Timothy F. Slater

This expanded and updated second edition book is written for scientists who want to learn more about how science education research is done and how to get started in discipline-based education research. It provides the reader with an introduction to the philosophical and practical differences between more familiar traditional scientific research and the more unfamiliar domain of sociological research. Readers will learn about the most robust ideas in education research, which serve as jumping off points in their new forays into the realm of discipline-based education research. Quantitative, interpretive, and action research methods are introduced with real-life, easy to follow examples. The authors, long-time contributors to the science education community, provide rubber-meets-the-road guidance to both first-time and experienced researchers, to get projects off the ground with the goals of improving classroom practice and contributing to the knowledge base on the teaching and learning of science. Discipline-based education research is much like traditional scientific research in that using different instruments sometimes results in unexpected answers. As an example, the cover image uniquely reveals vastly different information about flowers when viewed in visible light (upper left) and in ultraviolet light (lower right). In much the same way, carefully planned and well executed discipline-based education research using a variety of research lenses has the ability to yield unexpected insight into teaching and learning that can benefit all of us.

Professors are expected to be excellent teachers. What do you need to know in order to successfully teach in an American-style university? Written by a widely recognized expert in university teaching, this book covers the essential teaching skills of active learning and the teaching philosophies of intellectual engagement now expected of professors in American and American-style universities. In stark contrast to the traditional approach of providing clearly delivered and accurate lectures, today's professors are expected to fully engage students in discussion and critical thinking learning activities during class and provide authentic homework assignments that look more like creative projects than repetitive practice drills. This book outlines what a commitment to student-centered, active learning teaching philosophies looks like and provides easy-to-follow steps in order to fully implement them in your teaching.

From a noted specialist in astronomy education and outreach, this Brief provides an overview of the most influential discipline-based science education research literature now guiding contemporary astronomy teaching. In recent years, systematic studies of effective and efficient teaching strategies have provided a solid foundation for enhancing college-level students’ learning in astronomy. Teaching astronomy and planetary science at the college-level was once best characterized as professor-centered, information-download lectures. Today, astronomy faculty are striving to drastically improve the learning environment by using innovative teaching approaches. Uniquely, the authors have organized this book around strands of commonly employed astronomy teaching strategies to help readers, professors, and scholars quickly access the most relevant work while, simultaneously, avoiding the highly specialized, technical vocabulary of constructivist educational pedagogies unfamiliar to most astronomy professors. For readers who are currently teaching astronomy at the college level—or those who plan on teaching at the college level in the future—this Brief provides an indispensable guide.

SCIENCE FICTIONS, POPULAR CULTURES CONFERENCEKona Coast, Big Island of Hawai'i, September 14-17, 2017SCIENCE FICTIONS, POPULAR CULTURES is devoted to uncovering and examing cross-disciplinary, cross-genre, and cross-media scholarship. Beyond BoundariesJust as Star Wars' opera & Josh Whedon's vision boldly went where none had gone... Just as artists are not bounded by one media or platform... Just as science pushes the limits of what is fiction to discover what is fact... Just as science fiction constantly defies and defines the parameters of genre... Just as popular culture erases the divides of academic disciplines... SCIENCE FICTIONS, POPULAR CULTURES seeks to both defy and redefine how the academy views science fiction and popular culture-and the research, scholarship and creative endeavors of those working across these fields. A refereed Conference Proceedings will be published in conjunction with the event. SCIENCE FICTIONS, POPULAR CULTURES is an academic conference featuring peer-reviewed scholarship from a wide spectrum of disciplines addressing the narratives and performances of science, science fiction, and popular entertainment across media, platforms, and cultures.

Tim Slater and Roger Freedman have worked to improve astronomy and overall science education for many years. Now, they've partnered to create a new textbook, a re-envisioning of the course, focused on conceptual understanding and inquiry-based learning. Investigating Astronomy: A Conceptual Approach to the Universe is a brief, 15-chapter text that employs a variety of activities and experiences to encourage students to think like a scientist. The authors engaged the help of hundreds of instructors to determine not only which concepts should be taught but how much depth in which to explain them. When they asked introductory astronomy instructors about the reasons current textbooks do not meet their needs, the results were clear: instructors felt current textbooks held too much information, and did not properly address the student issues in dealing with maths. With this feedback, plus the results conversations, workshops, and reviews, the authors have created thisunique textbook.