The Science Literacy Teaching Journal Club explored examples of academic programs that have successfully implemented teaching and learning methods to increase students’ science literacy.
Facilitators: Peter O’Day (Biology), Michael Raymer (Physics), Ellery B. Ames (Physics), and Elly Vandegrift (Teaching Effectiveness Program)
Weeks 1 and 2 – April 1 and 8 – Scale-Up (North Carolina large-class teaching project)
Reading:
Beichner R. 2008. The SCALE-UP Project: A Student-Centered Active Learning Environment for Undergraduate Programs. Evidence on Promising Practices in Undergraduate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education Workshop 2; 2008 Oct 13-14; Washington (DC). Available from: http://www7.nationalacademies.org/bose/Beichner_CommissionedPaper.pdf
Beichner, RJ, Saul JM. 2004. Introduction to the SCALE-UP (Student-Center Activities for Large Enrollment Undergraduate Programs) Project. In: Elzer B., editor. Invention and Impact: Building Excellence in Undergraduate Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education. Washington (DC): AAAS Publication Services. p. 61-66. Available from: http://www.aaas.org/publications/books_reports/CCLI/PDFs/03_Suc_Peds_Beichner.pdf
Beichner RJ, Saul JM, Abbott DS, Morse JJ, Deardorff DL, Allain RJ, Bonham SW, Dancy MH, and Risley, JS. 2007. The Student-Centered Activities for Large Enrollment Undergraduate Programs (SCALE-UP) Project. Research-Based Reform of University Physics. pp 1-42. Available from: http://www.compadre.org/PER/per_reviews/media/volume1/SCALE-UP-2007.pdf
Gaffney JDH, Richards E, Kustusch MB, Ding L, and Beichner RJ. 2008. Scaling Up Education Reform. Journal of College Science Teaching. 37(5): 48-53.
SCALE-UP Project Play-Day, Richard Wagner, April 8, 2011 presentation slides (PDF 
file 588K)
Weeks 3 and 4 – April 15 and 22 – Teaching technology (Smart Boards, Clickers, Blackboard)
Clickers
- Milner-Bolotin M, Antimirova T, and Petrov A. 2010. Clickers Beyond the First-Year Science Classroom. Journal of College Science Teaching 40(2): 14-18. Available from: Gale Databases
- Sevian H and Robinson WE. 2011. Clickers promote learning in all kinds of classes–small and large, graduate and undergraduate, lecture and lab. Journal of College Science Teaching 40(3): 14-18. Available from: Gale Databases
RSS
- http://www.commoncraft.com/rss_plain_english
- Brian Westra and I did a workshop last year on RSS. Link to the content is here:http://libwiki.uoregon.edu/display/RSSWRKSHOP/Home
- “Mom, This Is How Twitter Works” at: http://momthisishowtwitterworks.com/
- Teaching With Twitter: Not For The Faint of Heart, The Chronicle of Higher Education, November 22, 2009: http://chronicle.com/article/Teaching-With-Twitter-Not-for/49230
- Reflections on Teaching with Social Media, The Chronicle of Higher Education, June 7, 2010: http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/reflections-on-teaching-with-social-media/24556
- How to Start Tweeting (and Why You Might Want To), The Chronicle of Higher Education, August 11, 2010: http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/how-to-start-tweeting-and-why-you-might-want-to/26065
Powerpoint
- Duarte, N. (2008). Slide:ology: The art and science of creating great presentations. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media. Chapter 4: Displaying Data up to 4 people can look at the book online here at the same time:http://proquestcombo.safaribooksonline.com/book/office-and-productivity-applications/9780596522346/chapter-4dot-displaying-data/63
What NOT to do
- the short version:
Tufte, E. R. (2003). Wired 11.09: PowerPoint Is Evil. Retrieved November 30, 2010, from http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ppt2.html - more details and links to more current events like Wikileaks, Fukushima Nuclear Power plant and more:
Tufte, Edward (Ask E.T.: PowerPoint Does Rocket Science–and Better Techniques for Technical Reports. (2005). Retrieved November 30, 2010, from http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0001yB&topic_id=1 - Parslow, G. R. (2011). Commentary: Why we hate powerpoint. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education: A Bimonthly Publication of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 39/(1), 63. doi:10.1002/bmb.20474, link:http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bmb.20474/abstract
What works
- Reynolds, G. (2005). Top Ten Slide Tips. Retrieved April 11, 2011, from http://www.garrreynolds.com/Presentation/slides.html
- Presentation Zen: What is good PowerPoint design? (2005). Retrieved November 30, 2010, from http://presentationzen.blogs.com/presentationzen/2005/09/whats_good_powe.html
- Masters at work – just scan the images: Reynolds, G. (2005). Presentation Zen: Gates, Jobs, & the Zen aesthetic. Retrieved November 30, 2010, from http://presentationzen.blogs.com/presentationzen/2005/11/the_zen_estheti.html
Notetaking
- This article about a pen that records the lecture has some interesting points about how students take notes starting at the bottom of page 1:Thompson, C. (2010, September 16). Livescribe, the Pen That Never Forgets. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/magazine/19Livescribe-t.html?scp=1&sq=livescribe&st=cse
Weeks 5 and 6 – April 29 and May 6 – Effective use of Demonstrations
Reading:
O’Dowd DK, Aguilar-Roca N. 2009. Garage Demos: Using Physical Models to Illustrate Dynamic Aspects of Microscopic Biological Processes. CBE Life Sciences Education 8:118-122. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19487500
Crouch CH, Fagen AP, Callan JP, Mazur E. 2004. Classroom demonstrations: Learning tools or entertainment? Am. J. Phys. 72(6):835-838. Available from: http://mazur-www.harvard.edu/publications.php?function=display&rowid=160
Teach Exocytosis using a Demonstration (YouTube): http://www.youtube.com/HHMIUCI
Weeks 7 and 8 – May 13 and 20 – Simulations and Model Building
Reading:
Sins, PHM; Savelsbergh, ER; van Joolingen, WR; and van Hout-Wolters, BHAM. 2009. The Relation between Students’ Epistemological Understanding of Computer Models and Their Cognitive Processing on a Modelling Task International Journal of Science Education 31(9): 1205-1229. Available from: http://www.informaworld.com/openurl?genre=article&id=doi:10.1080/09500690802192181 or this reading can also be accessed here
Dermott, LC, Rosenquist, ML and van Zee, EH. 1987 Student difficulties in connecting graphs and physics: Examples from kinematics American Journal of Physics. 55(6): 503-513. Available from: http://ajp.aapt.org/resource/1/ajpias/v55/i6/p503_s1 (This one is a bit too specifically focused on physics, but a quick skim will reveal some issues worth contemplating on connecting mental models with predictions or descriptions of reality.)
Additional reading for week 8:
Dedra Demaree, Assistant Professor of Physics from Oregon State University (http://www.physics.orst.edu/~demareed/) will visit the Science Literacy Teaching Journal Club on Friday, May 20th (11am-12noon) to discuss large interactive classrooms and show video of some of her class sessions. We will meet in B-90 of the Science Library.
You can download Professor Demaree’s PowerPoint slides here.
Science Literacy Teaching Journal Club presentation by Dedra Demaree on Active Learning and ISLE in Physic Classrooms
http://128.223.84.191/tcs/?id=D6DC1D53-86D5-423B-B1DF-CC1940FD8A80
Human Physiology Seminar by Steve DiCarlo’s lecture on teaching physiology
http://128.223.84.191/tcs/?id=504D7471-C9E6-4F02-BD25-DEE54BA7BC19
Weeks 9 and 10 – May 27 and June 3 – Assessment Revisited
Reading for week 9:
Schinske JN. 2011. Taming the testing/grading cycle in lecture classes centered around open-ended assessment. Journal of College Science Teaching 40(4):46-52. Available from: Academic OneFile
Ludwig M, Bentz A, and Fynewever H. 2011. Your syllabus should set the stage for assessment for learning. Journal of College Science Teaching 40(4): 20-23. Available from: Academic OneFile