Integrating active learning activities and metacognition into STEM writing courses
While active learning is highly recognized and recommended in the educational community, instructors are still struggling with how to incorporate active learning tools into writing courses. In this article, we have 1) described specific challenges that we have encountered in the course of Molecular Cell Biology Laboratory-Critical Thinking through Writing (BIOL3810-CTW); 2) introduced the active learning approaches and metacognition integrated into this writing-intensive course; 3) demonstrated the effectiveness of these active learning approaches, and 4) shared the principles of integrating active learning activities into writing courses in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and beyond.