While there are many strategies for increasing the inclusiveness of anatomy and physiology courses, increasing course structure is a strategy that can not only close achievement gaps for first generation and underrepresented minority students, but also increase performance for all students. High structure courses are characterized by clear…

One of the goals for requiring all college students to take science courses is to develop critical thinking about scientific issues they will encounter as citizens, consumers, and patients. This article integrates skill development activities targeting civic scientific literacy skills in a nonscience majors (liberal arts) biochemistry course, but…

While elementary teachers do not typically cover the structure and function of DNA, their students can easily understand that organisms have observable traits, that each individual has a unique combination of traits, and that the "recipe" for traits is passed from parent to offspring. The Genetic Science Learning Center has developed and…

We will describe a one-quarter pilot algebra-based introductory physics course for pre-health and life science majors. The course features videos with biomedical experts and cogent biomedically inspired physics content. The materials were used in a flipped classroom as well as an all-online environment where students interacted with multimedia…

We modified the Just-in-Time Teaching approach and developed a dual safeguard web-based interactive (DGWI) teaching system for an introductory physics course. The system consists of four instructional components that improve student learning by including warm-up assignments and online homework. Student and instructor activities involve activities…

At the college level, the effectiveness of active-learning interventions is typically measured at the broadest scales: the achievement or retention of all students in a course. Coarse-grained measures like these cannot inform instructors about an intervention's relative effectiveness for the different student populations in their classrooms or…

The 2012 National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education was designed to provide up-to-date information and to identify trends in the areas of teacher background and experience, curriculum and instruction, and the availability and use of instructional resources. A total of 7,752 science and mathematics teachers in schools across the United…

The 2012 National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education was designed to provide up-to-date information and to identify trends in the areas of teacher background and experience, curriculum and instruction, and the availability and use of instructional resources. A total of 7,752 science and mathematics teachers in schools across the United…

Hands-on experience lets students explore, discover, and think their way through science. The article explains why hands-on science works, presenting tools for getting started with few resources. Activities have students work with the environment in their backyards and the schoolyard. Resources for hands-on science are presented. (SM)

The Third International Mathematics and Science Study represents the most comprehensive international assessment of educational contexts and student achievement yet conducted. As part of the examination of the effects of contextual factors on student achievement, a model was constructed that considered the effects of variables such as…

For as long as people have walked the Earth, they have looked to the stars, have been inspired by their beauty and remoteness and have found their way over sea and deserts by their guidance. Since then, enormous progress has been made in the understanding of the stars, and today the expanding and fascinating world of high-energy astronomy awaits…