Drawing is a teaching tool that provides numerous benefits to student learning, including enhanced knowledge retention, improved observation skills, and increased engagement with course content. However, these exercises also place high cognitive demands on students and require a considerable time commitment. To acknowledge and celebrate the effort…

Topology optimization (TO) has been a useful engineering tool over the last decades. The benefits of this optimization method are several, such as the material and cost savings, the design inspiration, and the robustness of the final products. In addition, there are educational benefits. TO is a combination of mathematics, design, statics, and the…

This article shares an example of how one STEM EdD program embeds activism throughout their program. The authors share examples of readings and assignments across the program geared towards helping students think about and enact activism within the STEM disciplines. The STEM EdD mission offers insight into the foundations of the program. Then,…

Integral to most undergraduate psychology degree programs are research methods courses. Students learn about theory, study design and hypothesis testing, and gain knowledge that is assessed by laboratory reports. We describe a problem-based learning approach with an emphasis on acquisition of study design skills. Working in small groups, students…

This article describes a general education course offering, Physics and the Arts. During the development of this course, physics and arts faculty collaborated closely. We cover the usual physics phenomena for such a course--light, color, and sound--in addition to gravity, equilibrium, and spacetime. Goals of the course are to increase students'…

The author discusses their experiences teaching an upper-division seminar course in a traditional face-to-face setting, and re-designing a "long eighteenth century" survey course for delivery online. The article thus explores spatial strategies in both face-to-face and online courses, and suggests ways in which they can be particularly…

In response to a university mandate to include "professional issues" as a component of every major, we have developed a vertically integrated approach to incorporating the study of professional skills and issues into the mathematics curriculum. Beginning in the first year of study, mathematics majors take an inquiry-based course in…

This paper describes a course in programmable logic design and computer architecture as it is taught at the University of Newcastle, Australia. The course is designed around a major design project and has two supplemental assessment tasks that are also described. The context of the Computer Engineering degree program within which the course is…

This paper describes a newly designed upper-level undergraduate and graduate course, Autonomous Mobile Robots. The course employs active, cooperative, problem-based learning and is grounded in the fundamental computational problems in mobile robotics defined by Dudek and Jenkin. Students receive a broad survey of robotics through lectures, weekly…

This manuscript presents a successful application of inductive learning in process modeling. It describes two process modeling courses that use inductive learning methods such as inquiry learning and problem-based learning, among others. The courses include a novel collection of multi-disciplinary complementary process modeling examples. They were…

Courses in a wide variety of disciplines emphasize that what we think important, and are therefore likely to remember, is not the result of the objective situation but rather the result of our individual biases and interpretations. This article presents a classroom exercise that aids students in grasping the interpretive nature of historical…

The environment has become headline news on a regular basis and, in response, going green has become mainstream. Universities have an important responsibility in this context, needing to green both their curriculum and their campus operations. This article describes a course that addresses both these needs at the same time, by providing students…

Synthesizing the best current thinking about learning, course design, and promoting student achievement, this is a guide to developing college instruction that has clear purpose, is well integrated into the curriculum, and improves student learning in predictable and measurable ways. The process involves developing a transparent course blueprint,…

The value and the pitfalls of project and group work are well recognized. The principles and elements which apply to projects in general, apply to project-based courses. Thoughtful and detailed planning, understanding of the stakeholders and their needs, a good design, appropriate testing, monitoring and quality control and continual management…

As the world of work becomes increasingly dynamic and complex, career courses must shift to reflect the growing diversity of those in the beginning stages of career exploration. Constructivist career development has emerged as one way to help young adults meet the challenges of the 21st century. Yet, there is a dearth of constructivist career…