The Student Perspective
I know when I was a college student, I basically muddled my way through a 4-6 hr lab period, barely knowing what I was doing despite reading through the instructions and even preparing a “pre-lab” outline the night before. I enjoyed the actual being there for the most part, but I felt the laboratory sessions lasted way too long. Most of my labs didn’t seem connected to my course work and most were just lists of steps to be done in order.
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Composting; Coming to a Faculty Housing Area Near You!
In growing initiatives to extend environmental measures beyond Vassar’s campus, the College Committee on Sustainability, Building & Grounds, and the Office of Strategic Planning and Academic Resources are bringing composting to faculty housing areas! As composting in ACDC, the Retreat, and upperclassmen housing has become an integral part of Vassar’s culture, it is only natural to involve faculty as well in the collective effort to maintain sustainable practices on as well as off campus.
We’re excited to announce that composting will now be available in the Williams, Palmer and Kendrick housing areas.
Ship Masts and Telephone Poles: Sándor Bernáth’s Gloucester, Mass.
Today’s post comes from Natasha Mandell, class of 2016 and Art Center Student Docent.
The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center’s Spring 2013 exhibition, Recent Acquisitions: Works on Paper, showcased some of the new additions to the Art Center’s collections.
Teaching Laboratories Under the Microscope- Part I
The Faculty Perspective
Most college science curricula still have the overall structure of three-days-per-week lecture/4 hr laboratory, at the least for the intermediate-level bread-and-butter courses. Why? What are the goals of those laboratories?
Most laboratory courses are focused on learning how to do particular field-specific techniques and how to gather and analyze particular types of data. The plan is for those laboratory sessions to engage concepts and approaches that complement what is being taught in the “lecture” component of the course.
Meditations, Responses, Reflections- Five ideas
Giving your class short writing assignments can be a great way to give them practice writing and thinking in the language of your scientific (or other) discipline. They also give your most shy students a way to express themselves, first in writing and then, hopefully, in class. These short writing assignments also give them practice using the language of science.