9354606 White A major objective of undergraduate education is to produce students who are independent learners and who can make reasoned decisions. Traditional science courses in lecture format present content efficiently, but a large proportion of students do not actively engage the material and so graduate with a superficial or incorrect understanding of many basic science concepts. We have assembled a critical mass of faculty who have independently initiated pilot projects introducing problem-based active group learning in their individual courses in biology, chemistry, physics, biochemistry and astronomy. We now propose to expand and integrate these efforts to stimulate active learning in introductory science courses so that our students develop the skills of critical thinking and analysis in order to go beyond factual knowledge to a deeper understanding of science. The courses involved include those for majors and non-majors, those with small and large enrollments, and those for honors and non-honors students. While individual approaches vary, at the heart of each course revision is the use of realistic problems or activities to lead groups of students to new concepts. What is unique in this program is our coordinated effort to incorporate problem-based learning across several science disciplines at the introductory level. The seven faculty involved in this project actively review each other's courses, meet frequently, and seek ways to make interdisciplinary connections for students. The scale and diversity of our project provide opportunities for us individually and collectively to assess the effects of problem-based instruction, with the University of Delaware's Center for Teaching Effectiveness providing the structure and support for local, regional, and national dissemination of our findings.
