Journal of College Science Teaching—May/June 2015

See the Two-Year Community column to learn how one group of authors integrated reading and comprehension skills in an introductory biology course for students requiring biology remediation in a community college. Another article explores whether large-enrollment introductory courses, with their challenges for both students and faculty, can be transformed by the use of learning assistants. And don't miss the Research and Teaching article that examines the use of group take-home exams in place of traditional exams as a way to reduce students' test anxiety, foster their interpersonal skills, and enable them to better apply and synthesize knowledge.

Journal Article

Research and Teaching: Assessing and Refining Group Take-Home Exams as Authentic, Effective Learning Experiences

The learning goals of a lower division honors course, Science as a Way of Knowing, include critical thinking, scientific literacy, quantitative reasoning, communication, and teamwork. To help students develop skills and competencies for the course le...

Journal Article

Research and Teaching: During POGIL Implementation the Professor Still Makes a Difference

One common notion is that all classrooms using Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) are the same. Though POGIL has essential components, this research found that students’ conceptual achievement, a classroom outcome, can be differential...

Journal Article

Research and Teaching: Laboratory Workload Calculation and Its Impact on Science Instruction at the Community College Level

Despite the large body of evidence that indicates activity-based instruction is more effective than lecture-only instruction, for the purpose of workload calculation, many community colleges assign less value to the time spent in science lab than in ...

Journal Article

The Impact of Active-Learning Exercises on the Grade Distribution in a Large-Lecture, General Education Biology Course

To make our general education biology course for nonmajors more relevant and engaging, we recently implemented an instructional approach featuring collaborative, active-learning exercises. The primary point of interest in this study was the impact of...

Journal Article

Transforming Undergraduate Science Education With Learning Assistants: Student Satisfaction in Large-Enrollment Course

Large-enrollment undergraduate science courses are often seen as “gatekeepers” and tend to support less-than-ideal pedagogical approaches. Student satisfaction with teaching and learning and gains in student conceptual understanding in these cour...

Journal Article

Structuring a Science-Mathematics Partnership to Support Preservice Teachers' Data Analysis and Interpretation Skills

As science teacher educators attempt to prepare teachers to underscore the aims of the Next Generation Science Standards alongside the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics, they must pay close attention to the intersection of these two content...

Journal Article

Helping Students Save: Assigning Textbooks Early Can Save Money and Enhance Learning

Education costs, especially textbook prices, are outpacing inflation and becoming a serious financial burden for college students. Because student textbook use is linked to academic performance, making textbooks more affordable and accessible is one ...

Journal Article

The Power of Educational Robotics as an Integrated STEM Learning Experience in Teacher Preparation Programs

The use of integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) instruction has the affordances of combining harmonious content area connections into real-world experiences that are both engaging and challenging. This article introduce...

Journal Article

An Improved Design for In-Class Review

We present the theory and implementation of a review strategy based on testing rather than lecturing. We also show the results of a beginning-of-course review using the format of a two-stage examination, in which students complete a set of questions ...

Journal Article

Two-Year Community: Integrating Reading Skills in an Introductory Science Classroom

Typically science textbooks communicate information in a discipline-specific manner. To read an average science textbook, students need to understand cause/effect, learn a new language, interpret charts/graphs, and make sense of static drawings depic...

Journal Article

Case Study: The 20/80% Rule: Presentation Is the Key

There are a million things that we do in the classroom every day that make or break a lesson. Just as there are good ways to give a lecture, there is an assortment of ways to encourage discussion, starting with how we look and act in front of our stu...