Today's undergraduates are clearly comfortable as consumers of technology and new media--purchasing ring tones for their cell phones and tunes for their iPods, text-messaging from handheld devices, scanning and tinkering with photos, keeping up with their Facebook friends and watching viral YouTube videos, sometimes all simultaneously. We share…

Computer Science is a rich field with many growing application areas, such as Health Information Systems. What we suggest here is that multi-disciplinary threads can be introduced to supplement, enhance, and strengthen the primary area of study in a course. We call these supplementary materials "threads," because they are executed…

How does arts activism relate to concepts of voice, issues of social justice, and ideas about sustainable change and transformative processes? Does arts activism imply a particular set of values? This article describes an arts activism course that is designed to raise critical discourse on these and other questions and to provide a structure for…

We present our Lunar Phases Project, an ongoing effort utilizing students' actual observations within a mental model building framework to improve student understanding of the causes and process of the lunar phases. We implement this project with a sample of undergraduate, nonscience major students enrolled in a midsized public university located…

An excellent common activity in technology and engineering classes involves dropping an egg from a significant height in a protective device designed and built by students. This article describes how the author uses the classic "egg drop" as an inspiration to have students modify a small crash test vehicle that speeds down a track and crashes into…

The various student gains and reported satisfaction with self-management projects have been well documented. However, we found that few psychology programs explicitly teach these skills. In this paper we demonstrate how self-management projects can meet nine out of the ten undergraduate student learning goals outlined by the APA Task Force (2002).…

The process of finding inspiration for a class project is fascinating and intriguing. In this article, the author describes a class project inspired by the gyre, a widespread circulating rotation or vortex of ocean currents, known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This particular gyre is the location of an enormous floating mass of garbage,…

This article addresses spatiality as an educational category by asking how spatiality influences students' experiences of interactions in project-based teaching. It examines students' experiences with two different spatial conditions--namely, separate rooms, each accommodating a single group, or a much larger open space hosting multiple groups. It…

Technology and millennials have created a shift in the world and how it operates. This impact has been experienced in the field of occupational therapy education. As a result of this paradigm shift, an analysis of effective teaching methodologies was carried out to assess the most effective way to engage the millennials in an analysis of…

The paper proposes lab work and student competitions based on the LEGO NXT Mindstorms kits and standard LabVIEW. The goal of this combination is to stimulate design and experimentation with real hardware and representative software in courses where mobile robotics is adopted as a motivating platform to introduce mechatronics competencies. Basic…

In this article, the author describes a project that deals with fire production as an aspect of technology. The project challenges students to be survivors in a five-day classroom activity. Students research various materials and methods to produce fire without the use of matches or other modern combustion devices, then must create "fire" to keep…

A university's objective is to educate its students using information and communication technologies (ICTs) and teaching techniques that would enable its graduates become flexible and life-long learners that can easily adapt to the changes eminent in the information society. Achieving this aim requires among other factors, the adoption of…

In this age of standardization, many English teachers are unsure about how to incorporate creative writing and thinking into their classroom. In a fresh new voice, Luke Reynolds emphasizes that "creativity in our lives as teachers and in the lives of our students is one of our most vital needs in the 21st century." Based on his own journey as an…

Developed in cooperation with the World Wildlife Fund, "Taking Action" inspires ideas and provides models for conducting effective environmental projects--projects that dynamically engage students from start to finish. From adopting species to protecting habitats to saving energy and creating publications, this guide will help educators plan,…

Critical thinking continues to be an educational concern even though many school systems, educators, and academic articles have stressed its importance. To teach critical thinking, teachers need to learn what it is and how it is taught. It is unknown to what extent critical thinking skills are taught and assessed in classrooms. The purpose of this…