“Energy is liberated matter, matter is energy waiting to happen.”

— Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything

“Energy is liberated matter, matter is energy waiting to happen.”

— Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything

Many undergraduates use research internships to gain experience for graduate school. Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs involve heavy research and lab work duties, for which students are often unprepared and lack opportunities for practice. Evidence supports Undergraduate Research Experience (URE) programs’ ability to improve retention in STEM, but research has not conclusively identified what students need to do to excel in these programs.

Many undergraduates use research internships to gain experience for graduate school. Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs involve heavy research and lab work duties, for which students are often unprepared and lack opportunities for practice. Evidence supports Undergraduate Research Experience (URE) programs’ ability to improve retention in STEM, but research has not conclusively identified what students need to do to excel in these programs.

Learning Assistant (LA) programs oversee and support undergraduate instructors and faculty members who work together to facilitate student learning in a variety of classroom settings. The success of an LA program is tied to experiences of the participants; therefore, understanding the perceptions of LAs and faculty is central to driving programmatic changes and ensuring positive outcomes. In this article, we use a mixed-methods approach to analyze the perspectives of LAs and faculty in Boston University’s LA program.

Learning Assistant (LA) programs oversee and support undergraduate instructors and faculty members who work together to facilitate student learning in a variety of classroom settings. The success of an LA program is tied to experiences of the participants; therefore, understanding the perceptions of LAs and faculty is central to driving programmatic changes and ensuring positive outcomes. In this article, we use a mixed-methods approach to analyze the perspectives of LAs and faculty in Boston University’s LA program.

Visual elements such as graphs, tables, and diagrams are essential components of scientific writing. Although scientific writing textbooks and guides often contain information on how to design such visuals, little has been written on how to effectively discuss those visuals within the text. This article offers a novel heuristic for teaching students how to effectively execute these “passages about visuals” in a way that is both conceptually simple enough to be understood by novices yet rich enough to accommodate the complexity of expert scientific writing.

Visual elements such as graphs, tables, and diagrams are essential components of scientific writing. Although scientific writing textbooks and guides often contain information on how to design such visuals, little has been written on how to effectively discuss those visuals within the text. This article offers a novel heuristic for teaching students how to effectively execute these “passages about visuals” in a way that is both conceptually simple enough to be understood by novices yet rich enough to accommodate the complexity of expert scientific writing.

The ability to read, understand, and interpret primary scientific literature is an essential skill for undergraduate students in science. This study aimed to provide a detailed understanding of how second- and third-year undergraduate students in a biochemistry and molecular biology major at the University of Melbourne in Australia feel about reading research articles and how often they are expected to do so. Teachers’ expectations of the students’ use of literature in their assessment tasks were compared with the experiences of students with their reading of the literature.

The ability to read, understand, and interpret primary scientific literature is an essential skill for undergraduate students in science. This study aimed to provide a detailed understanding of how second- and third-year undergraduate students in a biochemistry and molecular biology major at the University of Melbourne in Australia feel about reading research articles and how often they are expected to do so. Teachers’ expectations of the students’ use of literature in their assessment tasks were compared with the experiences of students with their reading of the literature.

Despite more women and underrepresented students entering engineering, there are still gaps in achievement. A potential remedy is to establish equitable team dynamics during groupwork. Groupware systems have been implemented in the workforce and, recently, piloted in undergraduate lower-division education to establish team norms. Our prior work found that there was a significant association between gender and the utility of rules systems to establish team norms.

Despite more women and underrepresented students entering engineering, there are still gaps in achievement. A potential remedy is to establish equitable team dynamics during groupwork. Groupware systems have been implemented in the workforce and, recently, piloted in undergraduate lower-division education to establish team norms. Our prior work found that there was a significant association between gender and the utility of rules systems to establish team norms.

This article describes and illustrates a physics course for first-year college students whose only knowledge of physics is that they do not like the subject. The physics content is driven entirely by what appears in the daily newspapers and generally covers most physics topics in a semester. This course was structured as a learning community that combined English and physics in a single 6-credit course. Most of the writing assignments were about physics. A semester-long overview is shared, as is the instructional model for Newspaper Physics.

This article describes and illustrates a physics course for first-year college students whose only knowledge of physics is that they do not like the subject. The physics content is driven entirely by what appears in the daily newspapers and generally covers most physics topics in a semester. This course was structured as a learning community that combined English and physics in a single 6-credit course. Most of the writing assignments were about physics. A semester-long overview is shared, as is the instructional model for Newspaper Physics.

This article describes a website called The Tachyon Nexus (no relation to Tachyon Nexus Inc.), which includes reliable information about the controversial subjects of time travel and faster-than-light particles known as tachyons. This compendium of various resources should be of great value both to students seeking to learn about these subjects or to high school teachers or college professors wishing to include them in their teaching on special or general relativity.

This article describes a website called The Tachyon Nexus (no relation to Tachyon Nexus Inc.), which includes reliable information about the controversial subjects of time travel and faster-than-light particles known as tachyons. This compendium of various resources should be of great value both to students seeking to learn about these subjects or to high school teachers or college professors wishing to include them in their teaching on special or general relativity.