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.
by Stephanie Langin-Hooper, Near Eastern Studies One of the most involved and successful projects that I designed was a miniature replica of underwater shipwreck excavations. Using large turkey roasting pans, water, sand, and an assortment of miniature objects, I recreated three underwater shipwreck excavation sites...The students became the archaeologists and were divided up into excavation teams...Through a multi-sensory engagement, this project successfully opened the eyes of my students to the dynamic process of archaeological excavation.
by Jessica Smith, Chemistry Prepared students are slow because they meticulously follow the directions rather than thinking critically about the purpose of each step...Students of science become scientists as they begin to comprehend how different steps contribute to an experiment rather than blindly following directions.
by Emily Frey, Music The lowly sounding course title is thus deceptive; teaching Basic Musicianship II is a baptism by fire. Desperate times, I thought when I received the assignment, called for experimental measures. With its mélange of skills, requirements, and student backgrounds, 20B is chaotic by nature, and it seemed unproductive to try to work against that.
by Jessica Shade, Integrative Biology I saw several examples of this disparity between surface learning of principles and working comprehension. For instance...students...had no problem calculating allele frequencies and genotype ratios using the Hardy Weinberg equations, but they were...baffled by the simple question, "What does this mean?"
by Naomi Leite, Anthropology The first section presents a double challenge...Simply put, how can a GSI use the first section to engage a disparate group of students who are not necessarily enthusiastic about their enrollment in a course whose topic they don’t yet understand?
by Danielle Champney, Education, SESAME I view Calculus II as more than just a solution-finding mission or strategy game. Students will learn little or resort to untested pattern-matching if I simply tell them what method to use each time they encounter a new problem! Learning how concepts in class are reflected in procedures used to solve problems is, to me, a core principle of the course.
by Natalia Cecire, English The project was designed to produce a scholarly community that would provide an intellectual context for research findings. Yet because the community was composed of students, all with similar experiences with nineteenth-century literature, the debates occurred in terms that were meaningful to the students at their particular stage of exposure to literary criticism, rather than in the remoter terms of my discipline.
by Paul Bruno, Physics If I could help them recognize what they had learned, and to see how that acquired knowledge empowered them to understand even more course material, I could develop both their understanding of physics and their positive self-efficacy as science learners.
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.