Chemical Research with Undergraduate Collaborators: Building Cyclic Polymers

Undergraduate research in chemistry provides not only a meaningful experience for the students, but is essential in getting research done. This talk will focus on an ongoing project in my lab: designing large molecules of specific shapes by studying the fundamental reactions. While results will be discussed, the talk will be tailored towards a general audience. I will attempt to highlight the outstanding contributions made by Bucknell students that have worked in my lab.

A project-oriented course in probability and statistics for undergraduate electrical engineering students

An introductory course in probability and statistics for third-year and fourth-year electrical engineering students is described. The course is centered around several computer-based projects that are designed to achieve two objectives. First, the projects illustrate the course topics and provide hands-on experience for the students. The second and equally important objective of the projects is to convey the relevance and usefulness of probability and statistics to practical problems that undergraduate students can appreciate. The benefit of this course as to motivate electrical engineering students to excel in the study of probability concepts, instead of viewing the subject as one more course requirement toward graduation. The authors co-teach the course, and MATLAB is used for mast of the computer-based projects

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PARENTING STYLES, LEARNING AUTONOMY, AND SCHOLASTIC ACHIEVEMENT IN UNDERGRADUATE COLLEGE STUDENTS

Throughout the years, the role that parents play with regard to a child’s academic achievement has been the source of considerable research. The type of parenting style employed by parents, whether it is authoritarian, authoritative, or permissive, has and continues to be a major theme in these studies. One area of particular interest that has been overlooked in these studies, however, is the influence that parents may have on a student’s learning autonomy. Learning autonomy is the idea that a student has internal motivation to learn or achieve. The purpose of this study was to investigate therelationship among the three styles of parenting, learning autonomy, perceived parental autonomy support, and scholastic achievement in undergraduate college students. Sixty-one participants were recruited at a small liberal arts college in the northeastern United States to complete questionnaires, which measured perceived parental authority of the participants’ parents, perceived parental autonomy support, and students’ own learning autonomy. The participants were also asked to list their grade point average. The results revealed positive and negative correlations between many of the variables in the study;however, simple regression analyses did not yield any statistically significant relationships between parental authority, learning autonomy, perceived autonomy support, and scholastic achievement.

Public Speaking Anxiety, Test Anxiety, and Academic Achievement in Undergraduate Students

Public speaking anxiety and test anxiety are both psychological difficulties which may adversely influence academic achievement in undergraduate students. Previous research has indicated that both public speaking anxiety and test anxiety are negatively correlated with academic performance, usually measured by grade point average. The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence of public speaking anxiety, test anxiety, and their effects on academic achievement in a sample of undergraduate students, and to determine if certain groups of students are more likely to be affected than others. Although test anxiety and public speaking anxiety were both found to be negatively correlated with grade point average, these correlations were not statistically significant. Potential reasons for the lack of statistical congruence with previous studies, as well as implications for future research and treatment, are discussed.

The Impact of Gender and Pedagogy on the Development of Self-Regulated Learning Strategies in Undergraduate Engineering Classrooms

The purpose of this paper is to examine ways in which pedagogy and gender of instructor impact the development of self-regulated learning strategies as assessed by the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) in male and female undergraduate engineering students. Pedagogy was operationalized as two general formats: lecture plus active learning techniques or problem-base/project-based learning. One hundred seventy-six students from four universities participated in the study. Within-group analyses found significant differences with regard to pedagogy, instructors’ gender, and student gender on the learning strategies and motivation subscales as operationalized by the MSLQ. Male and females students reported significant post-test differences with regard to the gender of instructor and the style of pedagogy. The results of this study showed a pattern where more positive responses for students of both genders were found with the same-gendered instructor. The results also suggested that male students responded more positively to project and problem-based courses with changes evidenced in motivation strategies and resource management. Female students showed decreases in resource management in these two types of courses. Further, female students reported increases in the lecture with active learning courses.

A Departmental Focus on High Impact Undergraduate Research Experiences

Undergraduate research experiences have become an integral part of the Hamilton College chemistry experience. The major premise of the chemistry department’s curriculum is that research is a powerful teaching tool. Curricular offerings have been developed and implemented to better prepare students for the independence required for successful undergraduate research experiences offered during the academic year and the summer. Administrative support has played a critical role in our ability to initiate and sustain scholarly research programs for all faculty members in the department. The research-rich curriculum is built directly upon or derived from the scholarly research agendas of our faculty members. The combined strengths and synergies of our curriculum and summer research program have allowed us to pursue several programmatic initiatives.

Three Strategies for Promoting Intellectual Engagement in Advanced Undergraduate Seminars

With the humanities increasingly contested, we must adopt pedagogical approaches that promote the integral role of humanistic inquiry in student academic achievement. Whether they explore the eighteenth-century novel, cultural artifacts of the Third Republic, or sociopolitical controversies in contemporary literature, the three models described in this article propose innovative learning strategies for advanced undergraduate French and Francophone Studies seminars that fulfill the humanistic goals of the American university. From directed close reading exercises to analysis of the historical archive to creative exploratory writing, these activities engage students intellectually with complex cultural and narrative materials from diverse traditions and periods.