Undergraduate Course Development in Geology and Astronomy

该项目使地质科学系和天文学系能够为密歇根大学所有文科本科生开发一系列新的大一/大二研讨会。这些研讨会的目标是加强潜在的理科生和非理科生的科学教学。这些研讨会的注册人数限制在20名学生，由高级教师授课，有助教为学生提供广泛的课外帮助，并要求就选定的主题进行口头报告和书面报告。研讨会是对科学问题（天文学、地质学、古生物学或海洋学）的深入讨论，这些问题对学生的生活很重要；这些课程并不打算提供全面的入门课程。充足的课堂问答时间和讨论，提高学生的参与度和批判性思维；与此同时，与我们目前的大型讲座相比，小班授课为师生交流提供了更好的机会。其中一些研讨会有动手操作的实验室或计算组件，另一些则计划有短期的实地考察。与这些研讨会相关的助教帮助引导讨论，并在教师的密切监督下偶尔讲课；这样我们就可以用课堂教学方法来训练这些助教。希望这些研讨会的最终结果是理科专业的本科生人数的增加。

This project is enabling the Departments of Geological Sciences and Astronomy to develop a series of new freshmen/sophomore seminars for all liberal-arts undergraduates at the University of Michigan. The goals of these seminars are to enhance the science instruction of potential science majors as well as non- science majors. These seminars are limited in enrollment to twenty students, are taught by senior faculty, have teaching assistants to provide extensive outside-class help to students, and require an oral presentation as well as a written paper on selected topics. Seminars are in-depth treatments of scientific issues (in astronomy, geology, paleontology or oceanography) which are of importance to students' lives; the courses are not meant to he comprehensive introductory offerings. Ample time for in-class question/answer periods and discussions enhance student participation and critical thinking; at the same time, the classes with their small size provide better opportunity for student-faculty contact than our present large lecture offerings. Some of these seminars have hands-on laboratory or computing components, others are planned with short field trips. The teaching assistants associated with these seminars help lead discussions and give occasional lectures under close supervision of the faculty; this allows us to train these TA's in classroom methods. It is hoped that an increase in the numbers of undergraduate concentrators in science fields will be an eventual result of these seminars.