Many instructors teach courses that prepare students to do research individually or in teams. These instructors also supervise their students' research projects. Continuous and systematic use of action research principles can help instructors prepare for problems that may develop when students encounter unfamiliar issues at research sites due to…

In this paper, we discuss our approach in teaching the final-year course Process Systems Engineering. Students are given ownership of the course by transferring to them the responsibility of learning. A project-based group environment stimulates learning while solving a real engineering problem. We discuss postgraduate student involvement and how…

This book demonstrates how teachers can use action research as an integral component of teaching and learning. The text uses examples and lesson plans to demonstrate how student research processes can be incorporated into classroom lessons that are linked to standards. Key features of this book are: (1) Guides teachers through systematic steps of…

"Pregaming" or "pre-loading" is what college students call the practice of drinking alcohol in a private setting prior to attending an organized event or social activity where alcohol might or might not be served. According to one student, "Pregames are usually a fun part of the night because you're just with a few close…

Many undergraduate programs require students to complete an independent research project in their major field prior to graduation. These projects are typically described as opportunities for integration of coursework and a direct application of the methods of inquiry specific to a particular discipline. Evaluations of curricular projects have…

A journal-club-based class has been developed to promote active and cooperative learning and expose seniors in biochemistry and cellular molecular biology to recent research in the field. Besides giving oral presentations, students also write three papers: one discussing an article of their own choosing and two, discussing articles presented by…

This study examines the statistical association between timing and duration of undergraduate research participation and college retention and performance in the biological sciences at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis). Using longitudinal data from this large research university, the authors make a substantial contribution to the…

This study investigates librarians' satisfaction with general interdisciplinary databases for undergraduate research and explores possibilities for improving these databases. Results from a national survey suggest that librarians at a variety of institutions are relatively satisfied overall with the content and usability of general,…

This paper deals with the challenge of supervising PhD students. Any supervision is likely to constitute a challenging experience for the supervisor, even more so when they are a new academic staff member with little experience in PhD supervision in the Australasian context. This paper shows how one supervisor addressed the challenge by fostering…

We describe a 10-week laboratory course of guided research experiments thematically linked by topic, which had an ultimate goal of strengthening the undergraduate research-teaching nexus. This undergraduate laboratory course is a direct extension of faculty research interests. From DNA isolation, characterization, and mutagenesis, to protein…

At North Carolina A&T State University (NCATSU), there was a critical need to better coordinate genuine research and classroom experiences for undergraduates early in their academic career. We describe the development and implementation of a faculty alliance across academic departments to increase biomathematics research opportunities for…

This paper describes our efforts to integrate liberal learning principles in a capstone course within the overwhelmingly career-focused discipline of accountancy. Our approach was based on the belief that business and liberal learning courses are complementary, rather than competitive, elements of a well-rounded education. The ability to deal with…

Googlitis, the overreliance on search engines for research and the resulting development of poor searching skills, is a recognized problem among today's students. Google is not an effective research tool because, in addition to encouraging keyword searching at the expense of more powerful subject searching, it only accesses the Surface Web and is…

In 1996, faculty at Sitting Bull College (SBC, Fort Yates, North Dakota) developed its Environmental Science (ENS) Program, basing it on the scientific method and techniques students would need for employment in environmental technician positions with local and tribal agencies. Over the course of 15 years, this employment-based training evolved…

This paper presents a novel collaborative tool--AWESOME Dissertation Environment (ADE)--which facilitates student learning through semantic social scaffolding: a new approach to dissertation writing challenges. These challenges revolve around three issues: timing of support; collective intelligence, and sense making strategies in tension with the…