Recent national reports have indicated a need for significant changes in science higher education, with the inclusion of more student centered learning. However, substantial barriers to change exist. These include a lack of faculty awareness and understanding of appropriate pedagogical approaches, large class sizes, the time commitment needed to…

As part of a Howard Hughes Program for Innovation in Science Education grant at Iowa State University, a series of interdisciplinary graduate teaching assistant learning communities (TALC) were developed. The purpose of these communities was to create an environment to facilitate teaching assistants' pedagogical development and training to enhance…

A recent survey of undergraduates at five schools across the United States indicates that many undergraduates feel that they have learned more about volcanic systems from Hollywood films and the popular media than they learned in the course of their precollegiate formal education. Scores on the Volcanic Concept Survey, an instrument designed to…