This article informs about the formation of a school's Institutional Review Board (IRB), presents examples of research that IRBs often encounter, elevates awareness of human subjects research concerns for faculty and staff, and discusses how emerging requirements for science competitions may affect schools, staff and students. An IRB is the group…

Coupling the scholarly activities of the chemistry research faculty with that of the first-year honors general chemistry laboratory has resulted in additional research experience for undergraduate students and a rise of productivity within the chemistry department. For seven years, first-year university honors students enrolled in the honors…

In an attempt to establish the role of the laboratory in chemistry instruction, an historical perspective is developed, in the hope of extracting the consensus of commentators on the subject concerning the important features of the laboratory experience. We present arguments to support the idea that laboratory instruction involves student…

The development, implementation, and evaluation of a research-based program of laboratory instruction for first-year chemistry students is described. The new approach engages students in interdisciplinary, chemistry-centered research projects during the second semester of their general chemistry course. (Contains 1 figure and 1 table.)

Most faculty will agree that students must learn to write well (Emerson, MacKay, MacKay, & Funnell, 2006), and in the sciences, a variety of approaches have been taken. In the College of Physical and Engineering Science at the University of Guelph, we have developed a way of embedding research, writing, and analytical skills into an…

A report of findings from a content analysis of 191 course-related research assignment handouts distributed to undergraduates on 28 college campuses across the U.S., as part of Project Information Literacy. A majority of handouts in the sample emphasized standards about the mechanics of compiling college research papers, more so than guiding…

Mentoring is widely advocated as an educational experience for academically talented students because mentors may provide stimulation for academic growth and serve as positive role models for students in areas of career interest. This study examined the experiences of 72 talented teenagers attending a university-based summer mentorship program.…

The paper discusses the boundary in the frequency-amplitude plane for boundedness of solutions to the forced spring Duffing type equation x[umlaut] + x + [epsilon]x[cubed] = F cos[omega]t. For fixed initial conditions and for representative fixed values of the parameter [epsilon], the results are reported of a systematic numerical investigation…

This article reports on new studies that shed light on whether getting students into the lab earlier makes a difference. The belief that undergraduate research attracts students to careers in science--and makes them better candidates for such work--has gained almost universal acceptance in academe. But until recently, few researchers have studied…

Providing undergraduate students with research experience has been asserted as a way of reinventing university education. This assertion lacks both substantial empirical evidence and a coherent theoretical framework. In this paper, the authors consider both research and theory relating to undergraduate research and present the Research Skill…

Surveyed 99 colleges to examine funding practices of Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) operations. Describes operable funding systems of PIRG's on college campuses. Discusses four prevailing methods and their relative financial successes. (Author/BH)

The author suggests that student term papers" might make use of media and audiovisual aids rather than remaining entirely in written form. (AK)

Although teacher-librarians learn searching skills in preservice programs, most classroom teachers do not. This paper serves as a guide for educators on how to help their students develop essential searching skills; i.e., move the best results up to the top of the list, evaluate a works-cited page, guide them to their search tool options, or…

Online education continues to permeate mainstream teaching techniques in higher education settings. Teaching upper-level classes in an online setting is having a major impact on education as a whole and is fundamentally altering global learning. "Cases on Critical and Qualitative Perspectives in Online Higher Education" offers a…