Volume XXXV, No. 11 | April 5, 2013 “Playing in the Mud”: Teaching Goofy (or Otherwise) Personal Research Some years ago I read a professor’s lament that teaching geological concepts had become problematic because recent students had not played enough in the mud—experience with TV and videogames had detracted from useful intuitions into the [...]
Volume XXXV, No. 10 | March 29, 2013 Dead Languages—Latin and Ancient Greek—Alive and Kicking in a Science Curriculum As a graduate student, I had to make a presentation to fulfill one of the requirements of an ecology course. I decided to talk about ethnobotany because that was my interest area, and I [...]
Volume XXXV, No. 9 | March 22, 2013 College Computers for Non-Computer Users The college population is changing dramatically. The economy and changing technology have resulted in an influx of first-time, non-traditional (adult) students whose knowledge of the computer is very limited. They might be able to find airline tickets online, for example, [...]
Volume XXXV, No. 8 | March 15, 2013 Taming the Beginning-of-the-Semester Teaching/Writing Jitters You are standing at the front of a clinically white classroom facing 25 to 30 anxious faces. You fidget. They fidget. The air is thick with the smell of new books, chalk (or dry-erase pens), freshly sharpened pencils, and expectation. [...]
Volume XXXV, No. 7 | March 1, 2013 Understanding or Memorization: Teaching that Promotes Long-Term Retention Why do we remember some lessons and forget others? Is it that some are perceived as more important, exciting, or possibly just easier to comprehend? Perhaps the answer has elements of all of those in its makeup; [...]
Volume XXXV, No. 6 | February 22, 2013 Tips for Teaching Non-Traditional Students More than ever, due to the harsh economic reality and high unemployment rate, more students who were out of school for considerable amounts of time are coming back to upgrade their skills to seek reemployment. Teaching the skills that they [...]
Volume XXXV, No. 5 | February 15, 2013 The Critical Thinking Biology Final During my first five years of teaching Biology II for majors, I gave my students a typical multiple choice/ matching/short essay comprehensive final exam. The subject matter of the course focused on biological organization from organisms to ecosystems. Each year [...]
Volume XXXV, No. 4 | February 8, 2013 Engaging Endings: Finishing the Year with Flair As the end of another academic year approaches, professors and students alike begin to feel the doldrums of fatigue and routine weighing down upon them. This period of the year, however, can be one of the most meaningful [...]
Volume XXXV, No. 3 | February 1, 2013 Moving in the Right Direction Anyone who has ever visited a farm where animals are rounded up by dogs knows that one animal, herding alone, has a more daunting task than two dogs working as a team. Likewise, when students combine their talents, their success [...]
Volume XXXV, No. 2 | January 25, 2013 Music, Anticipatory Sets, and Learning: How to Make Your Students Sit Up and Listen before the Lesson even Begins The Set The anticipatory set is but one component of Madeline Hunter’s “Effective Elements of Instruction.” Hunter, regarded by the Sierra Research Institute and the National [...]
