Teaching science to undergraduates always seems to be an uphill battle. To help the beleaguered professor, the Science Education Research Center at Carleton College has bundled a bunch of teaching resources into a new Web site, Pedagogy in Action.
Can’t get numbers across to students? The site has modules on teaching with data simulations (a way to help students visualize and relate to abstract statistical concepts) and getting students to devise and test conjectures (which makes them active participants in learning and is a crucial part of the scientific method of inquiry).
There is also a section on “studio teaching”: de-emphasizing lectures and turning the laboratory into a series of interactive workstations, where students meet in groups to tackle in-depth problems, moving from one workstation to the next. The section cautions, though, that the method requires redesigning classrooms and extending class times—things that may run into institutional roadblocks. —Josh Fischman
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