Undergraduate Course Development in Geology and Astronomy

该项目使地质科学系 和天文学开发一系列新的大一/大二学生 为大学所有文科本科生举办的研讨会 密歇根州。 这些研讨会的目标是加强 潜在的科学专业的科学指导，以及非 理科专业 这些研讨会的报名人数仅限于 20名学生，由资深教师授课， 助教为学生提供广泛的课外帮助， 并要求口头报告以及书面报告， 选定的主题。 研讨会是对 科学问题（天文学、地质学、古生物学或 海洋学），这些课程对学生的生活很重要; 课程并不意味着全面的入门 供品。 充足的课堂提问/回答时间， 讨论提高学生的参与和批判性 与此同时，小规模的班级 提供更好的机会，为学生教师接触比我们的 提供大型讲座。 其中一些研讨会 动手实验室或计算组件，其他计划 进行短期实地考察 相关的助教 这些研讨会有助于引导讨论，并偶尔 在教师的密切监督下讲课;这使我们能够 用课堂教学法训练助教 希望一个 大学本科生集中人数的增加， 科学领域将是这些研讨会的最终成果。

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.