In this article, the author introduces the usage of case studies to be an excellent method for engaging students through stories. The author notes she developed a series of mini-case studies that can be implemented, with a little advance preparation, within a 10- to 15-minute window during lecture. What makes them "mini" case studies?…

Despite the large body of evidence that indicates activity-based instruction is more effective than lecture-only instruction, for the purpose of workload calculation, many community colleges assign less value to the time spent in science lab than in lecture. This discrepancy is inconsistent with goals of science excellence set by the National…

This study measures the effects of increased faculty-student engagement on student learning, success rates, and perceptions in a Physical Oceanography course. The study separately implemented two teaching methods that had been shown to be successful in a different discipline, introductory physics. These methods were the use of interactive…

This article discusses the results of a survey that was posted for those who regularly peruse the website of the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science (NCCSTS). Faculty members were asked about their use of case studies and videos in their General Biology classrooms. The results are enlightening because General Biology is arguably the…

New technological developments have minimized training, hardware expense, and distribution problems for the production and use of instructional videos, and any science instructor can now make instructional videos for their classes. We created short "Khan style" videos for the topic of buffers in biochemistry and assigned them as…

The authors explored whether a new pedagogy using personal response systems (clickers) along with case study teaching improved students' perceptions of their understanding of science in large introductory biology classrooms. Twelve faculty from nine institutions and 1,457 students across the United States and Canada participated in this study.…

Many instructional strategies exist that address poor student success in the sciences. They often go untapped, however, due to the knowledge or time needed for implementation. This article presents a formula for success that has encouraged a significant proportion of faculty in a physics department to adopt teaching methods, involving the use of…

Many college science educators have moved away from the traditional lecture format and toward learner-centered classroom environments. Yet many of us struggle to cover large content loads, reverting at times to rote memorization. This paper suggests rote memorization simply does not work and students must be actively engaged to learn. (Contains 1…

It's common for college professors to require students to complete a reading from the textbook prior to coming to class. Most professors who maintain syllabi for their courses list the chapters or page numbers that class members should read ahead of time. But studies indicate that students rarely read the information ahead of time (Marbach-Ad and…