Barbara Cruz describes how what began as a challenge (i.e., finding or justifying the time to spend on history instruction in an environment of high-stakes testing) turned into a rich learning experience for students using historical fiction. By designing experiences that were literacy centered but based in historical content, this group of…

This article explores two case studies of the literacy practices of assessment in the vocational curriculum. Previous studies have identified learning in the vocational curriculum as being assessment-driven and that subjects often associated with limited levels of literacy actually require multiple literacy practices from students. Drawing upon…

The purpose of this mixed methods research study was to investigate how evidence-based adolescent literacy practices are implemented by secondary teachers in the classroom or what the reasons might be for these practices not being implemented. Three secondary English teachers of three different types of classes, comprising Intensive, Project-based…

The Virtual Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) Process Development Project provides the context for the two areas of the research presented in this dissertation. The first area, generally referred to as feedback in this dissertation, focuses on student learning and the interactions of students and instructors that take place in the project,…

Today's undergraduates are clearly comfortable as consumers of technology and new media--purchasing ring tones for their cell phones and tunes for their iPods, text-messaging from handheld devices, scanning and tinkering with photos, keeping up with their Facebook friends and watching viral YouTube videos, sometimes all simultaneously. We share…

Computer Science is a rich field with many growing application areas, such as Health Information Systems. What we suggest here is that multi-disciplinary threads can be introduced to supplement, enhance, and strengthen the primary area of study in a course. We call these supplementary materials "threads," because they are executed…

How does arts activism relate to concepts of voice, issues of social justice, and ideas about sustainable change and transformative processes? Does arts activism imply a particular set of values? This article describes an arts activism course that is designed to raise critical discourse on these and other questions and to provide a structure for…

We present our Lunar Phases Project, an ongoing effort utilizing students' actual observations within a mental model building framework to improve student understanding of the causes and process of the lunar phases. We implement this project with a sample of undergraduate, nonscience major students enrolled in a midsized public university located…

An excellent common activity in technology and engineering classes involves dropping an egg from a significant height in a protective device designed and built by students. This article describes how the author uses the classic "egg drop" as an inspiration to have students modify a small crash test vehicle that speeds down a track and crashes into…

The various student gains and reported satisfaction with self-management projects have been well documented. However, we found that few psychology programs explicitly teach these skills. In this paper we demonstrate how self-management projects can meet nine out of the ten undergraduate student learning goals outlined by the APA Task Force (2002).…

The process of finding inspiration for a class project is fascinating and intriguing. In this article, the author describes a class project inspired by the gyre, a widespread circulating rotation or vortex of ocean currents, known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This particular gyre is the location of an enormous floating mass of garbage,…

This article addresses spatiality as an educational category by asking how spatiality influences students' experiences of interactions in project-based teaching. It examines students' experiences with two different spatial conditions--namely, separate rooms, each accommodating a single group, or a much larger open space hosting multiple groups. It…

Technology and millennials have created a shift in the world and how it operates. This impact has been experienced in the field of occupational therapy education. As a result of this paradigm shift, an analysis of effective teaching methodologies was carried out to assess the most effective way to engage the millennials in an analysis of…

The paper proposes lab work and student competitions based on the LEGO NXT Mindstorms kits and standard LabVIEW. The goal of this combination is to stimulate design and experimentation with real hardware and representative software in courses where mobile robotics is adopted as a motivating platform to introduce mechatronics competencies. Basic…

In this article, the author describes a project that deals with fire production as an aspect of technology. The project challenges students to be survivors in a five-day classroom activity. Students research various materials and methods to produce fire without the use of matches or other modern combustion devices, then must create "fire" to keep…