Mechanistic reasoning, or reasoning systematically through underlying factors and relationships that give rise to phenomena, is a powerful thinking strategy that allows one to explain and make predictions about phenomena. This article synthesizes and builds on existing frameworks to identify essential characteristics of students' mechanistic…

Today's society is marked by massive political, social, and scientific transformations on a daily basis. However, these transformations are rarely discussed in the context of what it means to be an educated person. Our efforts to forecast, even for periods as little as five or ten years out, have been predicated on the assumption that the current…

The common understanding within the mathematics community is that the role of the college algebra course is to prepare students for calculus. Though exceptions are emerging, the curriculum of most college algebra courses and the content of most textbooks on the market both reflect that assumption. This article calls that assumption into question…

Students in life science classes need an introduction to biomes, including an introduction to the concept, key biotic and abiotic features of biomes, and geographic locations of biomes. In this activity, students in seventh- and eighth-grade science classes used a directed exploratory Internet activity to learn about biomes. The author tested…

Our system of research self-regulation, designed to provide internal checks and balances for those who participate in research involving human subjects, is under considerable stress. Much of this crisis has been caused by what we call mission creep, in which the workload of IRBs has expanded beyond their ability to handle effectively. Mission…