[88.15] Writing Links for Astronomy---Do they make a difference?

AAS 201st Meeting, January, 2003
Session 88. Undergraduate Astronomy Instruction, Labs and Research
Poster, Wednesday, January 8, 2003, 9:20am-6:30pm, Exhibit Hall AB

[Previous] | [Session 88] | [Next]

[88.15] Writing Links for Astronomy---Do they make a difference?

S. E. Palen (Weber State University), N. Kool (University of Washington, English Dept.)

The University of Washington has an innovative program called the `Interdisciplinary Writing Program' (IWP). This program links introductory composition classes with classes on other subjects, such that a subgroup of students taking a large lecture course also take a smaller composition course, in which the writing assignments are related to the lecture course material. In Spring of 2002, we undertook an experiment to link to an introductory astronomy class. This was the first time a link to a science course had been attempted. We give some detailed information about how the link was maintained, present some case study findings, a small amount of statistical data, and our suggestions for implementation at other institutions.

[Previous] | [Session 88] | [Next]