JoinTeacher Spotlight
Teacher Spotlight: Sean Crumley
East Chapel High School, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Citizen Science
Accelerating Alzheimer’s Research With Stall Catchers
Focus on Physics
Physics in the Sport of Boxing—A Personal Story
Paul G. Hewitt
Commentary
Teaching Scientific Literacy
The Science Teacher—March/April 2021 (Volume 88, Issue 4)
By Andrew Zucker
From the Field: Events and Opportunities, February 23, 2021
By Debra Shapiro
Diversity and Equity
Climate Change Education: A Model of Justice-Oriented STEM Education
Connected Science Learning January–February 2021 (Volume 3, Issue 1)
By Lindsey Kirkland and Kristen Poppleton
Research and Teaching
Use of a Linked-Course Model to Teach Scientific Writing to First-Year Undergraduates
Journal of College Science Teaching—March/April 2021 (Volume 50, Issue 4)
By Evan Lampert and J. Stephen Pearson
The ability to read and compose original scientific literature is critical to educating informed citizens, yet may be severely lacking in undergraduate curricula. We developed a linked course offering in fall 2017 consisting of a 16-student group taking an introductory biology course paired with a first-year composition course. The composition course focused specifically on scientific literature composed in the Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion (IMRaD) structure. In the composition course, instruction focused on helping students conceptualize and compose proposals, poster presentations, and manuscripts based on their lab activities. We surveyed for prior experience with scientific literature and self-reported reading and writing confidence. Participants in the linked courses showed an improvement in self-reported ability and confidence in writing compared to a control group that did not participate. We assembled a rubric assessing correct IMRaD structure and used it to assess composition before and after the linked courses. Adherence to IMRaD improved significantly for the Methods section. Our experiences indicate that learning communities can be useful pedagogies to provide students with confidence and learning gains that facilitate use of information and communication.
The ability to read and compose original scientific literature is critical to educating informed citizens, yet may be severely lacking in undergraduate curricula. We developed a linked course offering in fall 2017 consisting of a 16-student group taking an introductory biology course paired with a first-year composition course. The composition course focused specifically on scientific literature composed in the Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion (IMRaD) structure.
The ability to read and compose original scientific literature is critical to educating informed citizens, yet may be severely lacking in undergraduate curricula. We developed a linked course offering in fall 2017 consisting of a 16-student group taking an introductory biology course paired with a first-year composition course. The composition course focused specifically on scientific literature composed in the Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion (IMRaD) structure.
Research and Teaching
Students Taught by a First-Time Instructor Using Active-Learning Teaching Strategies Outperform Students Taught by a Highly-Regarded Traditional Instructor
Journal of College Science Teaching—March/April 2021 (Volume 50, Issue 4)
By Colin S. Wallace, Edward E. Prather, John A. Milsom, Ken Johns, and Srin Manne
In this paper we put forth a model for physics course reform that uniquely uses proven, research-based active-learning strategies to help students improve their physics knowledge and problem-solving skills. In this study, we compared the exam performance of students in two sections of the same introductory physics course. One section (the traditional section, N = 258) was taught by an instructor who is highly regarded for his lectures, but did not use any active-learning teaching strategies. The other section (the reformed section, N = 217) was taught by an instructor who had never before taught a physics class, but who was trained in physics and astronomy education research and who used active-learning teaching strategies. Students in the reformed section significantly outperformed students in the traditional section on common exam questions over the course of the semester, regardless of whether the question was conceptual or quantitative. This reform effort has been successful at improving students’ learning and significantly increasing the department’s use of active-learning strategies at the introductory level and beyond.
In this paper we put forth a model for physics course reform that uniquely uses proven, research-based active-learning strategies to help students improve their physics knowledge and problem-solving skills. In this study, we compared the exam performance of students in two sections of the same introductory physics course. One section (the traditional section, N = 258) was taught by an instructor who is highly regarded for his lectures, but did not use any active-learning teaching strategies.
In this paper we put forth a model for physics course reform that uniquely uses proven, research-based active-learning strategies to help students improve their physics knowledge and problem-solving skills. In this study, we compared the exam performance of students in two sections of the same introductory physics course. One section (the traditional section, N = 258) was taught by an instructor who is highly regarded for his lectures, but did not use any active-learning teaching strategies.
Research and Teaching
Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences Spanning Two Semesters of Biology Impact Student Self-Efficacy but not Future Goals
Journal of College Science Teaching—March/April 2021 (Volume 50, Issue 4)
By Allison Martin, Adam Rechs, Thomas Landerholm, and Kelly McDonald
Course-based undergraduate research is promoted as an equitable strategy for providing the benefits of research experiences to a larger, more diverse population of students pursuing science degrees. Here, we report the impacts of course-based research on the self-efficacy and future goals of students enrolled in introductory biology courses at a minority-serving comprehensive teaching university. These courses are part of a department-wide effort to redesign and coordinate 10 laboratory courses to include embedded research projects addressing a common scientific problem. Pre- and postsurveys evaluating self-efficacy of laboratory skills and future academic and career goals were administered to students enrolled in two iterations of two redesigned introductory biology courses. Findings include increases in self-efficacy related to experimental design, communication/collaboration, and scientific literacy in the first course, but only scientific literacy in the second course. Very few disparities in self-efficacy were found postcourse for students of varying demographics, despite several precourse differences, while future academic and career plans remained largely unaltered. This study, representing the first thorough analysis of our department’s redesigned courses, is informing curricular improvements to the introductory labs and providing data for a longitudinal study of the impact of the entire program.