"Sponsored by the ACS Division of Chemical Education."

In the United States, broad study in an array of different disciplines â€"arts, humanities, science, mathematics, engineeringâ€" as well as an in-depth study within a special area of interest, have been defining characteristics of a higher education. But over time, in-depth study in a major discipline has come to dominate the curricula at many institutions. This evolution of the curriculum has been driven, in part, by increasing specialization in the academic disciplines. There is little doubt that disciplinary specialization has helped produce many of the achievement of the past century. Researchers in all academic disciplines have been able to delve more deeply into their areas of expertise, grappling with ever more specialized and fundamental problems. Yet today, many leaders, scholars, parents, and students are asking whether higher education has moved too far from its integrative tradition towards an approach heavily rooted in disciplinary "silos". These "silos" represent what many see as an artificial separation of academic disciplines. This study reflects a growing concern that the approach to higher education that favors disciplinary specialization is poorly calibrated to the challenges and opportunities of our time. The Integration of the Humanities and Arts with Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Higher Education examines the evidence behind the assertion that educational programs that mutually integrate learning experiences in the humanities and arts with science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) lead to improved educational and career outcomes for undergraduate and graduate students. It explores evidence regarding the value of integrating more STEMM curricula and labs into the academic programs of students majoring in the humanities and arts and evidence regarding the value of integrating curricula and experiences in the arts and humanities into college and university STEMM education programs.

Institutions across the higher education landscape vary, and each navigates change in its own way. This volume describes how institutions and departments influence the success of structural and cultural transformations to advance curricular reform. A product of the Council on Undergraduate Research Transformations project, a six-year, longitudinal research study funded by the United States National Science Foundation, this text features the goals, strategies, and outcomes that evolved from the experiences at 12 diverse colleges and universities in creating innovative undergraduate curricula and campus cultures that maximize student success. With the goal of achieving departmental transformations in both student learning and academic culture – by backward-designing and scaffolding research into and across undergraduate curricula – editors include scholarly findings, step-by-step guides, and a toolkit section, with plentiful online resources, to help readers develop and execute personalized change processes on their own campuses. Designed to span both theory and practice for departments and institutions to transform undergraduate education to increase student success, this book is vital for all higher education scholars, practitioners, faculty, staff, and leaders interested in creating research-rich curricula and change more broadly. Visit the Council on Undergraduate Research website here: https://www.cur.org/.

This book addresses key issues concerning visualization in the teaching and learning of science at any level in educational systems. It is the first book specifically on visualization in science education. The book draws on the insights from cognitive psychology, science, and education, by experts from five countries. It unites these with the practice of science education, particularly the ever-increasing use of computer-managed modelling packages.

Biological sciences have been revolutionized, not only in the way research is conductedâ€"with the introduction of techniques such as recombinant DNA and digital technologyâ€"but also in how research findings are communicated among professionals and to the public. Yet, the undergraduate programs that train biology researchers remain much the same as they were before these fundamental changes came on the scene. This new volume provides a blueprint for bringing undergraduate biology education up to the speed of today's research fast track. It includes recommendations for teaching the next generation of life science investigators, through: Building a strong interdisciplinary curriculum that includes physical science, information technology, and mathematics. Eliminating the administrative and financial barriers to cross-departmental collaboration. Evaluating the impact of medical college admissions testing on undergraduate biology education. Creating early opportunities for independent research. Designing meaningful laboratory experiences into the curriculum. The committee presents a dozen brief case studies of exemplary programs at leading institutions and lists many resources for biology educators. This volume will be important to biology faculty, administrators, practitioners, professional societies, research and education funders, and the biotechnology industry.

In today’s globalized world, professional fields are continually transforming to keep pace with advancing methods of practice. The theory of adult learning, specifically, is a subject that has seen new innovations and insights with the advancement of online and blended learning. Examining new principles and characteristics in adult learning is imperative, as emerging technologies are rapidly shifting the standards of higher education. The Handbook of Research on Adult Learning in Higher Education is a collection of innovative research on the methods and applications of adult education in residential, online, and blended course delivery formats. This book will focus on the impact that culture, globalization, and emerging technology currently has on adult education. While highlighting topics including andragogical principles, professional development, and artificial intelligence, this book is ideally designed for teachers, program developers, instructional designers, technologists, educational practitioners, deans, researchers, higher education faculty, and students seeking current research on new methodologies in adult education.

"...this substantial and engaging text offers a wealth of practical (in every sense of the word) advice...Every undergraduate laboratory, and, ideally, every undergraduate chemist, should have a copy of what is by some distance the best book I have seen on safety in the undergraduate laboratory." Chemistry World, March 2011 Laboratory Safety for Chemistry Students is uniquely designed to accompany students throughout their four-year undergraduate education and beyond, progressively teaching them the skills and knowledge they need to learn their science and stay safe while working in any lab. This new principles-based approach treats lab safety as a distinct, essential discipline of chemistry, enabling you to instill and sustain a culture of safety among students. As students progress through the text, they’ll learn about laboratory and chemical hazards, about routes of exposure, about ways to manage these hazards, and about handling common laboratory emergencies. Most importantly, they’ll learn that it is very possible to safely use hazardous chemicals in the laboratory by applying safety principles that prevent and minimize exposures. Continuously Reinforces and Builds Safety Knowledge and Safety Culture Each of the book’s eight chapters is organized into three tiers of sections, with a variety of topics suited to beginning, intermediate, and advanced course levels. This enables your students to gather relevant safety information as they advance in their lab work. In some cases, individual topics are presented more than once, progressively building knowledge with new information that’s appropriate at different levels. A Better, Easier Way to Teach and Learn Lab Safety We all know that safety is of the utmost importance; however, instructors continue to struggle with finding ways to incorporate safety into their curricula. Laboratory Safety for Chemistry Students is the ideal solution: Each section can be treated as a pre-lab assignment, enabling you to easily incorporate lab safety into all your lab courses without building in additional teaching time. Sections begin with a preview, a quote, and a brief description of a laboratory incident that illustrates the importance of the topic. References at the end of each section guide your students to the latest print and web resources. Students will also find “Chemical Connections” that illustrate how chemical principles apply to laboratory safety and “Special Topics” that amplify certain sections by exploring additional, relevant safety issues. Visit the companion site at http://userpages.wittenberg.edu/dfinster/LSCS/.

The U.S. system of graduate education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) has served the nation and its science and engineering enterprise extremely well. Over the course of their education, graduate students become involved in advancing the frontiers of discovery, as well as in making significant contributions to the growth of the U.S. economy, its national security, and the health and well-being of its people. However, continuous, dramatic innovations in research methods and technologies, changes in the nature and availability of work, shifts in demographics, and expansions in the scope of occupations needing STEM expertise raise questions about how well the current STEM graduate education system is meeting the full array of 21st century needs. Indeed, recent surveys of employers and graduates and studies of graduate education suggest that many graduate programs do not adequately prepare students to translate their knowledge into impact in multiple careers. Graduate STEM Education for the 21st Century examines the current state of U.S. graduate STEM education. This report explores how the system might best respond to ongoing developments in the conduct of research on evidence-based teaching practices and in the needs and interests of its students and the broader society it seeks to serve. This will be an essential resource for the primary stakeholders in the U.S. STEM enterprise, including federal and state policymakers, public and private funders, institutions of higher education, their administrators and faculty, leaders in business and industry, and the students the system is intended to educate.

The National Science Foundation funded a synthesis study on the status, contributions, and future direction of discipline-based education research (DBER) in physics, biological sciences, geosciences, and chemistry. DBER combines knowledge of teaching and learning with deep knowledge of discipline-specific science content. It describes the discipline-specific difficulties learners face and the specialized intellectual and instructional resources that can facilitate student understanding. Discipline-Based Education Research is based on a 30-month study built on two workshops held in 2008 to explore evidence on promising practices in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. This book asks questions that are essential to advancing DBER and broadening its impact on undergraduate science teaching and learning. The book provides empirical research on undergraduate teaching and learning in the sciences, explores the extent to which this research currently influences undergraduate instruction, and identifies the intellectual and material resources required to further develop DBER. Discipline-Based Education Research provides guidance for future DBER research. In addition, the findings and recommendations of this report may invite, if not assist, post-secondary institutions to increase interest and research activity in DBER and improve its quality and usefulness across all natural science disciples, as well as guide instruction and assessment across natural science courses to improve student learning. The book brings greater focus to issues of student attrition in the natural sciences that are related to the quality of instruction. Discipline-Based Education Research will be of interest to educators, policy makers, researchers, scholars, decision makers in universities, government agencies, curriculum developers, research sponsors, and education advocacy groups.