Pilot Courses for Science General Education in the Four-Year University Curriculum

Project Title

Pilot Courses for Science General Education in the Four-Year University Curriculum

Project Leader

Prof Michael Wong

School / Dept

SSCI / PHYS

Project Duration

Jan 2007 - Dec 2008

Project Description

The objective of this project was to offer new joint-department General Education courses (GEE) based on inter-disciplinary themes. The project investigated major teaching and learning issues including (a) factors affecting the motivation and interest of students in GEE courses ; (b) factors affecting the impact of the scientific inquiry approach on the students, through the integration of physics, biology and chemistry under common themes relevant to the daily lives of the students - an issue crucial to this new joint-department effort; (c) the effectiveness of demonstrations, field trips, and in-class questions through the Personal Response System (PRS), as well as other participatory activities on student learning in GEE courses.

Project Outcom

• Course materials for two General Education Courses (GEE) in science were developed.
• The factors affecting the motivation and interest of students in GEE courses, especially to those students with little training in science, were investigated.
• The effectiveness of interactive teaching methodologies was investigated.
• 3 students were trained during the process of developing experiments for the course “Energy and related environmental issues” and 1 student was trained during the process of designing curriculum for the course “Gastronomy” through Independent Study.

Status

Completed

Project Documents
(Only accessible by HKUST users)

• Project Plan
• Progress Report: First | Second |
• Final Report

Adaptation

Full Project