scholarly journals Crystal Growth to Foster Inquiry–Based Learning: First Year Science Laboratory

2014 ◽  
Vol 70 (a1) ◽  
pp. C1383-C1383
Author(s):  
Wael Rabeh ◽  
Joel Bernstein
Keyword(s):  
Crystal Growth ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Learning Goals ◽  
First Year ◽  
Science Laboratory ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Inquiry Based Learning ◽  
Salt Crystals ◽  
Arts Curriculum ◽  
Undergraduate Science

Crystals play an important and ubiquitous role in our everyday life with applications in medicine, industry, agriculture, and biotechnology. With the recent trends toward inquiry-based learning in undergraduate science teaching laboratory, we developed a crystals growth laboratory for first year students. While one objective is to learn how to grow and handle crystals, the laboratory is designed to foster the acquisition of basic scientific knowledge and hands on experience to develop critical laboratory skills. In this sense, it is targeted for students with diverse backgrounds and, in accord with the liberal arts curriculum at NYU Abu Dhabi readily includes non-science majors. The original inspiration for the lab came from the 1960 classic book "Crystals and Crystal Growing" by Holden and Singer. We have expanded on the emphasis there on inorganic salt crystals to require students to crystallize macromolecules as well, in a research driven environment. Similar to projects carried in more advanced courses, students write an outline of their project that is developed into a full proposal through a literature search stimulated by in class discussions and peer-review. Some of the learning goals include the ability to design and manage a research project, propose ideas and methods to explore the topic of interest, learn various techniques and equipment common in a science laboratory, the ability to analyze data, acquire best practices in lab safety, and most importantly develop their scientific writing skills. Following 4-5 weeks of crystal growing and characterization, students present their data at the end of the semester Crystal Growth Symposium first presenting a 5 minute flash poster-presentation followed by a poster session. The symposium is a collective effort to enhance the students' presentation and communication skills and to showcase and encouraging high quality of research. While still evolving, the laboratory has seen a variety of mainly student-initiated investigations not only exploring a variety of methods to grow crystals, but also in exploring the effect of magnetic field, vibration, temperature, or pH on crystal growth. We will present organizational details of the laboratory program and present examples of many posters that have been generated during four years of operating the laboratory.

scholarly journals Thinking Through Improvisation: Do General Improvisation Studies Belong in a Liberal Arts Curriculum?

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominic Poccia
Keyword(s):  
Risk Taking ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Creative Thinking ◽  
Reading Performance ◽  
First Year ◽  
Subjective Experiences ◽  
Arts Curriculum ◽  
Creative Problem ◽  
Liberal Arts Students ◽  
First Year Seminar

Thinking Through Improvisation implies two meanings: 1) carefully examining all that improvisation encompasses including how it is practiced, and 2) using improvisation to generate ideas or performances. Using a First Year Seminar course I taught for 20 years, I illustrate how a general course in improvisation can introduce students to improvisation as a way of thinking in diverse fields and can strengthen liberal arts skills in critical and creative thinking. Interdisciplinary and multicultural approaches are readily incorporated as are a range of activities including writing, critical reading, performance, and creative problem solving. Risk taking, trust, creativity, adaptability, teamwork, respect for knowledge, abstract and practical thinking and the joy of creative discovery are explored through discussion and practice of improvisation. Scientific explanations of improvisation are compared to subjective experiences of improvisational performance. These activities lay a groundwork for creative explorations of the discipline-oriented curriculum in the range of fields subsequently encountered by liberal arts students.  

Decoding Black Iconography

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alix Pierre
Keyword(s):  
Visual Culture ◽  
African Diaspora ◽  
Women Artists ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
First Year ◽  
Women's College ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Pedagogical Tool ◽  
Spelman College

The paper examines how the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, the only one in the country dedicated to the work of African descended women artists, is used as a pedagogical tool in the interdisciplinary African Diaspora and the World course to help students further explore the depiction and visualization of diasporan aesthetics during their matriculation. From a visual culture perspective, this is a critical examination of the process of looking among non-art major college goers. The emphasis of the analysis is on the perceiver or the “educand” as Paulo Freire puts it, and ways she is trained to visually represent Africa and its diasporas. The article discusses how the subjects, first year students at a black liberal arts women’s college, are taught to construct meaning from and respond to imagery made by women artists from the diaspora. At the heart of the study is the response of the perceivers, through an Audio Narrative assignment, to artefacts that communicate an African and Afro-descended iconography. 

scholarly journals Research on the level of motivation of the students of vocational school towards learning

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Marina Viktorovna Rostovtseva ◽  
Natal'ya Alekseevna Goncharevich ◽  
Ol'ga Valer'evna Shaidurova ◽  
Igor' Anatol'evich Kovalevich
Keyword(s):  
Vocational School ◽  
Educational Activity ◽  
Learning Goals ◽  
Professional Activity ◽  
First Year ◽  
Adaptation Period ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Second Year ◽  
Level Of Motivation ◽  
Abstract Learning

The subject of this research is educational motivation of the first-year and second-year students of vocational school. The author puts forward an assumption that the second-year students have higher motivation towards learning than the first-year students. This related to the completion of adaptation period and maturing of students, as well as with formation of the responsible professional stance on their future. The conducted research confirmed the advanced hypothesis. The motives for learning highlighted by the second-year students are associated mostly with the current issues of educational activity. The author also underlines the greater importance of motives pertinent to professional competences and professional activity among the second-year students. The main conclusion lies in the thesis that motives for learning indicated by the first-year students are characterized by expectancy, temporary farness of the result, and are merely associated with the current problems. These results reveal the considerable importance of the remote and abstract learning goals for the first-year students. The author detects a trend that acquisition of knowledge is more significant that professional skills in the learning process. Moreover, in course of time, the motive for acquiring knowledge acquires more currency among the students of vocational school.

First-year student's understanding of academic dishonesty : a case study

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Carole K. Douglas
Keyword(s):  
Academic Dishonesty ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Collaborative Study ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
University Of Missouri ◽  
Academic Assistance ◽  
System Data ◽  
Strong Deterrent

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] This case study examines first-year first-time college students’ understanding of academic dishonesty. The study used data from interviews with twenty-seven first-year students at Lyon College, a small, private, liberal arts institution that utilizes a traditional honor code system. Data from direct observations, a physical artifact search, and a document search were also used. Four main themes emerged from the data: (Not) Learning about Academic Dishonesty, Stepping Stone, Degrees of Dishonesty, and Fear. First-year students had a narrow understanding of academic dishonesty and expressed a desire to know more. Students also indicated that fear of losing financial aid or disappointing parents were reasons to engage in academic dishonesty, while the fear of punishment was not a strong deterrent to engaging in academic dishonesty. Further, first-year students were fearful of engaging in collaborative study and asking peers for academic assistance. Specific recommendations for changes to institutional policies and procedures are discussed.

Improving Students' Exam Performance by Introducing Study Strategies and Goal Setting

2002 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria Manion Fleming
Keyword(s):  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Goal Setting ◽  
Study Strategies ◽  
Introductory Psychology ◽  
Learning Goals ◽  
Exam Performance ◽  
First Year ◽  
Final Exam ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Experimental Section

This study addresses whether learning strategies would improve students' exam performance. Students in 2 sections (N = 65) of Introductory Psychology participated. I introduced students in the experimental section to learning strategies. Students set individual learning goals and recorded their learning related behavior during the first 2 units. Students in the control condition engaged in nonacademic tasks. All students experienced a lesson on learning at the end of Unit 2. First-year students in the control condition obtained significantly lower scores than all other students on the first 2 exams. On the 3rd exam, differences were not significant. On the final exam, the original pattern reemerged.

Using US Tuning to effect: The American Historical Association’s Tuning Project and the first year research paper

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 385-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Belanger
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Undergraduate Research ◽  
Core Competencies ◽  
Research Paper ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
First Year ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
High Impact Practice

While research has long been recognized as a high impact practice in undergraduate education, much of the scholarship on undergraduate research has focused on students in the final years of their degree. This article describes a study of the ability of first year students to undertake historical research in an introductory level course at a small liberal arts college. It discusses the challenges that first year student’s face in interpreting primary sources, working with multiple sources and crafting arguments based narratives about their findings. It also documents how a research paper assignment advances students’ historical thinking skills and contribute to the development of what the American Historical Association has termed the “core competencies” in the discipline.

scholarly journals The effectiveness of the Bringing in the Bystander™ program among first-year students at a religiously-affiliated liberal arts college

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 511-525 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth M. Inman ◽  
Stephenie R. Chaudoir ◽  
Paul R. Galvinhill ◽  
Ann M. Sheehy
Keyword(s):  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Survey Design ◽  
Liberal Arts College ◽  
Rape Myth Acceptance ◽  
Rape Myth ◽  
First Year ◽  
Median Income ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Myth Acceptance

To address sexual assault, many universities are implementing Bringing in the Bystander™ (BitB) training, a prevention program that aims to improve participants’ bystander self-efficacy and reduce rape myth acceptance. Although growing evidence supports the efficacy of BitB, data primarily have been amassed at one large public university, the University of New Hampshire, limiting the generalizability of intervention effectiveness. To address this gap, we made modifications to training structure and assessed BitB effectiveness among first-year students at a private Jesuit Catholic liberal arts college in Massachusetts. Using a within-subjects pre-/post-test survey design, we found that students’ (N = 164) bystander self-efficacy significantly increased and rape myth acceptance significantly decreased following training. Results indicate that BitB implementation is feasible and effective on a new campus despite modest modifications to training delivery and despite differences in religious affiliation, median income, and class size between the two campuses.

scholarly journals An Exploration On The Differences In Emotional Intelligence Of First Year Students Examined Across Disciplines Within The School Of Business In A Liberal Arts College

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen K. Yarrish ◽  
Mark D. Law
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Intelligence ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Liberal Arts College ◽  
Self Control ◽  
First Year ◽  
Next Generation ◽  
Business Professionals ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Area Of Interest

In preparing the next generation of business professionals, educators need to take seriously the responsibility of empowering students with tools to assist them in their pursuits.  One area of interest is Emotional Intelligence.  Emotional Intelligence determines how students exercise self-control, zeal and persistence, and the ability to motivate themselves.  The purpose of the study is two-fold with respect to Emotional Intelligence.  First, the researchers will explore the differences of emotional intelligence examined by students’ discipline within the school of business in a liberal arts college.  Secondly, the researchers will analyze the implications for educators, administrators, researchers, and other interested parties.  Findings, conclusions, and recommendations will be presented.

scholarly journals Student Selection of Content Licenses in OER-enabled Pedagogy

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Williams ◽  
Eric Werth
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Property Rights ◽  
Intellectual Property Rights ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Educational Practice ◽  
The United States ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Creative Commons

Students acting as content creators is an emergent trend in the field of open educational practice. As more faculty turn towards the use of open pedagogy or OER-enabled Pedagogy, they must be prepared to address concerns related to intellectual property rights of student work. This article addresses student concerns related to intellectual property rights, specifically related to Creative Commons licensing as well as faculty awareness of use of Creative Commons licensing. Research was conducted at a small, liberal arts college in the Appalachian Region of the United States. All first-year students engaged in an OER-enabled Pedagogy project where they collaboratively created a reader for the First Year Studies seminar course. Following class, students and faculty were interviewed regarding how dynamics of intellectual property and Creative Commons licensing impacted the educational process. Results indicate students are open to sharing their works with credit, and value helping others. Faculty tend to be unfamiliar with Creative Commons licensing and must balance the desire to help students understand licensing and prescribing their own preferences when asked about licensing selection. 

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