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The article presents questions and answers related to teaching, including the amount of time for teaching preparation, integrating course handouts and class activities with PowerPoint slides, and how to maintain both structure and variety.

The author reflects on faculty support programs that contribute to the promotion of STEM education in the U.S. The author relates several academic programs developed at North Carolina State University for STEM faculty members including the four-day orientation workshop, and the half-day workshop for senior faculty members and department heads on mentoring and supporting new faculty. Moreover, the author notes the significance of funding in developing faculty support programs.

The article presents tips on encouraging students to read their lessons before class. It states that assignments can be effective if these involve multimedia tutorials. According to the author, such resources can equip students and encourage students to come to class ready with the tasks assigned to them by instructors.

The article presents a telephone conversation between two professionals which focuses on career development. It says that the communication focuses on the nomination received by a college teacher for a department head position. It discusses the problems often encounter by a department head with regards to job descriptions and responsibilities.

The article reports on the preparation that universities offer to new faculty members. As part of its information drive for faculty members of the North Carolina State College of Engineering provided an orientation workshop for new faculty members which answered their queries including topics on the start of a research program and the requirements that a teacher needs to acquire tenure and promotion. The workshop reportedly proved to be helpful to new faculty members.

The article provides information on active-learning structure called Thinking-Aloud Pair Problem Solving or TAPPS. Cognitive science offers an explanation for the effectiveness of the technique. Studies showed that students are better at solving new problems when they have first gone through worked-out samples in the manner described.

The authors recommend the book "How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching," by S. A. Ambrose, M. W. Bridges, M. C. Lovett, M. DiPietro and M. K. Norman for its instructional materials on cognitive science. They discuss teaching strategies that incorporate the research principles which include data collection, learning goal challenge and construction of activities that provide feedback on student skills.

The author offers his advice to a fellow professor on how to deal with student resistance in learner-centered teaching. He relates his observation that students are generally resistant to active-learning methods because of the responsibilities and work involved for the students. He offers some guidelines that may help improve the students' perception and active participation such as assessment of areas of complaints, clarity of purpose, and length of time the method is used.

This article recommends the findings of studies conducted by Chemical Engineering instructors and researchers on finding ways to curb or prevent cheating in academic courses. It explains why cheating remains to be a problem in academic circles and why students tend to use it in lieu of going over their courses. It offers the main findings of two studies that were done on cheating as it is done in Chemical Engineering institutions. The article gives lessons that can be gleaned from these two academic papers and how they can be used.

The article illustrates three different approaches to learning, namely, deep approach typified by student Michelle, Art's strategic approach and the surface approach of Rob. It cites the conditions to increase the adoption of a deep approach by students, including the student-perceived relevance of the subject matter, clearly stated instructional objectives, appropriate tests and reasonable workload. It also mentions the complaint of engineering faculty members that most engineering students use the surface approach.

The article examines the link between research and teaching among faculty and their students in U.S. universities. It is argued that the requirement to have teachers conduct research as condition for their promotion and tenure has hurt the quality of education. While research productivity is an important qualification in teaching, its connection to undergraduate education has not been established. Proposals to strengthen the link between research and teaching are presented as well as the promotion of excellence in both research and teaching.

The article addresses the challenge of evaluating and grading student products such as essays, and written and oral project reports. To evaluate student products in these areas, two types of instruments can provide reliability and fairness grading system. These include the use of grading checklist, which is a form that lists the grading criteria and allocates maximum points to each criterion and a grading rubrics that lists the grading criteria.

A biography of James Edward Stice, the Bob R. Dorsey Professor Emeritus in Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, is presented. He was born and raised in the Arkansas Ozarks. Stice earned a degree in Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering (B.S.Ch.E.) from the University of Arkansas in 1949 and a Master of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1952, where he also acquired a doctorate degree (Ph.D.). Jim Stice moved into the faculty position at the University of Texas and retired in 1996.

A personal narrative is presented which explores the author's experience of receiving a memo limiting faculty members to one box of paper clips a year.

The article discusses the assessment of whether the academic culture of a department fits the faculty members. As stated, the comfort level of the faculty members will depend on the compatibility of their personality with the culture of the department. Several questions for the assessment includes collaborations among faculty members regarding research within the department, interactions among senior and junior faculty members and sharing of space laboratory and equipment among faculty groups.

The article discusses the top four mistakes college teachers are guilty of making. According to the author, professors commonly give exams that are too long. It is suggested that they should give tests that test the knowledge and skills mastery of a student rather than long tests that test a student's speed. Also included in the list of mistakes are keeping outdated courses, having unclear learning objectives and disrespecting students. Suggestions to correct the mistakes are also presented.

The article presents a list of the top ten teaching mistakes committed by college faculty members. One mistake is calling for volunteers upon questioning the class, which makes the students avoid eye contact. According to the article, calling on students without giving them enough time to think is called cold-calling, resulting to alarmed students who cannot follow the lecture. It also notes that putting lecture notes into PowerPoint is generally a waste of time for everyone.

The author offers tips on completing the draft of a writing project related to chemical engineering. He suggests keeping the creating and editing functions separate. He advises to make a commitment to regularly devote short periods of time to major writing projects. He also recommends paying attention to grammar, syntax and style.

The article discusses an on-the-job training of some chemical engineering students in North Carolina State University. Two Process Engineering-related tasks such the investigation of the declining efficiency of the hydride processing tower and the design of a distillation column for separation process were assigned to the trainees.

The authors present their views on the myths, facts and good practices involved in student ratings of teaching in educational institutions in the U.S. They opine that myths about student ratings of teaching are usually accompanied by confident assurances that ratings are just popularity contests. They refute the notion that student ratings are not valid assessment of teaching quality.

The author discusses the Crisis Clinic segment of the teaching workshops he conducts together with Rebecca Brent. He gives a scenario wherein a chemical engineering student named Charlie is in distress. He suggests that teachers do not let their students leave their office because they will miss their chance to help. Students should not be forced into counseling but instead be persuaded to avail of the service.

The article presents several mini-sermons that could help teachers in dealing with chemical engineering students. The author states that when using a proven teaching method that makes students uncomfortable, it is important for the teacher to let the students know the reason for doing it. The author emphasizes that the teacher needs to convince the students about the importance of learning.

The article focuses on approaches to preparing for and teaching a new course. It describes the usual approach to a new course preparation, including attempting to cover everything known about the topic in lectures. Also suggested are alternatives to the usual way, one of which is through writing detailed learning objectives.

The article presents advice on improving the knowledge and skills of new faculty members at the North Carolina State University. The university developed a support program for new faculty members. It is a four-day orientation workshop that covers grantsmanship, recruiting and working with graduate students.

The article presents the text of a discussion among the members of the Chemical Engineering Department faculty of North Carolina State University. One of the topics discussed at the meeting was the decline in the emergency budget of the department. An argument was raised on whether to teach the Gibbs-Duhem equation to chemical engineering students. The argument was unresolved and the department chair relayed a message from the administrative assistant to the faculty about ethical issues.

The article offers insights on how chemical engineering teachers will enable their students to develop and improve a targeted skill. It recommends to write detailed learning objectives and give them to the students as study guides for examinations and as guidelines for other assignments such as project reports and oral presentation. It advises to use scoring rubrics to grade anything that involves subjective judgment on the part of the grader.

Examines the books "The World Is Flat," by Thomas Friedman and Daniel Pink's "A Whole New Mind." Different perspectives offered by the two books; Implication for engineering education; Arguments of both authors on most jobs calling for engineering skills.

This article offers propositions in education that reflects uncertainty in education. Uncertainties on students are outlined. Comparisons between a good and bad engineering faculty member are presented. The importance of training to the success of faculty members is cited.

Discusses the use of portable computers in lecture classes. Suggestions for conducting computer-based tutorials; Ways to help students develop computer skills; Importance of computer simulations.

Discusses the use of PowerPoint in teaching. Experiences of teachers in using such tool; Advantage and disadvantage of the teaching device; Guidelines in using PowerPoint.

The article presents quotes from theoretical physicist Albert Einstein on the intuitive and rational minds, playwright George Bernard Shaw on behaving sensibly, and philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist George Santayana on fanaticism.

The article presents a collection of quotes on education from various sources including Woody Allen, Anatole France and Walt Whitman.

Presents a letter regarding the retirement of Carole Yocum, managing director of the "Chemical Engineering Education" in Gainesville, Florida. Dedication of chemical engineering professors to the cause of high-quality education; Contributions of the executive to the periodical.

Presents quotes from famous people regarding several topics. Theodore Rubin; Steven Wright; George Carlin; W. H. Auden; Groucho Marx.

Presents a summary of the report `Navigating the Bumpy Road to Student-Centered Instruction,' by Richard M. Felder and Rebecca Brent published in the Spring 1996 issue of the periodical `College Teaching.'

A teamwork survey was conducted at Oakland University, Rochester, MI, in 533 engineering and computer science courses over a two-year period. Of the 6435 student respondents, 4349 (68%) reported working in teams. Relative to the students who only worked individually, the students who worked in teams were significantly more likely to agree that the course had achieved its stated learning objectives (p < 0.001). Regression analysis showed that roughly one-quarter of the variance in belief about whether the objectives were met could be explained by four factors: 1) student satisfaction with the team experience; 2) the presence of instructor guidance related to teamwork; 3) the presence of slackers on teams; and 4) team size. Pearson product-moment correlations revealed statistically significant associations between agreement that the course objectives had been fulfilled and the use of student teams and between satisfaction with teams and the occurrence of instructor guidance on teamwork skills. These and other results suggest that assigning work to student teams can lead to learning benefits and student satisfaction, provided that the instructor pays attention to how the teams and the assignments are set up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]