Search Results

A Solution for Inclusion: Keeping Advanced Students Stimulated Without Leaving Others Behind

by Nadia Kurd, Molecular and Cell Biology I was frustrated to find that any time I catered to the more advanced students and presented more challenging topics, the rest of the class struggled to follow along; whereas when I continued to conduct class at a level where most of the students were comfortable, the advanced students again lost interest. In an attempt to remedy this problem, I decided to try to develop “interactive” worksheets for class.

Problem Solving and the Random Number Generator

by Justin Hollenback, Civil and Environmental Engineering Based on the mistakes the students were making, I felt that the example problems I presented weren’t conveying the material as well as I wanted. Students did not appear engaged or actively learning during lecture. In response, I developed a strategy ... to make the process of working out example problems in class more interactive.

Teaching Students ‘Street Smarts’ Necessary for Navigating Peer-Reviewed Literature

by Jeff Benca, Integrative Biology During the in-class debate, we focused on the question “What caused earth’s greatest mass extinction?” ... It was truly inspiring for me to hear both discussion sections of the class spend 1.5 hours actively ... debating which arguments held most credence by analyzing the approaches of the papers, considering the expertise of the authors, and applying trends in the fossil record covered in previous lectures.

Beyond Bean Counting: A New Laboratory to Teach the Concepts of Microevolution

by Sonja Schwartz, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management My goal for this laboratory was to engage students of all learning styles by using a combination of passive and active, visual and auditory, and conceptual and applied activities. By reinforcing the material this way, I wanted to get beyond endless bean counting to more effectively teach my students key concepts of evolution.

Understanding Long-Term Ecological Change with Tree Rings

by Kevin Krasnow, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management I decided to leverage my own research to devise an inquiry-based experience for students to explore the history of our own Sierra Nevada forests...This led to a lively discussion...[and the students] were engaged in a way that they never would have been if I had merely told them the history of fire in the Sierras.

Negotiating European Integration Yourself: Role Playing, Simulations, and Counterfactuals in Teaching Political Science

by Sener Akturk, Political Science All theories “make sense” at some level, making it difficult for students to find their weaknesses. Hence, many students believe that the political development of the region they study (Europe, Middle East, etc.) could not unfold differently than it did...To overcome these problems, I set aside a section in mid-semester for students to act out 50 years of EU political development in a simulation.

Searching for the ‘Big Picture’

by Ladan Foose, Chemical Engineering My goal was to figure out how to address this lack of “big picture” understanding in my sections and office hours, while still getting to the material I was asked to cover by the instructor and the many homework questions that the students had. My favorite tool is actually very simple. Some of my students call it “storybook time."

The Kitchen as a Laboratory

by Naomi Kohen, Materials Science and Engineering In order to make the demos more relevant and interactive for the students, all of the soft material systems examined were food-based...The promise of a lab that yielded edible results provided an effective motivation for the students to stay for the extra credit labs.

Factors that Can Contribute to Academic Misconduct

Why does academic misconduct happen, and what can GSIs do to prevent it?

Strategies to Provide Information Without Providing Answers

by Christie Dowling, Civil and Environmental Engineering It seemed to me that many students had not come to the discussion section to learn the lecture concepts, but rather to just be told how to do their homework. I was immediately faced with a challenge: how to create meaningful discussion sections that provide useful information without simply giving the answers away.