BROWSE ALL RESOURCES
VIEW ALL
BY TYPE
Animation (3) Book/Manual (4) CD (1) Classroom Activity (12) College Course (6) Curriculum (11) Game (1) Kit (1) Lab (9) Lesson Plan (5) Publication (23) Software (3) Tutorial (5) Video (24) Website (47) Wiki (2)BY TOPIC
Biochemistry (14) Biodiversity (3) Bioengineering (3) Bioethics (3) Bioinformatics (8) Biology (104) Biotechnology (9) Cell Biology (3) Chemistry (17) Earth Science (1) Ecology (9) Engineering (1) Evolution (10) General Science (15) Genetics (29) Genomics (13) Immunology (2) Infectious Diseases (1) Life Science (65) Mathematics (9) Medicine (6) Microarrays (5) Microbiology (3) Molecular biology (34) Neuroscience (7) Physics (5) Plants (2) Professional Development (35) Research methods (12) Science Communication (2) Systems Biology (1)BY GRADE LEVEL
K-16 (1) 4-8 (1) K-5 (6) Medical School (6) K-3 (2) K-8 (2) K-12 (9) 6-8 (18) 9-12 (52) College (101) Graduate (21)
Scientific Habits of Mind Interactive Textbook
Scientific Habits of Mind, an electronic textbook from Columbia University, is designed to teach students how to acquire and use analytic skills when confronted with a challenge and to engage with the cutting-edge research topics of the day. The scientific habits the book wants to inculcate include representing data graphically, using probabilistic and statistical reasoning, understanding correlations, estimating, and comprehending the scale of space and time. As one example, Chapter 2, “Discoveries on the Back of an Envelope,” encourages students to develop the ability and willingness to make rough estimates of unknown and seemingly unknowable quantities. The book, written by Professor David Helfand, illustrates how one can apply these scientific habits to both the ordinary and extraordinary experiences of life in order to gain a more rational, and a richer, perspective on the world. The textbook contains “HUH?” links that provide tutorials on basic concepts and “WHY?” links that contain more advanced material. Additional links provide important supplementary examples and historical and cultural context. Faculty may offer readings from Habits to their own students or use the text as background reading and a source of ideas for teaching. The electronic textbook is part of Frontiers of Science Online (FoSO), developed by HHMI Professor Darcy Kelley, a free resource for college science teachers who seek to access and share materials and approaches to undergraduate science instruction. The textbook, lectures, media, activities, problem sets, seminar guides, and other teaching materials on the site were generated for use in Columbia University’s innovative core course, Frontiers of Science.
Scientific Habits of Mind
This interactive textbook emphasizes the fundamental habits of scientific thinking and contains many links that provide additional science and cultural content.
Media: Web pageHHMI Professor: Darcy B. Kelley, Ph.D.
Award Years: 2002, 2006
Summary: Darcy B. Kelley, Ph.D., is an HHMI professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Columbia University who studies the neurobiology of social communication. Her HHMI-funded initiatives include:
- The development of Frontiers in Science, a multidisciplinary course required for all first-year students at Columbia College. The lectures cover some of the great ideas of science, such as dark matter, the origins of the universe and of life, evolution, the workings of the brain, and the biome;
- The implementation of a new Web resource, Frontiers of Science Online, to disseminate course materials and to foster a supportive peer community among educators by enabling them to share new teaching approaches and materials directly with one another;
- The creation of a course that uses case studies to teach premedical students about designing, analyzing, and interpreting clinical research; and
- A research program in Dr. Kelley’s laboratory in which students use clawed frogs (Xenopus) to study gene expression in the vocal system.