Rethinking How to Engage Students in the American Government Classroom

Bobbi Gentry is Associate Professor of Political Science at Bridgewater College and a youth voting scholar. Gentry is the author of, Why Youth Vote: Identity, Inspirational Leaders, and Independence and coedited Internships in Political Science. Her current work investigates youth identity development and intersectional identities and civic engagement through the lifetime.  Bobbi GentryImage Credit: Kirsten …

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At Play in the Classroom for Thirty-Five Years: Recollections and Recommendations for Keeping Our Spirits—and Our Students—Soaring

Retirement is looming. Each day ticking by comes with a thought that I might not ever give that specific lecture again, and with a nagging feeling that I still—after more than 30 years—didn’t perfectly nail it. And with that thought, each day ahead becomes even more important, bringing butterflies to my stomach, and questions like: What can I do differently this time? What can I do to really make an impact, to help make the next class even more effective?  

How to Teach the Process of Science to Promote a Growth Mindset

Erin Baumgartner is an award-winning teacher and biology education researcher. She earned her PhD in zoology at the University of Hawai’i-Manoa, where she remained for an additional six years as a science curriculum developer and researcher. In 2008, she joined Western Oregon University, where she coordinated introductory biology and taught courses in vertebrate evolution and …

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Reaching Every Student in Your General Education Class

I know just how difficult it can be to stand in front of a large classroom of diverse students —most there just to fulfill a credit requirement—and wonder how you will facilitate their learning. My college, Weber State University in Utah, is an open enrollment institution that provides accessible educational opportunities and high-quality degrees to the students seeking them. What that means for my classroom is that I usually have students at all different levels of experience and all kinds of backgrounds.  

Beating ChatGPT with ChatGPT: Using AI Technology to Create Authentic Assignments 

David Woodring, PhD, is a criminologist/medical sociologist who currently serves as an adjunct instructor for Southern New Hampshire University, Eastern Gateway Community College, and Northwest Arkansas Community College, guiding students across a variety of subjects from cultural awareness in online learning to introductory sociology and social problems. Dr. Woodring also serves as a consultant for …

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Teaching AP® Students to Think Like Art Historians 

Jean Robertson is Chancellor’s Professor Emerita at Indiana University’s Herron School of Art and Design, IUPUI. She specializes in art history and theory after 1980. She is a co-author of Thames & Hudson’s art history survey text, The History of Art: A Global View (2021). Another recent  book is Oxford University Press’s Themes of Contemporary …

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Four Questions to Help Integrate Environmental Justice into Your Course

Daniel J. Sherman is the Luce-Funded Professor of Environmental Policy and Decision Making and Director of the Sound Policy Institute at the University of Puget Sound. He studies the roles individuals and groups play in environmental politics, policy, and sustainability. In addition to his undergraduate text,  Environmental Science and Sustainability, Sherman published Not Here, Not There, Not …

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Who Me, Biased? 

Lori Hodin teaches Psychology and is the Coordinator of Safe School Initiatives at Lincoln Sudbury Regional High School in Sudbury, MA. She loves teaching Psychology and has been teaching for 30 years, working with High School Students and AP® Psychology teachers for the last 25 years. As Safe Schools Coordinator, she uses psychology in peer mediation training, violence prevention …

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Teaching Visual and Comparative Analysis in AP® Art History 

Dr. Allison Lee Palmer is a professor of art history in the School of Visual Arts at the University of Oklahoma, where she teaches two versions of introduction to art history: one a chronological survey, and one a thematic overview taught in the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the university. She also wrote …

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