Health-related career goals are popular among high school science students, yet few understand the application of chemistry and biology research to the field of medicine and its impact on society. In this five-day multidisciplinary summer camp, high school students learn about the real-world relevance of medicinal chemistry research and its…

The COVID-19 global pandemic significantly impacted both the academic and social and emotional development of middle school students. This article describes the benefits of implementing an interdisciplinary, project-based summer school program to support middle school students as they adapted to in-person learning after school closures due to the…

Knowledge transfer refers to the (1) recognition of overlap in past learning and new academic goals, (2) recollection of previously learned information, and (3) application of past learning in a new context or discipline. Promoting effective transfer remains a notorious challenge for chemistry educators. To address this need, the step back,…

Systematic studies on the effectiveness of in-service teacher professional development (PD) are important for science education research and practice. Previous studies have mostly focused on certain outcomes of PD, for example, the effectiveness of PD for improving teachers' knowledge or students' learning outcomes. This study, however, explores…

Unlike students in other engineering disciplines, undergraduates in biological engineering typically have limited opportunity to develop design competencies, and even fewer chances to implement their designed projects. The international Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM) competition is a student Synthetic Biology competition that, in 2009,…

We report the results of a study focused on identifying and articulating an ''epistemic foundation'' underlying a pre-collegiate focus on engineering. We do so in the context of UTeach"Engineering" (UTE), a program supported in part by funding by the National Science Foundation and designed to develop a model approach to address the…

While the great scientists of the past recognized a need for a multidisciplinary approach, today's schools often treat math and science as subjects separate from the rest. This not only creates a disinterest among students, but also a potential learning gap once students reach college and then graduate into the workforce. "Cases on…

At the University of Vermont, an interdisciplinary faculty team developed an introductory watershed science field course. This course honed field skills and catalyzed communication across water-related disciplines without requiring specific prerequisites. Five faculty (geology, engineering, geography, natural resources) taught the four-credit…

Faculty members at a large state university engaged in discussions of 21st century communication, new media, and the demands for new communication skills as they elected to establish a Communication across the Curriculum (CxC) program in 2005. Faculty leaders reviewed communication theory (e.g., from McLuhan to Kress), best practices from other…

Described is the relationship between a middle school and a medical school. Discussed are the background; selection, recruitment and enrollment of students; fostering teacher commitment and cooperation; curriculum design and implementation; student and parent involvement; and applicability to other settings. (KR)

In 1988, 11 faculty members at Kalamazoo Valley Community College (KVCC), Michigan, taught a customized honors class at KVCC focussing on connections between disciplines. It soon became clear how little faculty members understood and appreciated their colleagues' fields and perspectives. Following the course, faculty participants concluded that…

In a 3-year, federally-funded program, faculty at St. Olaf College (Minnesota) have developed a series of behavioral and natural science courses in which students with at least the fourth semester of foreign language do a portion of the course readings in the second language and meet once a week to discuss them in that language with the regular…

Pine Ridge Reservation schools use an interdisciplinary culture-based hands-on approach to science education. During a two-week summer science camp, elementary school teachers receive training in hands-on science instruction and apply their training with students. High school science classes incorporate Lakota culture and community problem…

Details the use of a grant to enhance science education and the science curriculum through a series of workshops and a resource program. Describes the development of interdisciplinary units. (DDR)

This volume presents 64 abstracts of keynote and parallel paper presentations of the Irish National Academy for Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning's (NAIRTL) conference on the theme of flexible learning. The Flexible Learning conference was a joint initiative by NAIRTL and the Learning Innovation Network. The keynote presentations can…