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We designed a course to provide undergraduate science students and preservice teachers with authentic research and teaching experiences. Teams of students and preservice teachers complete supervised field ecology research projects and develop teaching activities based on their research in order to learn practices in both science and science teaching while improving skills in collaboration, leadership, and different forms of communication. Students apply their learning by educating local school groups on ecological concepts in the field and share their scholarship with faculty, peers, and community partners during a poster symposium. Each student team completes a research project and teaching activity proposal, conducts research and develops a teaching activity, and writes a research paper and lesson plan in the format of a professional manuscript. Teams use mentor feedback and their reflections on drafts and practice sessions to improve the research proposal and paper, teaching lesson plan, delivery of the teaching activity, and poster presentation. Improved grades on revised assignments and self-reported gains in knowledge and skills provide evidence of student learning.

Although most students in nonmajor biology courses will not enter careers in science, they will need a working understanding of biology and how it relates to their lives to make informed decisions on important topics that will affect their lives, including food, environment, energy, and health. This research seeks to improve on nonmajors' understanding of biology and how it relates to their personal lives. This study was conducted in a biology course for nonmajors at a large urban university in the mid-South. Students were asked to provide written responses and thoughts on a curated set of popular science articles. Student participants provided a total of three article reviews and two reflection papers over the course of 1 semester. These data were qualitatively coded and assessed for recurring themes both on an individual student level as well as across student cases. Our findings suggest that the students who were able to establish personal connections to biology through reading and reflection were more likely to form an interest and understanding of biology as a whole over the course of the semester.

This article informs that it is well-known that too many students learn to "plug and chug" formulas while gaining very little concomitant understanding of the underlying concepts. Active engagement in the classroom is one of the best tools available for overcoming conceptual difficulties. Science educators agree that students of all ages learn more by participating actively in the interpretation of scientific phenomena. The demonstrations described in this article are an example of active learning in the chemistry classroom. The equilibrium demonstration involves the entire class and easily acquired paper wads. It should come as no surprise that students enjoy tossing paper wads around the classroom. It's quite a liberating experience to throw them. After all, students have been told since kindergarten not to throw things in the classroom, and certainly for good reason. These very active demonstrations give everyone a chance to play in the classroom.

Concept maps make connections between ideas apparent, and thus would seem ideally suited to demonstrate learning. Yet, they are not widely used by instructors, particularly in large university classes. In this paper we review the strengths and rationale behind concept maps and provide examples we have used to structure content for one of our introductory courses. A rubric that focuses on propositions was used to grade student-created concept maps on a final exam administered to 293 students. These grades are compared to those of multiple-choice questions, short answers, and an essay on the same exam. We find poor correlation between concept maps and the other instruments, and stronger correlations between short answers and multiple choice, as well as between short-answer content grades and essay writing grades. We speculate that concept maps may be less influenced by student language skills and short-term memory than written answers, and that concept maps should be used as an alternative assessment of higher order thinking skills.

With the release of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), assessing K-12 science teachers' self-efficacy in Computational Thinking (CT) is an important research gap to study. Bandura defines self-efficacy as awareness of the individual's potential and capabilities to accomplish a goal. Teaching efficacy beliefs is a significant identifier of teachers' performance and motivation in teaching the specific content successfully; however, K-12 science teachers' CT teaching efficacy beliefs are rarely discussed. Participating preservice elementary teachers (PSET) were enrolled in an undergraduate elementary science teaching methods course during the spring and summer 2018 semesters in a southwestern state university. We administered a CT teaching efficacy beliefs survey at the beginning and end of the related unit (i.e., the intervention). During the intervention, the PSET followed the CT practices by building educational robots, coding visual block-based programs, and solving puzzles in the video game "Zoombinis." In this paper, we report the impact of the intervention on teaching efficacy beliefs of PSET. We used SPSS software to analyze our quantitative results. We performed paired samples t-test for the two teaching efficacy beliefs subscales, Personal Computational Thinking Teaching Efficacy (PCTTE) and Computational Thinking Teaching Outcome Expectancy (CTTOE), to measure if there is a significant difference in teaching efficacy beliefs. Our research findings suggest that introducing CT increases PSET CT teaching efficacy beliefs. Furthermore, based on the results of our exploratory research with PSET, we propose implications of the study for K-12 CT teaching efficacy beliefs and CT education research.

Liberal arts programs encompass a range of academic disciplines, and their effectiveness relies not only on what these disciplines are, but also on how they are integrated. The natural sciences are one important component of liberal arts programs that may be difficult to assimilate with the rest of the curriculum. In this paper, the topic of neglected tropical diseases is provided to illustrate an innovative approach to bridging transdisciplinary connections across and through disparate academic disciplines. This approach is supported by evidence from prior studies demonstrating the effectiveness of transdisciplinary teaching at promoting creativity, knowledge retention, and student motivation.

Students in an upper-division Environmental Chemistry course used peer review and response to reviewer comments to improve their writing skills. The process employed an anonymous and timed in-class Peer Review Format. In addition to editing peer papers, students were tasked to create a Response to Reviewer Comments document, which the authors used to mimic the peer-review process required for scientific publication. The Response to Reviewer Comments document was designed to have students think critically about their writing and defend their choices with respect to peer edits. Results of essay quality and student surveys are presented here. Student writing assignments improved with this process; however, more support is needed to encourage students to critically think about their own writing.

Within the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education community there are repeated calls for the reform of undergraduate teaching. Resulting change efforts often focus on developing and disseminating specific instructional ideas and practices to individual faculty. However, in this paper, the authors argue that these efforts need to be expanded to include more emphasis on faculty involvement in the change process, as well as on the environments and structures within which faculty work. They present four core change strategies that frame a broad span of considerations for enacting and sustaining new educational programs: (1) disseminating curriculum and pedagogy, (2) developing reflective teachers, (3) developing policy, and (4) developing shared vision. These strategies emerged from an interdisciplinary literature review of hundreds of articles in faculty development, STEM education research, and studies of higher education. (Contains 2 figures and 1 table.)

We designed a physics course for prospective elementary and middle school teachers to foster aspects of scientific thinking recommended in reform documents. Because the elementary school curriculum focuses heavily on literacy, we also explicitly integrated physics and literacy learning in this course. By integrating physics and literacy learning, we mean learning to speak clearly, listen closely, write coherently, read with comprehension, and make and critique media resources competently in physics contexts. Thus a major focus of our efforts has been designing activities and assignments that build literacy skills while engaging prospective teachers in scientific thinking. The National Research Council (2007) suggested that students who are proficient in science (a) know, use, and interpret scientific explanations of the natural world; (b) generate and evaluate scientific evidence and explanations; (c) understand the nature and development of scientific knowledge; and (d) participate productively in scientific practices and discourse. In this paper, we discuss prospective teachers' perceptions of ways they have developed their abilities to think scientifically in this course. (Contains 4 tables and 1 figure.)

This paper examines students' mixed perceptions of the use of active learning techniques in undergraduate science lectures. Written comments from over 250 students offered an in-depth view of why students perceive these techniques as helping or hindering their learning and experience. Fourth- and fifth-year students were more likely to view in-class active learning techniques as a waste of lecture time, whereas third-year students and females perceived these techniques as instrumental to improving their understanding and their interactions with professors and peers. Students also provided recommendations for the effective use of active learning techniques in lecture. (Contains 1 table and 3 figures.)

Today, science teachers continue to seek ways to improve their instruction and become credentialed as "highly qualified" in their field. This paper describes how science and science education faculty at the University of Massachusetts and veteran K-12 science teachers, with funding from the National Science Foundation, designed Science Education Online (SEO)--an online, graduate-level program for elementary and middle school science teachers that fosters learning of science and science teaching. The SEO program consists of 2 courses in educational pedagogy and 12 content-based courses. Through data collected in the form of course evaluations, student surveys, and interviews, teachers described how the hands-on, inquiry-based activities, interaction with their peers and instructors, and links to classroom practice embedded in each of the online courses enabled them to increase their subject matter knowledge and understandings of effective teaching. Data indicate that SEO courses meet the university's standards for high-quality instruction and purposeful learning opportunities, and facilitate teachers' acquisition of needed, advanced credentials. (Contains 7 tables and 4 figures.)

Digital pen-and-paper technology, although marketed commercially as a bridge between old and new note-taking capabilities, synchronizes the collection of both written and audio data. This manuscript describes how this technology was used to improve data collection in research regarding students' learning, specifically their understanding of enzyme-substrate interactions as depicted in textbook representations. Students were provided this technology during individual interviews and were permitted to annotate multiple representations of enzymes and substrates, as well as to generate their own representations. The ability to digitally revisit the sequential student drawings was valuable in analysis of the research findings. Innovative and novel uses for this technology are discussed for both discipline-based education research and classroom practice. (Contains 2 figures, 1 table, and 1 note.)

Science Without Borders is a unique interdisciplinary science course that uses group and active-learning strategies and is in high demand among nonscience majors at a masters-level university. Registrar data showed that nonscience majors were far more likely to choose this course compared with other, discipline-based science courses. In an investigation of course catalogs of 60 randomly selected institutions of higher learning, only 5% offered a similar course. In this paper, we describe the course's unique structure and successful administration. In addition, pre- and postcourse surveys were administered to over 200 students in 10 different sections over the course of one academic year. These data showed that students demonstrated modest increases in science competency, but perceptions of science were unchanged. (Contains 3 tables and 3 figures.)

Research has shown that asking conceptually based questions along with a personal response system (clickers) is an effective way of implementing the peer instruction pedagogy. Lecture tutorials are a paper-based method that also incorporates peer instruction. Past research has shown that both methods yield significant learning gains for students in introductory science courses. This study investigated whether using clickers in conjunction with lecture tutorials yields higher student learning gains than using only lecture tutorials. Students from an introductory Earth Science course participated in the study. Course data (exams, quizzes, attendance) and results from the Geoscience Concept Inventory indicated that high-performing students who used only lecture tutorials yielded similar learning gains to those of high-performing students who used both clickers for conceptually based questions and peer instruction lecture tutorials. The results suggest that the addition of clicker-based peer instruction pedagogy to lecture tutorials does not lead to additional learning gains. (Contains 2 tables and 2 figures.)

To help undergraduates make connections among disciplines so they are able to approach, evaluate, and contribute to the solutions of important global problems, our campus has been focused on interdisciplinary research and education opportunities across the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. This paper describes the mobilization, planning, and implementation of a first-year interdisciplinary course for STEM majors that integrates key concepts found in traditional first-semester biology, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, and physics courses. This team-taught course, Integrated Quantitative Science (IQS), is half of a first-year student's schedule in both semesters and is composed of a double lecture and a weekly lab and workshop. Features of this first-year course, including themes and concepts covered each semester, some of the materials developed, lessons learned, challenges, and preliminary measures of success are described. (Contains 2 tables and 2 figures.)

Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) programs have been shown to be effective mechanisms to recruit undergraduate students into the sciences and also to retain them, especially as related to underrepresented students. Academic-year REU programs have numerous benefits, including participation in longer-term research projects that allow more time to digest material, develop skills, and draw connections with coursework. This paper describes an academic-year REU program targeted at underrepresented students within the University of Hawaii system, shows how it is aligned with best practices for broadening participation, and presents evaluation results. (Contains 5 tables and 1 figure.)

This paper presents details about a summer instructional program created by physics graduate students who sought a chance to help students from the local community and to gain greater experience teaching science and math. The students initiated, designed, and conducted the program, which gave the instructors their first chance to independently design curricula and prepare lessons. Although results indicate the program successfully met the desired goals, we outline some of the problems encountered and solutions we plan to implement in upcoming summers. We present these details to encourage and assist others to develop similar programs that can assist in educating secondary students while providing valuable teaching experiences for undergraduate and graduate students. (Contains 1 table.)

Many college science educators have moved away from the traditional lecture format and toward learner-centered classroom environments. Yet many of us struggle to cover large content loads, reverting at times to rote memorization. This paper suggests rote memorization simply does not work and students must be actively engaged to learn. (Contains 1 figure and 1 table.)

This paper describes an action research approach toward an implementation of a new teaching methodology (specifically active learning) in a preparatory college chemistry classroom. The initial implementation involved the use of process-orientated guided inquiry (POGIL) activities. The treatment classes with either all POGIL activities during lecture or lectures incorporating POGIL one-third of the time were found to perform lower than the control. For the second implementation, the active learning activities were altered. The authors eliminated many of the reading components and incorporated mini-lectures into the active learning activities. Examining assessment data as a measure of student-content learning, it appears the altered activities are a better match for this preparatory chemistry course. Throughout this process, they focused on the careful analysis of intentionally collected data on student-content learning. This, accompanied by an openness to change direction on the basis of such results, represents a powerful model for teaching change. (Contains 10 tables.)

Students need to reflect on the practice of science to fully understand the nature of science (NOS), which is an important component of scientific literacy. In this paper, the authors describe how to implement an explicit and reflective pedagogy in college science laboratories and share examples from their implementation in a multiple-section introductory biology laboratory. Their experience shows that this technique is not difficult to integrate into current inquiry-based science laboratories and can be successfully implemented by graduate teaching assistants. However, convincing students of the importance of learning about NOS is difficult and may be the most important factor in the effectiveness of this technique. (Contains 1 table.)

Diagrams and figures play a central role in science and science education. Research has indicated that, when presented and used properly in a classroom setting, these external representations can contribute to students' understanding of scientific concepts; however, it is apparent that students do not always use, understand, interpret, or value external representations as their instructors intend. In this paper, the authors examine how general chemistry students use and interpret an external representation in the form of a common energy-level diagram. The results include implications for any college science instruction that uses external representations. (Contains 3 figures.)

Creative exercises (CEs) are a form of assessment in which students are given a prompt and asked to write down as many distinct, correct, and relevant facts about the prompt as they can. Students receive credit for each fact that they include that is related to the prompt and distinct from the other facts they list. With CEs, students have an opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and the opportunity to select the information that they believe is related to the prompt. In addition, CEs encourage students to connect concepts because any relevant information presented can assist them in completing the CEs. This paper describes the use of CEs in a college-level chemistry class, including student answers to the CEs and a survey of students' impression of CEs. (Contains 2 tables and 4 figures.)

Students are scientifically literate when they can read material about science and intelligently communicate their viewpoints, comments, and critiques, using scientific vocabulary and applying the ideas of the process and nature of science. As part of their normal class, 80 students were asked to find an article on the internet, read it, and then write one page of comments to hand in. From the collected papers, six categories of comments emerged: Emotion, Opinion, Knowledge, Society, Motivation, and Technical. The majority of the students wrote comments that suggest they were thinking about how the article fits in their world. (Contains 6 tables.)

Using primary literature in undergraduate science classes helps teach students both scientific information and process. However, students' lack of understanding of scientific techniques can hinder their understanding of the papers. This article describes a "technique module" that uses peer teaching and active learning to facilitate integration of primary scientific literature into undergraduate courses. (Contains 5 figures and 1 table.)

In an effort to get elementary teachers to teach more science in the classroom, a required preservice science education course was designed to promote the use of hands-on teaching techniques. This paper describes course content and activities for an innovative, student-centered, Earth science class. However, any science-content course could be adapted in a similar manner to include more student-centered activities. (Contains 1 figure and 7 tables.)

Discrepancies abound in use of the word "inquiry." In this paper, the authors propose a quantitative rubric designed to characterize the level of inquiry in laboratory activities and laboratory curricula. They do not wish to answer the question, "What is inquiry?" but rather, provide a tool for identifying its varying degrees of student independence. (Contains 3 tables.)

Undergraduate research (UR) is widely promoted by faculty, administrators, institutions of higher learning, government laboratories, private industry, professional associations, and funding agencies as an effective method of training college students pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines at colleges and universities across the United States and abroad. Perceived benefits for students include greater enthusiasm for study in the discipline, enhanced research skills, and a higher likelihood of pursuing advanced study and ultimately a research career (Seymour et al. 2004; Lopatto 2004; Nagda et al. 1998; Bauer and Bennett 2003). This paper introduces the Web-Based Guide to Research for Undergraduates (Web-GURU), an innovative student-centered resource for undergraduates in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics which provides information on all aspects of the undergraduate research experience. (Contains 2 figures and 2 tables.)

The authors argue for the involvement of science undergraduates in K-12 outreach to enhance their communication skills, generate enthusiasm for science in today's youth, and extend relationships between institutions of higher learning and surrounding communities. Here we present three opportunities created at Oregon State University for engaging science undergraduates in formal and informal K-12 instruction, and discuss the benefits to students and to the institution.

Twentieth-century novelist and physicist C. P. Snow famously stated that solving the world's complex problems requires collaboration between humanists and scientists. Here, the authors agree with Snow and illustrate one integrated educational approach that bridges the two cultures of science and religion to transform the learning and teaching of science. George Ellis, the renowned humanitarian and physicist, refines and enhances Snow's vision, describing the need for three integrated and equally important kinds of experts required to address contemporary complex issues. These are focused basic researchers, generalists who take a broad view, and synthesizers who integrate the two (Ellis 1994). They believe there are approaches to enhancing science education and developing learners of all three types Ellis identifies. (Contains 1 note.)

Discusses how to convert a socially irrelevant science course into a relevant one. Presents reasons for doing this and evidence that relevant science is pedagogically effective and popular. (SAH)

Focuses on the importance of teamwork and describes Pennsylvania State University football coach Joe Paterno's cooperative teamwork methods. The five basic tenants of cooperation discussed include positive interdependence, face-to-face interaction, individual accountability, social skills, and group processing. (SAH)

Presents a discussion case in which parents must decide whether or not to enroll their sons in an experimental treatment program for muscular dystrophy. Identifies teaching objectives and discusses the key issues of the case--muscle structure and function, muscular dystrophy, scientists and money, scientific method and the FDA, and family health care decisions. (YDS)

Describes the major challenges of accommodating dual-career couples in academic science and some of the current responses to those challenges from institutions of higher learning. Discusses prevailing perceptions concerning household responsibility, the science work ethic, job procurement, continued discrimination against women, and future prospects. (23 references) (JJK)

At present, students and nonscientists still believe that a "theory" is just a mere hunch or a guess and that science is absolute. In this article, the author discusses that it is now time for teachers to correct these misconceptions. Teachers must explain to their students that the facts printed in science textbooks just happen to be the best theories at the moment and they are tentative and open to challenge. The author also urges teachers to remind themselves and those they mentor that a hypothesis is never proven correct and that no amount of experimental testing or evidence can prove anything in science. It is only when the scientist's results match his or her prediction that a hypothesis is supported.

The article explores how Teaching the tools and concepts associated with modern physics can often be a daunting and difficult task for secondary science teachers. Classical physics is often perceived as intimidating and complex in its own right. Topics include Modern physics addressing quantum phenomena where Newtonian laws break down is even more abstract for learner, and comprehending these concepts is critical to understanding modern technology and scientific instruments.