The bricks-and-mortar infrastructure of community colleges has not nearly kept pace with increases in student enrollments. Not only are colleges bursting at the proverbial seams, but, according to the American Graduation Initiative, many two-year institutions "face large needs due to deferred maintenance or lack the modern facilities and…

Lone Star College had a unique opportunity in 2000 when it began planning its new CyFair campus in suburban Houston. The school wasn't retrofitting existing buildings or contending with entrenched attitudes about what type of physical environment best supported learning. So when it designed its sprawling 550,000-square-foot campus, paid for with…

The SCALE-UP (Student-Centered Activities for Large Enrollment for Undergraduate Programs) project was developed to implement reforms designed for small classes into large physics classes. Over 50 schools across the country, ranging from Wake Technical Community College to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), have adopted it for classes of…

There are a plethora of variables which affect pupils in the classroom. These might involve the obvious such as uncomfortable temperature readings a well as the following: (1) small group work as compared to individual activities; (2) use of measurably stated objectives versus constructivism as psychologies of learning; (3) a very quiet…

The main aim of this article is to explore models of a teacher addressing a class sitting in a rectangular classroom or lecture theatre and derive central measures of the distance between the teacher and the class or between a lecturer and an audience. This involves an interesting range of mathematics and two metrics. A secondary aim is to discuss…

We describe the development of a course to teach modeling and mathematical analysis skills to students of biology and to teach biology to students with strong backgrounds in mathematics, physics, or engineering. The two groups of students have different ways of learning material and often have strong negative feelings toward the area of knowledge…

In the July 24, 2007 edition of "ExchangeEveryday", readers were asked to submit great indoor space elements from their early childhood programs. Readers sent photographs and brief descriptions of creative elements of their indoor environments. A sampling of ideas are shown on this article.

Art teachers face the dilemma of transforming their artrooms into visually stimulating learning environments for their students every day. Incorporating the elements of art in the design of the room will help students gain new insights into their meaning while capturing their attention. In this article, the authors relate how they added visual…

Early childhood centers have become a common and necessary part of millions of Americans' lives. More women in the workforce, longer workweeks, and educational research supporting the importance of early education have all contributed to the rise of early childhood centers throughout the United States. Today, more than 30 percent of children under…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore the effects of seating position on mathematics course performance with relationship to gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. The study was conducted using three seating arrangements: alphabetic, student self-select and rotation. The data collected included the students' seating position,…

Coteaching benefits both students and teachers, and the benefits grow as coteaching relationships mature. Effective coteaching relationships often evolve in stages (Gately & Gately, 2000), and coteachers can take steps to help their relationships flourish (Cramer, 2006). Drawing on the practices of successful coteaching teams, this article offers…

Public education is one of the central tasks of a democratic society, and the buildings that house this important task not only shape the way one teaches, but provide icons and symbols for the values people hold common as a society. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this context has placed school buildings squarely in a position of debate and innovation…

The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences and perceptions of two first year teachers relating to the concept of preparing the classroom environment for learning. Two female first year teachers of young children participated in the study. One taught preschool and the other taught fourth grade, both in public school settings in the…

This paper discusses the results of a study of the requirements for developing a remote RF laboratory. This study draws on the perspectives of educators in university electrical engineering departments and in technical colleges, on the teaching of the radio frequency (RF) domain. The study investigates how these educators would like the technical…