JoinAll Journal of College Science Teaching resources
Journal Article
Sustainability, Energy, and the Green Economy
Interdisciplinary education offers a collaborative approach to multifaceted topics, such as environmental sustainability. In this article, we present the conceptual framework and lessons learned from a team-taught course, entitled Sustainability, Ene...
By Monika Sikand, Claudio Mazzatenta, Keith Wong, Joseph Bush, and Aaron M. Socha
Journal Article
Incorporating Programming, Modeling, and Data Analysis Into an Introductory Biology Course
This paper describes an introductory biology course for undergraduates that heavily incorporates quantitative problem solving in activities and homework assignments. The course is broken up into a series of units, each organized around a motivating b...
By Eliot C. Bush, Stephen C. Adolph, Matina C. Donaldson-Matasci, Jae Hur, and Danae Schulz
Journal Article
General education college astronomy courses offer instructors both a unique audience and a unique challenge. For many students, such a course may be their first time encountering a stand-alone astronomy class, and it is also likely one of the last sc...
By Christine O’Donnell, Edward Prather, and Peter Behroozi
Journal Article
What to Expect With Group Work
Instructors who wish to take advantage of the benefits of collaborative group work often hesitate over concerns about conflict or problems that arise between students. There are no estimates of the level of conflict that can be expected even if best ...
By Peggy Brickman, Austin Lannen, and Jill Beyette
Journal Article
Primary Literature in Undergraduate Science Courses
Primary literature—consisting of novel peer-reviewed articles and conference proceedings—has been associated with several positive outcomes for students within undergraduate science courses. Primary literature is the principal method of written s...
By Jeremy David Sloane
Journal Article
Implementing Peer-Led Team Learning and Cyber Peer-Led Team Learning in an Organic Chemistry Course
Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) is a small-group, collaborative problem-solving model that has significantly increased student performance in a variety of chemistry undergraduate courses and other STEM courses. Cyber Peer-Led Team Learning (cPLTL), an ...
By Sarah Beth Wilson and Pratibha Varma-Nelson
Journal Article
The purpose of this study was to investigate knowledge and attitudes of preservice teachers toward wind energy education. The participants for this study were preservice teachers enrolled in a science methods for teachers course. The preservice teach...
By Mamta Singh
Journal Article
Whether to engage student preconceptions to facilitate conceptual change is an area of debate among conceptual change theorists. Here, we evaluate the efficacy of a preconceptions-based instructional sequence about groundwater previously described by...
By Leilani A. Arthurs, Justin Elwonger, and Chelsie M. Kowalski
Journal Article
The Framework for K–12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) under-score the importance of including engineering design process (EDP) within the science curriculum. The Framework and the NGSS raised engineering design t...
By Erdogan Kaya, Anna Newley, Ezgi Yesilyurt and Hasan Deniz
Journal Article
Online software systems are extensively used to give students practice on course content, especially in mathematics and physics courses. They offer instant feedback, and several of these systems are open source or very economical compared with hiring...
By Philip Matchett Wood and Vijesh Bhute
Journal Article
As undergraduate institutions rely more heavily on teaching assistants (TAs) they are simultaneously encouraging implementation of course-based research experiences (CBREs). Due to the dynamic nature of CBREs, it is challenging to assign novice TAs t...
By Magdalene K. Moy, Penny L. Hammrich and Karen Kabnick
Journal Article
We describe a hands-on, collaborative activity designed to illustrate general properties of evolution, provide practice for quantitative skills, promote creativity and collaboration, and enable student self-assessment of learning. During the activity...
By Kelly A. Carscadden, Molly T. McDermott, Sheela P. Turbek, Silas B. Tittes and Andrew P. Martin
Journal Article
Formative assessment has been shown to be a critical activity for promoting meaningful understanding in the classroom. Systematic engagement in formative assessment helps instructors to develop a clearer picture of where students stand in relation to...
By Young Ae Kim, Jonathan Cox, Katelyn M. Southard, Lisa Elfring, Paul Blowers and Vicente Talanquer
Journal Article
Modifying Traditional Labs to Target Scientific Reasoning
This article showcases how a physics lab course was successfully redesigned to promote important reasoning abilities not explicitly addressed in the typical college setting. Student development of such abilities is essential for sound decision making...
By Kathleen Koenig, Krista E. Wood, Larry J. Bortner and Lei Bao
Journal Article
Critical thinking skills are sought after in the workforce and are often included in course, departmental, and programmatic learning objectives. However, in the curriculum of many courses we tend to focus on content rather than on fostering the...
By Elizabeth Co