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One issue in discussions of college writing is how to incorporate writing practice into STEM courses. Some Kenyon professors in STEM subjects include journal assignments and process descriptions into their courses. Here are some suggestions on similar metacognitive "writing to learn" approaches, including guidelines for feedback to students.

This article is very consonant with the work being done to support inclusive excellence in Kenyon's natural sciences division.

A new online hub for promoting diversity in STEM education with relevant articles, personal stories, and profiles of advocates in higher education.

A bibliography on service learning in STEM fields from the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse.

As this profile of a tech-savvy French teacher shows, finding a way to bring a passion project into the classroom can create a more authentic experience for both professors and students.

This report is about a "nationally representative" survey which finds that educational attainment is one of the best predictors of high technology and information literacy skills - so I would assume that the results aren't quite as dire for those Millennials who go to college. That said, it's a good reminder that many so-called "digital natives" are not (yet) sophisticated creators and managers of information with their devices. I also want to point out that the kinds of information management tasks tested are perfectly relevant to research in the humanities, social sciences, and fine arts, not just STEM as the think tank suggests.

This Chronicle blogger concedes that "modularity" will not work at residential colleges -- at least not for all courses. Personally I think this reductionist trend is going too far. Students choose a major discipline. Students (often) choose a sub-discipline. Students choose which courses to take among all the possibilities. Students choose from among professors teaching those courses. The post takes this down to the level of the 10-minute video (or lecture). Really? What can one learn in ten minutes that stands alone so much that ALL the related knowledge can be ignored. Here's an example. A student watches a 10-minute video on coral reefs and learns that reefs are in danger due to rising ocean temperatures. Fine. But what is the reason? Does the threat to coral stem from the fact that they build their skeletons out of calcium carbonate? From the fact that modern corals are aragonitic and not calcitic? Does the symbiotic nature of corals and zooxanthellic algae play a role? Is there something else involved here? A combination of factors? Factoids? Do we really want our future generations making decisions about important matters based on what they remember from a 10-minute lecture or video?

The article reports on a meta-analysis of 225 studies on the effectiveness of active learning techniques in undergraduate STEM classrooms. If anybody needs more evidence that techniques to actively engage students are more effective than the traditional passive lecture and listen classrooms, this report offers compelling numbers. Students in those traditional classes are found to be 1.5 times more likely to fail than those in classes with active learning components. Students in active learning classes earn grades that are, on average, 6% better than their counterparts in traditional classes.

Another article on Active Learning.