Two-semester Course Research Articles

Group theory with applications in chemical physics

Group Theory is an indispensable mathematical tool in many branches of chemistry and physics. This book provides a self-contained and rigorous account on the fundamentals and applications of the subject to chemical physics, assuming no prior knowledge of group theory. The first half of the book focuses on elementary topics, such as molecular and crystal symmetry, whilst the latter half is more advanced in nature. Discussions on more complex material such as space groups, projective representations, magnetic crystals and spinor bases, often omitted from introductory texts, are expertly dealt with. With the inclusion of numerous exercises and worked examples, this book will appeal to advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students studying physical sciences and is an ideal text for use on a two-semester course.

The Pedagogy Excellence Project: a professor–student team approach to authentic inquiry

Claims are often made for the value of integrating teaching and research, yet how this may be done effectively is not always evident. The Pedagogy Excellence Project (PEP) was an innovative and authentic inquiry into teaching conducted by a student–professor team within a six-credit two-semester course. MBA students were principal players in an inquiry which exemplified teaching as scholarly and community property. Acting as consultants to a Faculty of Management, they generated questions, collected and analyzed data, summarized results and made recommendations which are still influencing the faculty today.

Points of View: A Survey of Survey Courses: Are They Effective?

Points of View: A Survey of Survey Courses: Are They Effective?

Elements of a successful capstone course considering the needs of stakeholders

One of the principal objectives of engineering education is to prepare graduates for the practice of engineering in industry. Industry involvement in the educational process can be very helpful in devising programs to meet this objective. Yet, engineering education has a number of other stakeholders including students, faculty, academic administrators, and others. Identifying and meeting the needs and wants of these various stakeholders is essential in developing educational programs and learning activities that are effective and sustainable. Stakeholders in engineering education are identified, including their wants and needs. Alternative approaches to developing a Capstone course, with input from these stakeholders, are proposed and evaluated in light of stakeholder needs and wants. A case study for developing a two-semester senior design capstone course at Brigham Young University is presented. In this example more than 300 industry sponsored, design and build, projects have been completed by cross-functional student teams over more than ten years. Feedback from alumni on the success of this course in meeting desired educational objectives is also presented.

An Introduction to Language (review)

Reviewed by: An introduction to language by Victoria Fromkin, Robert Rodman, and Nina Hyams Adam Głaz An introduction to language. 7th edn. By Victoria Fromkin, Robert Rodman, and Nina Hyams. Boston: Thomson/Heinle, 2003. Pp. xx, 620. ISBN 015508481X. $60.95. No doubt the seventh edition of this already classic introductory textbook to linguistics will be welcomed with the enthusiasm it deserves. Largely a continuation of the work of the late Victoria Fromkin, the new edition has been revised, reorganized, and updated by Robert Rodman and Nina Hyams to reflect current progress in linguistic research and to make it more accessible to language students. The contents are divided into twelve chapters grouped into four parts: ‘The nature of human language’ (1–65), ‘Grammatical aspects of language’ (67–337), ‘The psychology of language’ (339–441), and ‘Language and society’ (443–572). Pedagogues will certainly appreciate the grouping: Such organization of the material makes it easier for the teacher to construct and follow a syllabus for a two-semester course. The more specific topics include, among others, general properties of language; language universals; animal systems of communication; the relationship between language and the brain; language origin; the morphological, syntactic, phonetic, and phonological aspects of language structure; the problems of semantics and pragmatics; language acquisition; bilingualism; teaching methods; teaching language to chimpanzees; computational linguistics; regional and social diversification of language; language change; and major types of writing systems. This quick enumeration does not, however, reflect the wealth of information and the depth of insight offered on many of these topics; although an introductory text, it surpasses many other publications in this category in both aspects. While the majority of examples are taken from English, each chapter is followed by exercises based on data drawn from a variety of sources and languages. Sections summarizing the contents of each chapter facilitate quick review of the material. Lists of references for further study will be appreciated both by the teacher and by the more ambitious student. A glossary and an index at the end of the volume make it easier to navigate its contents. For the amusement of the student, the book contains several dozen well-chosen cartoons, each of which illustrates a point made in the text. Mottos that precede almost every section add to the volume’s educational and entertainment value. A clear layout and careful editing make the book a pleasure to work with. Although this introductory textbook does not follow a particular theoretical approach to language, some linguistic theories seem to be favored over others. For example, the chapter on syntax draws heavily from the transformational-generative tradition, whereas recent developments in cognitive linguistics are virtually absent even from the discussion of semantics, an area where concepts such as prototypes or schemas are particularly useful. Despite drawbacks like these, however, the book is a remarkable achievement. Its earlier editions have already introduced thousands of students worldwide to the world of language study, and the seventh edition will certainly serve the purpose even better. Adam Głaz Maria Curie-Skłodowska University Copyright © 2004 Linguistic Society of America

Industrial based senior projects in the engineering curriculum

This paper presents an attempt towards constructing a model for a two-semester, multi-disciplinary, and capstone senior project course sequence in an engineering curriculum. The course is totally funded and driven by local or regional industries. It describes the fundamentals and ground rules, the curricular model, department and faculty support, as well as challenges and considerations that face the faculty or schools conducting such projects.

What should be the desired outcomes for senior design courses?

(which I teach with mechanical engineering and electrical engineering colleagues) at Marquette University. The course includes biomedical, electrical, computer, mechanical, and industrial engineering students. Project teams consist of three to five students from different engineering disciplines and are advised by faculty members and industry sponsors. The design project is the focus of the course and students are required to hand in specific project-related deliverables during the two-semester course sequence. Twice a week students from all engineering disciplines attend common lectures on various topics related to their projects, the product development process, or their careers. Biomedical engineering students meet separately six times each semester to discuss issues specific to the field. The desired outcomes of the senior design course at Marquette University include

Balancing Plan-Driven and Agile Methods in Software Engineering Project Courses

For the past 6 years, we have been teaching a two-semester software engineering project course. The students organize into 5-person teams and develop largely web-based electronic services projects for real USC campus clients. We have been using and evolving a method called Model- Based (System) Architecting and Software Engineering (MBASE) for use in both the course and in industrial applications. The MBASE Guidelines include a lot of documents. We teach risk-driven documentation: if it is risky to document something, and not risky to leave it out (e.g., GUI screen placements), leave it out. Even so, students tend to associate more documentation with higher grades, although our grading eventually discourages this. We are always on the lookout for ways to have students learn best practices without having to produce excessive documentation. Thus, we were very interested in analyzing the various emerging agile methods. We found that agile methods and milestone plan-driven methods are part of a “how much planning is enough?” spectrum. Both agile and plan-driven methods have home grounds of project characteristics where they clearly work best, and where the other will have difficulties. Hybrid agile/plan-driven approaches are feasible, and necessary for projects having a mix of agile and plan-driven home ground characteristics. Information technology trends are going more toward the agile methods' home ground characteristics of emergent requirements and rapid change, although there is a concurrent increase in concern with dependability. As a result, we are currently experimenting with risk-driven combinations of MBASE and agile methods, such as integrating requirements, test plans, peer reviews, and pair programming into “agile quality management.”

The commingling of teacher researcher identities: a mediated approach to teaching action research

This article chronicles and discusses a two-semester graduate level action research course in which the co-authors were instructors. Evidence of prospective teachers' appropriation of a ‘teacher researcher’ identity prompted a closer look at the dynamics of the course experience. Using a theoretical foundation based on the work of Vygotsky, Wertsch, Kozulin and Bakhtin, the notions of experiential learning, shared pedagogical mediation, collaborative problem posing and problem solving, and a resultant commingling of teacher and researcher identities are explored

Engineering Entrepreneurship: An Example of A Paradigm Shift in Engineering Education

AbstractThis paper describes a course on technology‐based entrepreneurship. Brown University's Division of Engineering has created a two‐semester course sequence designed to introduce students to entrepreneurship through a unique merger of classroom learning and industry participation. The course is open to advanced undergraduates from all engineering disciplines, and emphasis is placed upon recruiting almost half of the student participants from outside of engineering in order to develop “team building” skills. Local “parent companies” provide seed ideas or concepts to student groups who use skills learned in the classroom (both in this course as well as other courses) to develop and refine the parent company's idea and turn it into a viable simulated spin‐off business or new start‐up. Managers from the parent companies serve in an evolving role over the two‐semester sequence beginning as a “board of directors” for the spin‐off and eventually evolving into a potential source of start‐up capital (or possibly a customer for the products of the company). The faculty carefully manage the student‐company interface. Deliverables at the end of the two‐semester sequence include a business plan and a prototype product.

A Service-Learning Program Designed to Prepare Students to Meet the Leisure Needs of Older Adults with Dementia: A Case Report

Service-learning programs combine volunteer service with educational activities. Such programs provide recreation educators with an avenue for heightening students' awareness of and ability to serve under-recognized groups such as community-dwelling older adults with dementia. This article reports on the design, implementation, and evaluation of a service-learning program entitled “The At-Home Recreation Program.” The program focused on dementia, dementia care, and recreation. Students majoring in therapeutic recreation registered for a two-semester hour course that consisted of six-weeks classroom instruction and eight weekly sessions in the home of an older adult with dementia. Statistically significant gains were found in students' knowledge of dementia and perceived ability to communicate and use recreation activities with older adults with dementia. Considerations for the design and evaluation of similar service-learning programs are discussed.

Putting The World In World History Textbooks

Putting The World In World History Textbooks

Nexus and Stage: Computer-Assisted Class Discussion and the First-Year English Course

Many people have been experimenting successfully with computer-based discussion programs in their English classes. This article describes one way of conducting computer assisted class discussion (CACD) that worked well for me. I used ENFI in three sections of our university's introductory course in literary analysis, which is the second of a two-semester course in Freshman Composition. I also, to a lesser extent, used CACD in two Shakespeare classes.1 Class size averaged 18 students. The program that I used on our computer network is a multifaceted one, called Daedalus, which has modules dedicated to such things as peer response, invention, and creating bibliographies. But the module devoted to synchronous discussion seemed to generate the most useful results and is, consequently, the focus of the present article. This module, called "Interchange," is a program that, like web-based "chat" programs, allows a number of individuals to send written communication to a communal space, or "board," where those messages are posted in the order that they were sent.

What I learned Teaching new Testament 101

For seventeen years, at 1:00 p.m. on the first Thursday after Labour Day, I walked into the main lecture room at the College of Emmanuel & St. Chad in Saskatoon, to find waiting for me the thirty or so students who had enroled in my two-semester course, "Introduction to the New Testament and Its World." Invariably, it was a mixed group. Usually the class was evenly split between theological students, registered through the Anglican or the United Church Seminary, and university students, registered through the Department of Religious Studies. For some of them the New Testament was familiar territory; others were hard put to tell the difference between an epistle and an apostle. Included in the latter group were students such as the one who, early in the semester, made some comment about the Pharisees and the "Seducees" (the accent fell on the second syllable!), and another who made reference in a paper to that less well-known disciple of Jesus, Judas Escargot. That these howlers were both produced by seminary students should serve to indicate that there was no necessary correlation between the degree for which a student was studying and his or her degree of biblical literacy. (Of course, the students present here this evening are not the kind to produce such blunderful wonders.)

The role of the community in educating medical students: initial impressions from a new program.

The Keeping Families Healthy (KFH) program at the University of Florida College of Medicine is a new community-based course designed to improve physician-patient relationships. This paper describes the experience of the first-year medical students' home visits, which were developed to foster health promotion and disease prevention. This two-semester course offers first-year medical students the opportunity to integrate prevention, service, and humanism into the established educational curriculum. During the course the learners have opportunities to interact with families who have volunteered to serve in partnership with the College of Medicine faculty as community lay teachers. The program provides a valuable service to the participating families by helping them identify useful community resources, and by formulating healthy care plans for prevention of illness and stabilization of chronic illness. Community-based learning and home visits expose students to personal travails (e.g. lack of financial resources) in a way that cannot be addressed in traditional settings. This exposure may involve students in community-building strategies that can assist not only individual patients, but also communities. Additionally, home visits provide an opportunity for pre-clinical students to have an active rather than passive role in their education.

Lessons of a Decade

Summary In 1987, a new two-semester freshmen-level course in World Civilizations was piloted at Washington State University. Included within the course was a library component offering the question analysis that seemed appropriate to a richly historical, interdisciplinary course. The authors involved with the course from the very beginning, discuss their decade of work on the World Civ project in terms of the project's successes and unrealized hopes, its collegial component, and its growth and adaptation over the years (including examples of library assignments). As a university-wide project, World Civilizations was a forerunner of other projects nationwide and an outstanding example of librarians collaborating with teaching faculty to promote instruction.

Software engineering for seniors—overcoming the administrative fears

A five-year old program of a two-semester course sequence in software engineering is described. Strategies for handling four common faculty administrative concerns of teaching a project centered software engineering course are presented. The methods and experiences described are the results of a program now in its fifth year. The program is centered around industry sponsored projects which computer science seniors take from design to implementation during the school year.

An Introduction to Combinatorial Group Theory and the Word Problem

(1997). An Introduction to Combinatorial Group Theory and the Word Problem. Mathematics Magazine: Vol. 70, No. 1, pp. 3-10.

Recent developments in a mechatronics-oriented design project laboratory

This article describes a senior-level undergraduate course in mechatronics/design for mechanical engineers at Polytechnic University in Brooklyn, NY, and presents an overview of the projects developed as part thereof. It is a two-semester course sequence, mandatory for all undergraduate students. Teams are typically formed by groups of three students, and a project is assigned to them at the beginning of the academic year. The assigned projects are related to the design and control of mechanical systems. The teams have a limited budget to complete the project, and can use the available resources at the Instrumentation Laboratory. The projects involve significant effort in microprocessor interfacing, signal processing, and power control for actuators. The anticipated theoretical results are analyzed and compared to the obtained experimental data. The teams submit five bimonthly reports and make a final presentation. The outcome of the best projects has been presented in regional conferences and published in several journals. The projects presented in the paper concern AGVs, heating and ventilation, process temperature control, DC motors, gear transmissions, and solar panel tracking.

Teaching virtual reality

This paper reports on the design and implementation of a two-semester course on Virtual Reality (VR). The course is aimed at final year undergraduates on programmes leading to specialist degrees such as Information Technology, Software Engineering, Computer Studies, Business Information Systems.Entitled "VR - implementation and applications", the course embraces novel devices, interfacing, software toolkits, graphics algorithms, system evaluation, technology prediction, Human Computer Interaction (HCI), social, psychological and philosophical aspects.The course focuses on the evaluation of current and expected technology and on the assessment of current and future applications in its complete variety. It thereby encompasses transferable skills in the mainstream areas of technology evaluation, system evaluation.This paper reviews the aims of the course, the curriculum content, a novel learning approach, assessment and an evaluation of the course.