Students who enter introductory geology classes often have misconceptions about geoscience research, and they seldom have opportunities to gain authentic research experience in these classes. To improve student engagement in the class and understanding of geoscience research methods, a semester-long authentic inquiry research project was…

Immersive research opportunities allow students to take ownership of their learning, explore based on curiosity, and engage in the scientific process while developing confidence and skills. However, research positions for biology undergraduates are limited, and conventional teaching labs are often restricted to pre-designed experiments without…

In this paper, we describe the transition of all five course-sections of General Biology Laboratory I from "cookbook" surveys of taxonomic domains and kingdoms to course-based undergraduate research experiences that champion inquiry-based learning in "real world" environments. We achieved this by scaling-up lessons from a…

Pedagogical research into cooperative learning and open educational resources supports an expectation for strong learning outcomes in both cases. This article is a guide to the implementation of a group assignment in a college introductory Hispanic literature course where students create critical editions of literary texts. The critical editions…

Students in introductory college science courses often have a simplified understanding of the scientific method. To introduce students to the complexity of the scientific process and the value of empirical observations, I implemented a semester-long assignment that required introductory-level college science students to build and calibrate weather…

An integrative introduction to the sciences and an introduction to scientific writing can provide a strong foundation for broadly trained STEM majors to explore the interconnectedness of STEM disciplines and prepare them for scientific research. These goals have been accomplished through a sequence of two first-year courses, STEM 101: Integrative…

This article describes the development of a model for an optional, research-based course that bridges two existing, traditionally separate, introductory science courses. This research course provided freedom for students to design and implement new experiments on the basis of technical foundations built from enrollment in separate introductory…

There have been many recent policy and program changes in K-12 education across the United States, particularly in area of mathematics. Changes, such as the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics and standards-aligned year-end summative assessments, require an increase in student-centered, cognitively demanding activities in the classroom.…

This study examines the effects of an extended authentic research experience on students' understanding of the nature of science (NOS) and self-efficacy toward science. The curriculum of an introductory physical geology lab was transformed to include a six-week, student-driven research project focused on local groundwater and surface water issues.…

In this article, the authors describe a project that was developed for an introductory-level physics course. The aim of the project was to encourage the creative process in science, as science is seldom mentioned in discussions about creativity. They sought to engage students in the creative process by posing a collective challenge to the class.…

This essay describes the successes and challenges of skills-based literature survey courses in the small liberal arts college setting of Westminster College (New Wilmington, PA). It considers the overall purpose of the survey in the skills-based English curriculum and then focuses on the integration of literary theory and creative writing as means…

Introductory statistics needs innovative, evidence-based teaching practices that support and engage diverse students. To evaluate the success of a multidisciplinary, project-based course, we compared experiences of under-represented (URM) and non-underrepresented students in 4 years of the course. While URM students considered the material more…

Focuses on the use of small, independent project lab groups in two different courses: (1) Introduction Methodology; and (2) Psychometrics. States that this type of group enables students to receive feedback from their peers, while also allowing them to explore an area of individual interest. (CMK)

Discusses a project in which students in an upper-division methods course conducted field research on racial discrimination and presented the findings to students in Introductory to Sociology classes. States that the aim of the project is to encourage white students to see beyond textbook examples of institutional racism. (CMK)

Uses the U.S. General Land Office Survey as a source of data for reconstruction of local presettlement vegetation patterns in the United States. Data serve as a basis for an introductory biogeography course at Indiana University, Indianapolis. Includes field exercises, questions, and tables of frequency of witness-trees records. (NL)