Over the past twenty years, technology has changed the educational landscape. Technological developments like e-mail, the Internet, and presentation tools like PowerPoint Presenter are common tools used by most if not all faculty in their teaching. The recent development of Web 2.0 tools brought social networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, and blogs to the classroom. Handheld devices like student response systems or “clickers” utilize instructional technology for real-time in class assessment. With these tools, the educational landscape has continued to evolve. The purpose of this session will be to introduce some of these emerging technologies and to discuss the benefits of integrating these tools into the curriculum. The follow-up session in the afternoon will allow participants the opportunity to gain hands-on experience and create material for use at their home institution.

Undergraduate education is incomplete without a research experience. Independent research outside the classroom not only exposes the students to real life problem solving, it also allows for acquisition of valuable skills and experiences that are essential for today’s workforce needs. The talk will focus on undergraduate education models that integrate research at curriculum and course levels. The academic infrastructure and resources needed for incorporating and then supporting research in the existing programs will also be discussed. The talk will also include suggestions for motivating the students for research, project design, expectations, and assessment.

We will be discussing the benefits, development, and implementation of active learning into traditional lecture and laboratory-based courses. Active learning can include any strategy which places the responsibility for creating or applying knowledge primarily onto the students. One type of strategy includes “research modules” for laboratory courses. Research modules use multiple class periods for students to conduct experiments to answer a genuine scientific question. They differ from traditional laboratory activities in that they lack a predetermined outcome and techniques are not isolated. The results from one experiment are carried over to subsequent activities. By engaging students in more authentic research projects, we will encourage students to continue as science majors and engage in independent research to become better prepared for careers in industry or academic research.

I will discuss the challenges involved in teaching students rapidly evolving subjects, such as biology and the current biotech/pharma business environment, for which we have developed a highly successful program in biological and nanotech research that we use as a teaching instrument. Although we are confident that many of our students will be the physicians and scientists of tomorrow, we have developed a program to highlight the complexities of bringing an idea or discovery to market. This is accomplished by having the students create a virtual biotech company, in which they are required to implement good manufacturing practices, and to understand the role of the FDA in the process. This program has been very successful and has attracted a large number of students. We are very eager to share the curricula for these programs with others.