Describes the authors' experience co-chairing a writing department. Identifies seven key areas where the sharing of writing program administrator duties has resulted in personal, departmental, or institutional benefits. Discusses workload and professional identity, the politics of writing programs, co-directing as post-bureaucratic practice, and…

Discusses a process of acculturation in three stages by which fledgling Writing Program Administrators can be transformed into change agents: (1) critically reading the program to locate key allies, potential advocates, and proven adversaries; (2) implementing changes on an infrastructural level to convert positive relations among colleagues into…

A goal of the PsychExperiments project was to reduce the financial burden on psychology departments for hardware/software used in their laboratories. In its third year, the PsychExperiments site now hosts 39 experiments. Over 200 classrooms worldwide have signed up as official site users and there have been nearly 10,000 data sessions conducted.…

Studies the effectiveness of biology teachers in the southwest Missouri area. Introduces the Biology Laboratory Internship Program which provides preparation and teaching experience to preservice teachers. (YDS)

Presents two pedagogical techniques designed to promote the development of a conceptual framework in general chemistry. Describes an exam repechage which turns exams into learning experiences for students, and the grouped laboratory essay approach in which students complete essays outside of class. (DDR)

Describes a computerized English-auction experiment that helps students to understand marginal cost and its interrelationships with supply and the efficiency of competitive markets. Explains that the English auction is in a market where there are many sellers (students) and one buyer (computer). States that this exercise offers a good introduction…

Describes how latex-based creatures are made and used to explore various topics in inquiry-based middle school science. Provides a variety of sample data and includes sections on safety concerns and chemistry notes for the teacher. (DDR)

Recommends the use of heart models in teaching about the circulatory system. Argues that simulation activities can deepen students' understanding of heart structure, dispel misconceptions of the cardiac cycle, and foster awareness of the importance of maintaining a healthy heart. (DDR)

Presents schools as the perfect microcosms of the world of the 1990s: most work is done indoors, many resources are consumed, and schools sit surrounded by large chunks of land mostly devoted to grass and parking. Suggests that a school can serve as two perfect environmental education laboratories, one indoor and one outdoor. Describes how to…

Presents an activity that is a qualitative version of the standard paper chromatography experiment. This activity introduces students to methods of selecting the best solvent for a separation and allows them to consider the effects of adding acid and base. (WRM)

Investigates associations between students' (n=489) perceptions of their biology teacher's behavior and their laboratory learning environment with student attitudinal, performance, and achievement outcomes. Finds that associations between attitudinal outcomes and learning environment dimensions assessed by the Science Laboratory Environment…

Reports on Southern Illinois University's (SIU) idea to consolidate its A.A.S. Electronics Technology degree with its two-year capstone B.A. degree in Electronics Management (ELM). Explains that this four-year ELM curriculum is designed to accommodate the transfer of two-year students who have already completed two years of course work. Offers…

Explains an online introductory biology course that applies the inquiry approach to hands-on laboratories. Evaluates learning objectives such as the knowledge of biology, reasoning, attitudes, and graphing skills. (YDS)

This study aimed to find out whether integrating accent reduction software in advanced English language classes at the university level would result in improvements in students pronunciation at the segmental and sup-rasegmental levels. The study made use of a quasi-experimental research design. Two classes at the Department of Foreign Language…

Science education has moved from the traditional lecture-and-demonstration model toward a student inquiry model. Inquiry activities allow students to discover many relationships of science for themselves. However beneficial this shift may be, former assessment methods used in the traditional model may no longer effectively determine student…