A 3-week laboratory module was developed for an undergraduate microbiology course that would connect student learning to a real-life challenge, specifically a local water-quality project. The laboratory series included multiple field trips, sampling of soil and water, and subsequent analysis for bacteria and nitrate. Laboratory results confirmed…

Learning modules provide an effective means of encouraging cognition and active learning. This paper discusses several such modules that have been developed within a course on weather radar applications intended for students from Electrical Engineering and Meteorology. The modules were designed both to promote interdisciplinary exchange between…

Social workers are in a position to identify the effects of substance use disorders (SUDs) on children and families and provide appropriate interventions in broad practice contexts. Unfortunately, many social workers are not trained to consider parental SUDs and their effects on children in the assessment process. A course module for training…

The Wellcome Trust is running a national engagement and education initiative inspired by the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. "In the Zone" involves sending practical science kits to every UK school and college. Here, we discuss the development of the school activities and how the feedback from pilot schools helped to shape the…

Research has shown that the strategy of matching learning style with certain technology enhances students' learning experience. This study seeks to identify the learning styles among students in a rural secondary school, based on the Felder Silverman Model (1988) which comprises four dimensions (visual/verbal, active/reflective, sequential/global,…

Inspection of thousands of student responses to computer-marked assessment questions has brought insight into the errors made by adult distance learners of science. Most of the questions analysed were in summative use and required students to construct their own response. Both of these things increased confidence in the reliability of the…

This design case follows an ongoing collaboration between an instructional technologist and a high school literature teacher promoting reading comprehension through modules that provide visually interesting display of text on a computer screen along with cognitive tools. The modules were found to boost comprehension of specific content in even one…

Facebook use among students is almost ubiquitous; however, its use for formal academic purposes remains contested. Through an online survey monitoring student use of module Facebook pages and focus groups, this study explores students' current academic uses of Facebook and their views on using Facebook within university modules. Students reported…

Internationalization of geography in higher education comes in many guises. This paper discusses some of these, with particular attention to curriculum development and transfer. The context is Bangladesh and a case study is presented of a link programme between three higher education institutions in that country and one in the UK. The British…

The rock cycle is a key component of geoscience education at all levels. In this paper, we report on a new guided inquiry curricular module, "Sleuthing through the Rock Cycle," which has a blended online/offline constructivist design with comprehensive teaching notes and has been successful in pilot use in Rhode Island middle and high…

As school-based action research has taken a higher profile in UK schools, the place of ethics warrants particular attention. This paper draws on evidence from a taught online Master of Education course collated via chat room discussion where 53 researching teachers were asked to explore policy within their own institution regarding school-based…

We report the results of a climate change module delivered to 48 Grade 3/4 students in Nova Scotia, Canada. We tested for prior knowledge and evaluated interventional effectiveness using art elicitation. Common climate change misconceptions were demonstrated in their preintervention artwork, while postintervention artwork showed improved…

Population genetics is fundamental to understanding evolutionary theory, and is taught in most introductory biology/evolution courses. Many students are unaware that understanding this topic requires pertinent knowledge of mathematics and consequently struggle with the subject. As a response to this problem, a virtual tool (Pop!World) was…

The foundation year and specialization year of study are the accepted framework for graduate social work education. A common belief among educators is that accreditation standards are prescriptive by design, resulting in a rigidity that neither encourages nor supports curricular innovation. This article outlines a newly developed curriculum model…

Following collaboration between two chemistry lecturers and an academic developer an attempt was made to enhance the learning of students within a chemistry module through the adaptation of the delivery of content material. This paper reports a piece of practitioner led research which considered how effective the approach developed was upon the…