For the third year, CIC and Carnegie Mellon University’s Open Learning Initiative co-sponsored an opportunity exclusively for CIC faculty members to participate in training workshops to develop online tools and instructional methods to help students enhance their skills of causal and statistical reasoning.
     The workshops were held at CMU’s campuses on June 28-29 in Pittsburgh, PA, and July 7-9 in Moffet Field, CA. Participants included faculty members from Chestnut Hill College (PA), Lee University (TN), Monmouth University (NJ), Nyack College (NY), Piedmont College (GA), Rocky Mountain College (MT), St. Joseph’s College (NY), Seattle Pacific University (WA), Spelman College (GA), and Washington and Jefferson College (PA).
     CIC also partnered with the National Computational Science Institute, a National Dissemination Project funded by the National Science Foundation, to offer a week-long workshop for faculty members on enhancing undergraduate physics education at CIC member institutions. The workshop, held July 11-17 at Centenary College (NJ), was
directed by physicist Robert M. Panoff, executive director of the Shodor Foundation, and an expert on undergraduate science education.
     Participants in the workshop explored how to integrate interactive explorations into undergraduate physics courses and learned to use software tools to develop their own resources. In addition, attendees developed and presented case studies.
     “The interactivity that the computer model affords could encourage students to grow in their mathematics understanding,” Panoff said. “Without using this method, it would be difficult for students to do well in physics if they did not have a strong mathematics background. As a result, more students are apt to take science classes if they learn through a computational model.”
     Workshop participants included mathematics and physics professors from Centenary College (NJ), Converse College (SC), Lynchburg College (VA), Monmouth University (NJ), Tabor College (KS), and Judson College (IL).

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Last updated: August 2004
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