In 2015, Liberty, (Missouri) Public Schools was updating resources for several content areas. Content consultant Diana Laufenberg, executive director of Inquiry Schools, had been working with secondary teachers to study options for the best and most current instructional practices in social studies. As teachers considered using online resources…

Introductory chemistry courses are required as part of the undergraduate preparation necessary for entry into an array of professional programs. Given the varied priorities of the student population in these courses, it can be difficult to present the material such that students see their individual future academic priorities represented in each…

Students in an animal physiology course are required to have completed prerequisite cell biology and genetics courses that include discussion of basic properties and functions of the cell membrane. However, while many students remember basic information about membrane structure, they often have difficulty relating that structure to membrane…

One tried-and-true way to hook students' attention and promote long-lasting understanding is to sequence science instruction in an explore-before-explain instructional sequence. In these lessons for the second through sixth grade band, elementary students investigate the interaction between "cold" and "hot" substances and…

The purpose of the transcendental qualitative phenomenological research is to describe the characteristics and strategies of teachers who share the same experiences in teaching science, a non-assessed content, in a high-stakes assessment environment at the third and fourth grade levels. Teacher curriculum choices are dictated by the need to…

The social controversy surrounding the teaching of evolution puts pressure on secondary biology teachers to deemphasize or omit evolution from their curriculum. In this growing pressure, professional development can offer support to biology teachers. In this study, we surveyed secondary biology teachers in Missouri and report the data from…

Undergraduate research experiences benefit students' scientific skills, and recent trends in undergraduate research and education include focusing on interdisciplinary projects and on place-based learning. Here we describe a semester-long pilot interdisciplinary undergraduate research program focused on local aquatic ecosystems, discuss perceived…

Cultural heritage materials can offer rewarding learning opportunities and impactful experiences for students across a variety of disciplines, especially in the humanities and social sciences. However, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the attendant move to online instruction at many colleges and universities, disrupted pedagogical practices and the ways…

The School of Information Science and Learning Technologies (SISLT) was created in 1997 at the University of Missouri (MU) as a result of a merger between the School of Library and Informational Science and the College of Education's program in Educational Technology. Within 6 years of the merger, SISLT became one of the largest graduate…

It seems each new school year brings its own opportunities to grow as an educator. As teachers in a STEM focused school that serves primarily at-risk students, the authors face a new challenge in rethinking their instruction to align with the "Next Generation Science Standards". This involves changing the focus of units previously taught…

Guided by a critical race praxis for educational research lens, the authors worked individually alongside their students in a K-12 or higher education classroom, embracing spaces of tension derived from the push and pull between oppression and liberation. The authors explain how these tensions troubled the ways in which humanizing practices are…

Drawing structures, mechanisms, and syntheses is a vital part of success in organic chemistry courses. ChemDraw for iPad has been used to increase classroom experiences in the preparation of high quality chemical drawings. The embedded Flick-to-Share allows for simple, real-time exchange of ChemDraw documents. ChemDraw for iPad also allows…

Inspired by "BIO2010" and leveraging institutional and external funding, Truman State University built an undergraduate program in mathematical biology with high-quality, faculty-mentored interdisciplinary research experiences at its core. These experiences taught faculty and students to bridge the epistemological gap between the…

Research has shown that certain ways of teaching can make a difference in whether students learn standards-based content. Many strategies have proven to be effective in teaching literacy, mathematics, science and social studies. These strategies have facilitated blending academic and career/technical subjects to make learning more meaningful for…

Team-based learning (TBL) is a form of student-centered active learning in which students independently study new conceptual material before it is treated in the classroom, and then subsequently spend considerable classroom time working in groups on increasingly challenging problems and applications based on that new material. TBL provides…