In this Reflection on Practice we propose a triple nexus of research, public engagement and teaching that could provide a new pathway for academic developers to enable greater engagement in learning and teaching issues from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) academics. We argue that the public engagement activities demanded…

A new educational simulation tool designed for the generic study of wireless networks, the Wireless Fidelity Simulator (WiFiSim), is presented in this paper. The goal of this work was to create and implement a didactic tool to improve the teaching and learning of computer networks by means of two complementary strategies: simulating the behavior…

Software Engineering education must account for a broad spectrum of knowledge and skills software engineers will be required to apply throughout their professional life. Covering all the topics in depth within a university setting is infeasible due to curricular constraints as well as due to the inherent differences between educational…

We present the most recent steps undertaken to reform the introductory algebra-based course at The George Washington University. The reform sought to help students improve their problem-solving performance. Our pedagogy relies on didactic constructs such as the" GW-ACCESS problem-solving protocol," "instructional sequences" and…

In delivering chemistry courses by distance, a key challenge is to offer the learner an authentic and meaningful laboratory experience that still provides the rigour required to continue on in science. To satisfy this need, two distance general chemistry laboratory courses appropriate for Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) students, including chemistry…

A strong, recent movement in tertiary education is the development of conceptual, or "big idea" teaching. The emphasis in course design is now on promoting key understandings, core competencies, and an understanding of connections between different fields. In biochemistry teaching, this radical shift from the content-based tradition is…

Engineering technology students can attain a meaningful mathematics learning if they are allowed to actively participate in hands-on activities. However, the current dissemination of knowledge in the classroom still focuses on teacher-centered paradigm of teaching. A study to explore lecturers' views regarding a newly developed integral calculus…

We transformed our first-year curriculum in biology with a new course, Biological Inquiry, in which greater than 50% of all incoming, first-year students enroll. The course replaced a traditional, content-driven course that relied on outdated approaches to teaching and learning. We diversified pedagogical practices by adopting guided inquiry in…

Creativity is a talent that undergirds invention and innovation, making it an important skill in today's society. Although students are often told to "be creative," they many times do not know how and have little practice in this skill. This document presents an analysis of 33 creative products made by adult participants at a state conference for…

This three-year Virtual Measurements Environment curriculum development project for higher education within the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union is the result of intense collaboration among four institutions, teaching applied sciences and technology. It aims to apply the principles and possibilities of evolved distance and…

This study was conducted to describe a high school engineering curriculum, identify teaching strategies used to increase math and science literacy, and discover challenges and constraints that occur during its development and delivery, as well as what strategies are used to overcome these obstacles. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with…

We designed and implemented curriculum intended to be used by students in an algebra-based introductory physics laboratory course. Our curricular goal was to foster, through observations in the lab, a coherent framework in students' understanding of general principles presented in the introductory mechanics course, while addressing known student…

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of using renewable energy data, obtained from a comprehensive data acquisition system, on improving students' learning and developing their higher-order learning skills. This study used renewable energy data available through a data acquisition system installed and tested by the Green Research…

Examined were the cognitive preferences of sixth grade students in relationship both to student involvement in a program utilizing Elementary Science Study Materials and to the teaching strategies employed by the teachers. Two-hundred twenty-six students of eleven teachers, who had taken part in summer workshops to gain experience in using ESS…