Undergraduate Science Courses Research Articles

Effects of Active Learning on Enhancing Student Critical Thinking in an Undergraduate General Science Course

To enhance students’ critical thinking in an undergraduate general science course, we designed and implemented active learning modules by incorporating group-based learning with authentic tasks, scaffolding, and individual reports. This study examined the levels of critical thinking students exhibited in individual reports and the students’ critical thinking level change over time. Findings indicated that students’ average critical thinking level fell in the category of “developing”, but students’ scores on individual reports revealed a statistically significant increase. The study suggested that the active learning strategies employed in the study were useful to promote student critical thinking.

What Are They Thinking? Automated Analysis of Student Writing about Acid–Base Chemistry in Introductory Biology

Students’ writing can provide better insight into their thinking than can multiple-choice questions. However, resource constraints often prevent faculty from using writing assessments in large undergraduate science courses. We investigated the use of computer software to analyze student writing and to uncover student ideas about chemistry in an introductory biology course. Students were asked to predict acid–base behavior of biological functional groups and to explain their answers. Student explanations were rated by two independent raters. Responses were also analyzed using SPSS Text Analysis for Surveys and a custom library of science-related terms and lexical categories relevant to the assessment item. These analyses revealed conceptual connections made by students, student difficulties explaining these topics, and the heterogeneity of student ideas. We validated the lexical analysis by correlating student interviews with the lexical analysis. We used discriminant analysis to create classification functions that identified seven key lexical categories that predict expert scoring (interrater reliability with experts = 0.899). This study suggests that computerized lexical analysis may be useful for automatically categorizing large numbers of student open-ended responses. Lexical analysis provides instructors unique insights into student thinking and a whole-class perspective that are difficult to obtain from multiple-choice questions or reading individual responses.

Conducting an Effective Residential School for an Undergraduate Materials Science and Engineering Course

Residential schools are an important mechanism by which equitable access to laboratory provide hands-on experience and face-to-face learning for students enrolled in distance mode. This paper elaborates on the evaluation of residential school conducted as a part of undergraduate materials science and engineering course for the distance/flexible students enrolled at Central Queensland University, Australia. The students in this course are adult students who are employed full-time as practitioners and juggling with work, family, and study commitments. This cohort differs greatly in their technical knowledge and professional experience from the students who are enrolled internally. Internal students are predominately students who have progressed from secondary school to tertiary education without any workplace experience. A three day residential school provided the opportunity for students to work individually (undertake quizzes) and as a group (conduct laboratories, pursue group project) to ensure they had access to lecturers and their peers in progressing their tasks and assessment items. The students travelled from throughout Australia to attend the residential school and its design acknowledges the need for the time allocated to be focused, meaningful and worthwhile so students can maximise time at the residential (and the subsequent follow up activities) and minimise time away from the workplace.

Lost in translation: quantifying the overlap of popular media and non-majors science course assessment vocabulary

Earth's climate is rapidly changing, and citizens of the 21st century will need to act based on informed decisions about climate change. A liberal education should contribute to an informed and responsible citizenry who can think independently, reason analytically, and communicate effectively. Following college graduation, typical Americans will gain most of their science information through the media. How well are students prepared to be effective, critical consumers of media-reported science? We broach this subject by comparing the climate change vocabulary of undergraduate science courses for non-science majors with multiple popular media sources. Using PASW Text Analytics for Surveys, we objectively identified key terms from both classroom and media sources, and grouped these terms into major reservoirs and fluxes of the carbon cycle. Our classroom data include exams and quizzes from biology and physical science courses taught at a large, research intensive university. Media reports were collected the week before, after, and during COP15 from daily, weekly, and monthly media sources. Of the 253 items analyzed (183 media responses, 40 assessment responses), we extracted 310 relevant terms and grouped those into 19 categories based on the carbon cycle. The most frequently used terms in assessments included CO2 and reservoirs such as the atmosphere, ocean, tree, and one flux, photosynthesis. Within the media, the most frequently used terms were socio-political in nature (e.g., country, Obama). Between the media and assessments, seven of the top 20 words overlapped and focused primarily on carbon reservoirs. Media and assessments differ substantially in the usage of terms associated with carbon fluxes. Many courses for non-science majors have a goal to improve students' abilities to apply scientifically sound reasoning and knowledge within their everyday lives. Our analysis reveals a discrepancy between the vocabulary used in media sources and in course assessments surrounding the topic of climate change. We suggest non-major science courses should do more to explicitly tie scientific processes to current political, economic, and social discussions. For many students, these courses represent the only science class they will take. The vocabulary they learn today should prepare them to make informed decisions tomorrow.

Teaching Web Application Development: A Case Study in a Computer Science Course

Teaching web development in Computer Science undergraduate courses is a difficult task. Often, there is a gap between the students' experiences and the reality in the industry. As a consequence, the students are not always well-prepared once they get the degree. This gap is due to several reasons, such as the complexity of the assignments, the working environment, the frameworks used and the time-frame constraints. In this paper, we report on a case study on how we taught web application development using extreme tutoring and in an apprenticeship manner. The assumption was to take two real web applications as basis for practical teaching. We present the different issues that we faced: the setup of the development framework, the heterogeneity of human resources and the volatility of the environment. We describe how the process evolved positively. The students became independent, and implemented two applications. We conclude with the lessons learned.

“I Know This is Supposed to be More Like the Real World, But . . .”: Student Perceptions of a PBL Implementation in an Undergraduate Materials Science Course

This qualitative case study examines the initial implementation of a problem-based versionof an undergraduate course in materials science for the purpose of identifying areasof improvement to the curriculum prior to a planned second implementation. The coursewas designed around problems that students work in small teams to solve under the guidanceof facilitators, with early sequence problems designed to foster the problem-solvingskills required to succeed in the course. This report describes students’ impressions ofand experiences in the course as they worked to solve the final problem at the end of thesemester and compares those impressions, where applicable, to impressions gatheredafter they had completed the first problem near the beginning of the semester. Usinggrounded theory techniques to analyze the data, six central themes emerged from theimplementation: course structure, facilitation roles, student roles, group processes, coconstruction,and resources. Implications for practice and potential instructional designsolutions that may aid in future implementations are discussed.

The effects of passive and active learning on student preference and performance in an undergraduate basic science course

Active learning is based on self-directed and autonomous teaching methods, whereas passive learning is grounded in instructor taught lectures. An animal physiology course was studied over a two-year period (Year 1, n = 42 students; Year 2, n = 30 students) to determine the effects of student-led seminar (andragogical) and lecture (pedagogical) teaching methods on students' retention of information and performance. For each year of the study, the course was divided into two time periods. The first half was dedicated to instructor-led lectures, followed by a control survey in which the students rated the efficiency of pedagogical learning on a five-point Likert scale from one (strongly disagree) to five (strongly agree). During the second period, students engaged in andragogical learning via peer-led seminars. An experimental survey was then administered to students using the same scale as above to determine students' preferred teaching method. Raw examination scores and survey results from both halves of the course were statistically analyzed by ANOVA with Newman-Keuls multiple comparison test. By the end of the study, student preference for peer-led seminars increased [mean ± SD: (2.47 ± 0.94)/(4.03 ± 1.36), P < 0.04], and examination scores significantly increased [mean ± SD: (73.91% ± 13.18)/(85.77 ± 5.22), P < 0.001]. A majority of students (68.8%) preferred a method that contained peer-led seminars and instructor-led lectures. These results may indicate that integration of active and passive learning into undergraduate courses may have greater benefit in terms of student preference and performance than either method alone.

Student Comprehension of Primary Literature is Aided by Companion Assignments Emphasizing Pattern Recognition and Information Literacy.

Primary literature is our main mode of communication in the sciences. As such, it is important for our undergraduates in the discipline to learn how to read primary literature. Incorporating primary literature into undergraduate science courses is often difficult because students are unprepared to comprehend primary articles. Learning to read and evaluate primary literature can improve students' understanding of science and the scientific method, and develop the educational and life skill of evaluating whether assertions are supported by evidence. We integrated two areas of research (teaching students to use primary literature and pattern recognition in experts versus novices) to modify a curriculum used to teach information literacy and primary literature in an introductory biology course. The modifications taught students to recognize information by the communication patterns used in the literature, and despite literature's jargon. One section of this course used our modified curriculum while two control sections used the original curriculum. In all sections, students were asked to write a lab report citing a primary literature article pertinent to their laboratory experiment. We read each lab report and the article it cited, ranking the student's comprehension of the article and their ability to integrate the article into their laboratory report on a scale of 1 to 3 using rubrics. While citing a primary literature article was required of all students, more students using the modified curriculum cited primary articles in their laboratory reports (95% vs. 65% average in control sections). The comprehension of primary articles also appeared better, as cited articles were more likely to be correctly paraphrased by students with the modified curriculum (average score of 2.33 vs. 1.96), while there did not appear to be a difference between the groups' abilities to integrate the article into their report. This indicates that by incorporating pattern recognition assignments and information literacy instruction into the curriculum, teachers can significantly improve student comprehension of primary literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Politics and Public Budget: Agency and Legislative Decision-Making Strategies

Institutions of higher education are charged with the educational responsibility of creating a classroom environment, where critical thinking skills are cultivated. This paper focuses on a political science undergraduate course in public budgeting. The course emphasizes and encourages the students to develop creative and critical thinking skills necessary to actively engage in the public administration budget process. Budgets can be analyzed from an economic prism, a management perspective, a historical view and the political process. The goal of this simulation is to replicate the interplay of administrative decision making with congressional politics and experienced at congressional budget hearings. The course is designed around the four phases of the budget cycle; executive preparation; legislative authorization and appropriations; budget implementation; and audits. The simulation focuses on the second stage of the process, the legislative hearings and the personalities, politics, and interactions among administrators and legislators. Since legislative budget hearings are a fluid chess match designed to test the skills and abilities of the participants. The agency budget official’s goals are to match their expertise with the political power of the committee majority and minority party members. The intended result of this course is to prepare the political science and public administration students with the basic theoretical and practical experience necessary to grasp the demands of the legislative budget process. In the final analysis agency budgets are determined by successful political bargaining.

Tertiary student attitudes to bicycle commuting in a regional Australian university

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide executive management at a regional university with empirical data to justify, or otherwise, a substantial outlay of funds to support bicycle commuting as a viable strategy for the reduction of traffic congestion.Design/methodology/approachA custom designed questionnaire was completed by 270 participants who were enrolled in a first year undergraduate science, technology and society course which focussed on the environment and sustainability issues. The questionnaire targeted the likelihood that participants would use a bicycle to commute to university and the factors which influenced the decision to bicycle commute.FindingsPrincipal components analysis identified a common underlying construct which addressed the likelihood to ride to university and involved the opportunity to ride on bike paths, the availability of appropriate facilities at the institution, knowledge of other people who rode to university and the number of study contact hours on a given day. Qualitative analysis identified route safety as the primary factor influencing the decision to bicycle commute. No association was identified between the likelihood to bicycle commute and the participants' confidence or experience level in riding a bicycle. While the study provides evidence to support the expenditure required to develop an appropriate built environment which facilitates bicycle commuting, it indicates that such action taken in isolation will have minimal effect on increasing this mode of commuting.Research limitations/implicationsThe study was conducted to meet the needs of a particular institution and is not considered generally applicable. However, it provides a framework for others who may wish to conduct similar research.Originality/valueThis study targets a perceived gap in the literature in relation to the attitude of tertiary students towards bicycle commuting and provides empirical evidence to support bicycle commuting as a sustainable transport option.

The impact of collaborative and individualized student response system strategies on learner motivation, metacognition, and knowledge transfer

AbstractThis study investigated the impact of collaborative and individualized student response system‐based instruction on learner motivation, metacognition, and concept transfer in a large‐enrolment undergraduate science course. Participants in the collaborative group responded to conceptual questions, discussed their responses in small groups, and provided a revised response to the question (peer instruction [PI]). A comparison group provided individualized responses (IRs) to the same questions. Results of the motivation measure revealed a drop in confidence for students in both groups. This may be explained by a significant increase in the knowledge of cognition in both IR and PI groups, which likely mediated a recalibration of confidence to a lower, yet more realistic level. A significant interaction was found between gender and student response system strategy relative to the regulation of cognition, revealing that females improved in the PI group, while males reported improvement in the regulation of cognition in the IR group. A custom instrument was developed to measure near and far concept transfer abilities. The PI group scored significantly higher on the test of near transfer than the IR group.

Team Knowledge Sharing Intervention Effects on Team Shared Mental Models and Student Performance in an Undergraduate Science Course

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a shared mental model (SMM) based intervention on student team mental model similarity and ultimately team performance in an undergraduate meteorology course. The team knowledge sharing (TKS) intervention was designed to promote team reflection, communication, and improvement planning. Results reveal that the TKS intervention was partially effective in enhancing student team SMM and team scores on meteorology lab assignments. The TKS intervention has potential for use in science courses where a teaming approach is used. Similar interventions could likely be developed, empirically examined, and potentially employed to promote success in handling complex challenges while working in teams in the classroom and beyond.

Learning Gains and Response to Digital Lessons on Soil Genesis and Development

Evolving computer technology is offering opportunities for new online approaches in teaching methods and delivery. Well-designed web-based (online) lessons should reinforce the critical need of the soil science discipline in today's food, energy, and environmental issues, as well as meet the needs of the diverse clientele with interest in agricultural and/or environmental disciplines. The objectives of the project were to: (1) develop web-based lessons in soil genesis and development and (2) evaluate context-based case studies or application lessons (agronomic, environmental, and ecological situations) to teach soil genesis and development. Six principles lessons, along with three applications lessons, were developed for use by undergraduate soil science courses. Pre- and post-tests were used to assess learning gains. A postactivity survey was also used to assess perceptions of the web-based lessons by student users. Students' test performance from pre- to post-test improved by 69%. Although there were no differences in post-test gains among learning styles, or between genders, the students majoring in professional golf management had higher post-test gains than other majors. Since their inception in 2006, lessons have continued to be both primary and supplemental resources for multiple courses serving over 140 students each year at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Oregon State University-Cascades. The lessons will be especially useful for teachers who do not have extensive training in soil science yet cover the subject as part of a basic earth science course.

Facilitating change in undergraduate STEM instructional practices: An analytic review of the literature

AbstractThis article reviews current scholarship about how to promote change in instructional practices used in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses. The review is based on 191 conceptual and empirical journal articles published between 1995 and 2008. Four broad categories of change strategies were developed to capture core differences within this body of literature: disseminating curriculum and pedagogy, developing reflective teachers, enacting policy, and developing shared vision. STEM education researchers largely write about change in terms of disseminating curriculum and pedagogy. Faculty development researchers largely write about change in terms of developing reflective teachers. Higher education researchers largely write about change in terms of enacting policy. New work often does not build on prior empirical or theoretical work. Although most articles claim success of the change strategy studied, evidence presented to support these claims is typically not strong. For example, only 21% of articles that studied implementation of a change strategy were categorized as presenting strong evidence to support claims of success or failure of the strategy. These analyses suggest that the state of change strategies and the study of change strategies are weak, and that research communities that study and enact change are largely isolated from one‐another. In spite of the weak state of the literature, some conclusions related to the design of change strategies can be drawn from this review. Two commonly used change strategies are clearly not effective: developing and testing “best practice” curricular materials and then making these materials available to other faculty and “top‐down” policy‐making meant to influence instructional practices. Effective change strategies: are aligned with or seek to change the beliefs of the individuals involved; involve long‐term interventions, lasting at least one semester; require understanding a college or university as a complex system and designing a strategy that is compatible with this system. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 48: 952–984, 2011

Impact of Undergraduate Science Course Innovations on Learning

Despite revealing some positive impacts, studies too often suffer from weak design and inadequate reporting.

Writing in natural sciences: Understanding the effects of different types of reviewers on the writing

ABSTRACT In undergraduate natural science courses, two types of evaluators are commonly used to assess student writing: graduate-student teaching assistants (TAs) or peers. The current study examines how well these approaches to evaluation support student writing. These differences between the two possible evaluators are likely to affect multiple aspects of the writing process: first draft quality, amount and types of feedback provided, amount and types of revisions, and final draft quality. Therefore, we examined how these aspects of the writing process were affected when undergraduate students wrote papers to be evaluated by a group of peers versus their TA. Several interesting results were found. First, the quality of the students' first draft was greater when they were writing for their peers than when writing for their TA. In terms of feedback, students provided longer comments, and they also focused more on the prose than the TAs. Finally, more revisions were made if the students received feedback from their peers-especially prose revisions. Despite all of the benefits seen with peers as evaluators, there was only a moderate difference in final draft quality. This result indicates that while peer-review is helpful, there continues to be a need for research regarding how to enhance the benefits.

Web Conferencing and ICTs to Enhance Undergraduate Science Teaching

The last decade has seen a great variety in the ways in which instructors have incorporated the World Wide Web into their traditional classroom courses; however, this combination has not always translated into changes or improvements in teaching and learning. The real challenge has proved to be not the addition of web resources to the traditional classroom, but the thoughtful combination of those resources in such a way that they enhance the educational process. This fact, added to the advancements in technology that allow for a smooth and more user-friendly integration by non-technologically savvy instructors, has resulted in successful mix of strategies that enhance the classroom learning experience. This article presents a case study that shows the changes in the design of an undergraduate science course that moved from a passive use of the Web to a more interactive and participatory use of web resources, including the incorporation of synchronous and asynchronous modes of communication and a novel use of web conferencing. The authors describe in detail the development and implementation of interactive educational technologies integrated into the course and how synchronous and asynchronous communication has enriched the teaching and learning process.

Teaching Decision Tree Classification Using Microsoft Excel

Data mining is concerned with the extraction of useful patterns from data. With the collection, storage, and processing of data becoming easier and more affordable by the day, decision makers increasingly view data mining as an essential analytical tool. Unfortunately, data mining does not get as much attention in the OR/MS curriculum as other more popular areas such as linear programming and decision theory. In this paper, we discuss our experiences in teaching a popular data mining method (decision tree classification) in an undergraduate management science course, and we outline a procedure to implement the decision tree algorithm in Microsoft Excel.

Our Quest for Mutualism in University–School Partnerships

If a university–school partnership is to be viewed as a mutualistic relationship, benefits should be provided not only to the preservice teachers, but to the members of the school environment as well. As a means of exemplifying how to connect the learning of students, in-service and preservice teachers, and teacher educators, this article describes three partnerships that involve teaching undergraduate English language arts, science, and mathematics methods courses on site in local public elementary schools.

Comparison of Views of the Nature of Science between Natural Science and Nonscience Majors

Science educators have the common goal of helping students develop scientific literacy, including understanding of the nature of science (NOS). University faculties are challenged with the need to develop informed NOS views in several major student subpopulations, including science majors and nonscience majors. Research into NOS views of undergraduates, particularly science majors, has been limited. In this study, NOS views of undergraduates in introductory environmental science and upper-level animal behavior courses were measured using Likert items and open-ended prompts. Analysis revealed similarities in students' views between the two courses; both populations held a mix of naïve, transitional, and moderately informed views. Comparison of pre- and postcourse mean scores revealed significant changes in NOS views only in select aspects of NOS. Student scores on sections addressing six aspects of NOS were significantly different in most cases, showing notably uninformed views of the distinctions between scientific theories and laws. Evidence-based insight into student NOS views can aid in reforming undergraduate science courses and will add to faculty and researcher understanding of the impressions of science held by undergraduates, helping educators improve scientific literacy in future scientists and diverse college graduates.