This paper presents the strategies used for effective teaching and skill development in integrated circuit (IC) design using project-based learning (PBL) methodologies. It presents the contexts in which these strategies are applied to IC design courses at the University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia, and the National Institute of Applied…

Using science notebooks effectively in the classroom can encourage students who are learning English to keep up and keep interested. English language proficiency might head the list of content areas that schools can teach properly and effectively through science. Amaral, Garrison, and Klentschy (2002) reported that a successful inquiry-based…

To keep up with rapidly advancing technology, numerous innovations to the electrical and computer engineering (ECE) curriculum, learning methods and pedagogy have been envisioned, tested, and implemented. It is safe to say that no single approach will work for all of the diverse ECE technologies and every type of learner. However, a few key…

Framed around the perspective that identities matter in relation to literacy learning, this case study examined the identity work of June (pseudonym), a lesbian youth in an 11th-grade high school language arts classroom. Informal interviews with June about her work on a multigenre research project in relation to LGBTQ issues were analyzed using…

This paper reports on the first stage of a study that used "Young People as Researchers" to investigate the phenomenon of middle-year student engagement and disengagement. The first stage of the study focused on a two-day workshop that provided training for students and teachers from four secondary schools in conducting research in their…

This project report describes how five children (an infant, three toddlers, and a preschooler) enrolled at a private day care home engaged in their first journey into project work through a study of Canada geese living on a nearby body of water. Prior to the experience described in this paper, the author had used the Project Approach only with…

"Engineering Challenge for the 21st Century," a weeklong teacher workshop sponsored by the National Science Foundation, uses project-based learning (PBL) to help students and teachers build science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) skills. The workshop, hosted by the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, features the Coast…

"Health, Technology, and Aging" is a course developed to address three significant contemporary trends: aging populations, increasingly ubiquitous technology, and the economic imperative to encourage entrepreneurship. Course content is a blend of gerontology, informatics, and entrepreneurship designed for nonbusiness majors. Six…

Different approaches have been proposed on the design and development of digital and interactive technology in mobile learning contexts. In line with recent findings in literature, we suggest that mobile learning systems benefit from a criteria-based iterative design and development process that incorporates evaluation results of mobile learning…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate final projects in a freshman leadership course (combining grounding in leadership theories with a service-learning component) to determine what students learned about leadership, themselves as developing leaders, and leading in the civic community, and how deeply they learned these concepts. Students found…

Designing constructive digital media is a process of mapping and remapping our physical and conceptual worlds in order to determine their meaning. When readers become composers, when users become designers, they may construct for themselves both a digital "Wunderkammer" of evidence and the potential associative connections available…

When the glass artist Dale Chihuly exhibited his work at the Missouri Botanical Garden, the author took a class of fourth-grade students to view the artist's extraordinary sculptures. Just as the author predicted, the students were in awe of Chihuly's organic three-dimensional sculptures. Before taking the field trip to the Missouri Botanical…

Mural painting provides an excellent opportunity for students to participate in a collaborative project. To many teachers, class mural projects seem intimidating because of organizational and logistical challenges. Many of these challenges can be mitigated, however, if there is plenty of discussion beforehand to organize ideas, get input from…

Challenging one's brain is the beginning of making great art. Tangrams are a great way to keep students thinking about their latest art project long after leaving the classroom. A tangram is a Chinese puzzle. The earliest known reference to tangrams appears in a Chinese book dated 1813, but the puzzles existed long before that date. The puzzle…

The author was originally inspired by "The Exquisite Snake" exhibit she saw at a local museum. Two hundred contemporary artists contributed to this exhibit, which was an adaptation of the old parlor game called "The Exquisite Corpse" that Surrealist artists used to play in the late 1920s and '30s. The author just loved this idea and decided to…