Education research provides a range of curricular reform options that can lead to improved student course outcomes. These options can appear easy to implement with the hope of immediate increases in student learning. In 2006 the Ithaca College Physics Department went down this path by moving all of their 100-level courses out of lecture halls and…

The Mayo Innovation Scholars Program introduces undergraduates to technology transfer in biomedical sciences by having teams of students from multiple disciplines (e.g., biology, chemistry, economics, and business) analyze inventions in development at the Mayo Clinic. Over 6 months, teams consult with inventors, intellectual property experts, and…

Three college faculty taught large general biology classes using case studies and personal response systems (clickers). Each instructor taught the same eight cases in two different sections, except the questions within the cases differed. In one section the questions were lower order (LO) factual inquiries, and in the other they were largely…

Discussed is the underrepresentation of minorities and women pursuing graduate and undergraduate degrees in science and engineering. Two intervention programs are described in detail-Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) and the Minority Engineering Program (MEP). (KR)

We present an approach for integrating instruction of scientific writing and reading into undergraduate science courses, inspired by the pedagogical theory of cognitive apprenticeship. We demonstrate its implementation and describe a study of students' feedback that enabled us to elicit students' difficulties and fine-tune the next application…

Describes a cooperative program between colleges of the University of Tulsa to develop a course, Science, Technology, and Society," for engineering and science majors. (AL)

Describes the effectiveness of offering a large number of one-credit science courses during the reformation of a college science program, thus catering to students with a need for courses supporting their major fields as well as providing socially relevant courses. (AL)

Describes a curriculum in Environmental Sciences adopted by the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. Includes lists of lower-level courses for the first two years, required courses, and recommended electives. Discusses cooperative education/on-the-job training component, implementation, and evaluation. (Author/JN)

This article details an undergraduate class assignment to utilize published map information for the evaluation of specific physical and environmental factors applicable to a hypothetical residential development. On-site field trips and interviews with town planners were used to augment the team-effort within the class land-use discussions and…

Described is a project, at Macquarie University, designed to educate students in the retrieval and interpretation of chemical data. (PEB)

Describes an innovative freshman chemistry program in which course sequences have been designed to accommodate students with strong or weak chemistry backgrounds or with no previous chemistry at all. Includes information on courses offered, instructional strategies, and laboratory examinations. (JN)

Describes a semester-long field trip in which 26 students of the University of Colorado studied the geology of the western United States. Only four of the participating students were geology majors. (JR)

This article details the rationale and purposes of an ecology-travel course-trip made available to preservice education majors at a small liberal arts city college between 1975 and 1987. Included are the course objectives, pretrip planning and procedures, posttrip debriefing, and statistics on destination, participation, duration, and expenses for…

Describes a summer research program that stresses follow-up on activities, and presentation of data at symposia and lectures. Provides information on participants, activities, student evaluations of the experience, and benefits. (RT)