to increase diversity in recruitment. Using a discursive perspective, in this study of three introductory quantum…

Team based learning (TBL) is a time tested teaching-learning (T-L) tool involving collaborative learning but has hardly been tested for teaching clinical biochemistry to undergraduate medical students. The present study was designed to (a) compare problem solving skills of first year MBBS students after attending a TBL session on 'organ function…

Over the course of instruction, not only does most introductory physics students' content knowledge evolve but their attitudes and approaches to problem solving are also likely to evolve. This change may depend on many factors including the curricula and pedagogies used, the degree to which instruction actively engages students in the learning…

This study tested the hypothesis that exploratory learning, with and without analogous problems, would improve students' ability to make connections between conceptually-related topics. In this randomized experiment, undergraduates in introductory physics (N = 171) studied a new topic under three different instructional conditions. Order and type…

Abundant research leaves little question that pedagogical approaches involving active student engagement with the material, and opportunities for student-to-student discussions, lead to much better learning outcomes than traditional instructor-led, expository instructional formats, in physics and in many other fields. In introductory college…

The article describes the development of a new approach to teach molecular biology to undergraduate biology students. The 34 students who participated in this research belonged to the first period of the Biological Sciences teaching course of the Instituto Federal Goiano at Urutaí Campus, Brazil. They were registered in Cell Biology in the first…

This article presents the combination of three enhanced educational approaches for training future scientists. These methods incorporate skills generally not introduced in the freshman year: student-led blackboard introductions; the writing of scientific papers; and the design, execution, and presentation of an independent lab module. We tested…

Following collaboration between two chemistry lecturers and an academic developer an attempt was made to enhance the learning of students within a chemistry module through the adaptation of the delivery of content material. This paper reports a piece of practitioner led research which considered how effective the approach developed was upon the…

The idea of ''flipping the classroom'' to make class time more engaging and student-centred has gained ground in recent years. The lecture portion of General Chemistry I and General Chemistry II courses were pushed outside the classroom using pre-recording technology and streaming delivery of content, in order to make in-class time more…

The Department of Physics at EKU [Eastern Kentucky University] with support from the National Science Foundations Course Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement Program has successfully converted our entire introductory physics sequence, both algebra-based and calculus-based courses, to an activity-based format where laboratory activities,…

Peer-facilitated workshops enhanced interactivity in our introductory biology course, which led to increased student engagement and learning. A majority of students preferred attending two lectures and a workshop each week over attending three weekly lectures. In the workshops, students worked in small cooperative groups as they solved challenging…

A peer mentoring program was added to an introductory chemistry course at a large university. The introductory chemistry course prepares students with little or no previous chemistry background to enter the mainstream general chemistry sequence and is part lecture and part small-group problem-solving. Faculty instructors are responsible for the…

Because of drawbacks to the traditional lecture method, general chemistry lectures were stopped at appropriate times to allow students to complete prepared worksheets on problems related to current lecture material. Discusses rationale for and mechanics of the approach, including sample-problem worksheets used. (JN)

Identifies problems facing the science educator as a result of the activities of professional educationalists and the knowledge explosion. Presents answers to these problems in an enumeration of the basic ingredients of scientific education, a consideration of the overall curriculum, and a discourse on the art of teaching. (GS)