Learning communities Science

Considerable dialogue and collaboration between faculty members in the science and mathematics departments at UWG resulted in the development of a National Science Foundation (NSF) STEM Talent Expansion Program (STEP) proposal to address the retention of students in the STEM disciplines and at the institution. This project included first-year learning communities (LCs), summer research experiences, additional in-class and out-of-class support using peer-lead team learning and/or supplemental instruction, and faculty development for participating STEM faculty members. As the centerpiece of the first-year LCs, three seminar courses were developed and will be the focus of this chapter. Here, we describe three first-year seminars, each of which addresses different facets of first-year STEM student success and report on the successes and challenges this model presented for both students and faculty members. 

Symposia, such as the one reported in this volume, give scientists and conservators the opportunity to meet and communicate. Scientists need to be educated in the problems facing conservators. Conservators should learn where science can assist and where it cannot. The problems of conservation can be quite difficult and may take years to solve or may be unsolvable. The permanence of paper dropped abysmally, starting around 1850. The reasons for this drop were researched for one hundred years before the answers were found. Another several years passed before it was demonstrated that sized permanent paper could indeed be made on the paper machine. Permanent paper can actually be manufactured more economically than the impermanent variety. There is less attack on the machinery of the plant, and the plant effluent is cleaner. Yet papermakers continue to produce the inferior product. Our libraries and archives must still accept short-lived acid paper to add to their already overflowing collections of brittle books. 

A program bringing nanoscience concepts into the science major and pre-service teacher curricula is described. This program includes learning communities, laboratory exercises,... 

Our project includes three major components. The first component is a learning community for first-year science majors, especially secondary teaching majors in the sciences and mathematics. The second component is a group of laboratory instructional modules developed for courses across biology, chemistry, and physics using a common piece of nanoscience instrumentation. The modules were an attempt to stress recent research in nanoscience rather than simply repeat other previously developed materials. The third component ineludes internships for upper level students (with a preference given to pre-serviee teaehers) involving module development. 

Learning to communicate science without trivializing it, showing also different hypotheses and theories. 

Hodson, D. (2009). Teaching and learning about science. Rotterdam Sense. An account of presenting the science curriculum by using a nature of science approach is presented acknowledging scientists as a socially, economically and politically important community of people with its own language, methods, traditions, norms and values. 

Ware, S., Tinnesand, M. (2005). Chemistry in the Community (ChemCom) Chemistry for future citizens. In P. Nentwig, D. Waddington (eds.). Making it relevant Context-based learning of science (pp. 91-120). Munster Waxmann. 

MATH AND SCIENCE EDUCATION IS A CRITICAL ISSUE Scientists and engineers are learning that the technical community can make a real difference. 

Comte s account of disciplinary formation, with its conflation of logical structure and historical order of the sciences, both reflected and influenced the science of its time. In reflecting the science that he personally learned in Paris around 18141818, Comte s positivist history drew on the claims of Lavoisier s colleagues and acolytes that Lavoisier had created the science of chemistry, where none existed before. Comte also relied on this group s demarcation between "physique" and "chimie," a distinction developed more clearly in the French scientific community of the late eighteenth century than elsewhere. 

But it is not the last page of the story. I have relegated the details of the science part of my drug research to the appendix. There you will find a more detailed technical account of the studies described in earlier chapters. Some of the specifics of our drug studies have never been publicly disseminated and if you are scientifically inclined, you will want to read the details. Up to now, this book has been a subjective presentation of my own experiences and opinions. The appendix, however, is a more impersonal compilation of what we learned -information that should be made available to the research community. Viewed dispassionately, it is certainly of greater importance than my personal story. But as you have probably judged by now, I usually have more fun talking about myself ... 

The design concepts of the types explained above have to be learned and experienced. There are many detailed problems which cannot yet be calculated or modelled. High-pressure machinery specialists belong to a small international community of engineers. Technical progress is closely coupled to those in material science. 

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