Every year, "Excelencia" in Education receives submissions for Examples of "Excelencia" from across the country. Our criteria for recognition are focused on a program's success backed by evidence that shows its effectiveness in serving Latino students in higher education. Since 2005, we have recognized over 280 different…

Recent science reform documents have called for incorporating authentic scientific discourse into science classes as engaging in discourse has shown to result in numerous benefits. Whether these benefits are observed in students depends upon the quality of the discourse in which they engage. However, characterizing the quality of student-student…

In the twenty-first century, learning and the definition of education is changing. New digital, online, and social tools have the ability to transform the classroom and engage learners like never before. In the midst of this technological revolution, it is crucial for educators and administrators to be able to gauge the impact of digital tools on…

Since highly creative individuals are more likely to experience depression, this article examines the hypothesis that appraisal may be a mediating feature between creativity and affect. Measurement of creativity, cognitive appraisal patterns, and mood in 104 undergraduate art or science students found art students were more creative, experienced…

At many colleges and universities undergraduates pursuing nonscience majors complete introductory science courses which are structured to provide a broad overview of the field. Commonly such courses include large lecture sections which meet twice a week, and small lab sections that are held once a week. A survey was developed to evaluate the…

In an attempt to explore the prevalence, intensity and effects of mathematics anxiety at Salisbury State College (Maryland) approximately 350 student volunteers from two diverse introductory mathematics courses participated in this survey. The Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Anxiety and Confidence Scales and a portion of the Test Anxiety Profile were…

This set of proceedings documents includes 407 papers representative of the 1,825 papers and posters presented at a conference on undergraduate research. Volume I contains papers on the arts and humanities. Examples of topics include collaborative art, music composition using computer technology, interpreting Roman morality, gay marriage, and…

Incident identification graphs can be used to diagnose areas of difficulty in a subject's problem-solving schema at the episodic level. In this study, 22 subjects (2 experts and 20 novices) categorized into five problem-solving groups (expert, high algorithmic/high conceptual, low algorithmic/high conceptual, high algorithmic/low conceptual, and…

This study examined motivational determinants of academic delay of gratification (ADOG) with 196 undergraduate college students at a large midwestern university. Students completed the academic delay of gratification scale, in which students are presented with 10 hypothetical situations and they indicate their preference among options offering…

The purpose of this study was to examine in detail the experiences of non-major undergraduate students progressing through an introductory physics course taught in a four-year research university, to discover why the students have these experiences, and to uncover the consequences of those experiences. A theory was developed for relating…

An Undergraduate Research Fund (URF) at Indiana University South Bend that has supported over 100 projects and distributed over $25,000 to students since 1989 has yielded several lessons regarding the program's success. URF not only funded student projects but provided small grants to faculty mentors who encouraged and worked with students. Three…

This 15th annual report on characteristics of college students at the State University of New York (SUNY) describes students by age group, sex, level (undergraduate/graduate), and load (full-time/part-time). The main body of the report is divided into five sections: (1) data for the entire SUNY system as well as each institution and institutional…

Study-abroad programs are among the many academic programs being evaluated in the assessment of colleges and universities. One evaluative tool is the survey of students who participate in these programs. This paper discusses the use of such surveys by St. Mary's College (Indiana) during the past decade to gather information regarding program…

Outlines a simple classroom demonstration that illustrates Piagetian conservation. Piagetian conservation refers to the illusion of an increase in mass by changing an object's form. This demonstration, done by forming an ellipse with an extension cord, shows that college students are as susceptible to this effect as are young children. (MJP)

Describes an undergraduate sociology course where college students helped develop and teach multicultural lesson plans to high school students in a multiethnic district of Los Angeles (California). Discusses the origin and organization of the project and addresses some of its inherent structural and substantive challenges. (MJP)