The COVID-19 pandemic forced many courses to move online, presenting a particular challenge for hands-on laboratory courses. One such course in our Biotechnology track is an advanced Protein Interactions lecture/laboratory course. This 8-week course typically meets for 5 h a week in the laboratory space. For the Fall 2020 version of the course,…

The emergence of digital tools, including tablets with a multitude of built-in sensors, allows gathering many geological observations digitally and in a geo-referenced context. This is particularly important in the polar environments where (1) limited time is available at each outcrop due to harsh weather conditions, and (2) outcrops are rarely…

Engaging students in class is paramount if they are to gain a deep understanding of class content. Student engagement is manifested by attention to the various components of instruction. However, there is little research at the tertiary level focusing on what aspects of instruction are related to changes in student attention during class. To…

The "Next Generation Science Standards" (NGSS Lead States 2013) call for all students to be engaged in investigations that require them to use skills and knowledge related to the science and engineering practices. In this article the authors describe how the mnemonic RAD, "Record-Analyze-Develop an explanation," was used by a…

Reported here is a study of an interactive component to General Chemistry I and General Chemistry II where a new pedagogy for taking notes in class was developed. These notes, called key word created class notes, prompted students to locate information using the Internet guided by a key word. Reference Web sites were added to a next generation of…

This study investigates how tablet-based note-taking applications can be integrated into elementary science classes as digital science notebooks. A teacher with 20 students in Grades 4-5 from a public charter school in Hawaii participated in the study. The participating science teacher introduced a tablet-based note taking application (TNA) to her…

Google Docs was used to create the rip-mix-learn (RML) classroom in two, first-year undergraduate introductory chemistry and biology courses, a second-semester introductory chemistry course, and an upper-level developmental biology course. This "transmedia" approach assigned students to create sets of collaborative lecture notes into…

This exploratory study investigates the potential of a tablet-based note-taking application (TbNA) to serve as a digital notebook in support of students' classroom science practices. An elementary teacher (Grades 4-5) from a public charter school integrated a TbNA into her science class for one semester while participating in professional…

High school biology classes traditionally follow a lecture format to disseminate content and new terminology. With the inclusive practices of No Child Left Behind, the Common Core State Standards, and end-of-course exam requirement for high school diplomas, classes include a large range of achievement levels and abilities. Teachers assume, often…

Two sections of an introductory microbiology course were taught by one instructor. One was taught through a hybrid format and the other through a traditional format. Students were randomly assigned to the two sections. Both sections were provided with identical lecture materials, in-class worksheets, in-class assessments, and extra credit…

The goal of this study was to determine if laptop use in lecture negatively impacts learning outcomes of surrounding students taking notes on paper. Two sections of a large introductory biology course (greater than 400 students/section) were zoned into a laptop-permitted and a laptop-free area. Two sections in which laptop users could sit anywhere…

A recent reform initiative in the Malaysian educational system has sought to develop "Smart schools", intended to better prepare students for adult life in a developing economy and to increase the flow of young people prepared for scientific and technological careers. The study reported in this paper examined lower-secondary science…

This phenomenological study explored 5 undergraduate students' experiences in a Web-based general science course through the lens of social cognitive theory. Thematic analysis was used to examine their self-regulated learning (SRL). Our findings revealed that the participants exerted a variety of SRL strategies in the Web-based learning…

This study investigated the effects of text notes and voice notes on the comprehension of science texts by fifth grade students. The study was conducted to determine whether digital note taking was an effective reading strategy, and whether one form of digital note taking was more effective than the other. Results revealed that general education…

This article presents findings from research in a school district using handhelds to support writing across the curriculum. The authors report that handheld devices can be useful to foster classroom note-taking activities, assist students who have handwriting difficulties, and provide inspiration to teachers who want to create collaborative and…