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Dr.Bob Bednarz,
Geography 306

Dr. Margaret Ezell,
English 481

Dr. Don Maxwell,
Engineering 111-112

Dr. Arun Srinivasa,
Engineering 111-112

Best Practices in Inquiry and Research-based Education at Texas A&M University
Vignette Series Summaries

Engineering 111-112
In Engineering 11X students complete a base series of projects after which their instructor can decide to include additional projects. These projects are completed in groups and utilize and integrate skills that students will need as they progress through the engineering curriculum. Because of this the projects are often directly tied to math and physics concepts students are learning in their other courses. The projects students complete are also situated in real world problem contexts so students can see how their knowledge applies to situations that real engineers deal with. In order to give you a better idea of the projects students work on in this course, two of the base projects are briefly explained. (Full report)

English 481
Dr. Ezell asked her students to write 5 papers over the course of the semester: four relatively short “response papers” and one longer “seminar paper”. These five papers are sequenced so that they build upon one another in complexity, easing students into, what was for many of them, new ways of thinking. The first two of the response papers Dr. Ezell asked her students to write were focused on primary (or in other words original) sources of writing. These sources were written by the women focused on in the course, like Queen Elizabeth, Lady Mary Roth, and Margaret Cavendish. In these papers students probed their thoughts and developed questions about the women and the piece of literature they chose to focus on. (Full report)

Geography 306
Dr. Bednarz decided that the best way to help students connect their in class learning to the real world outside of class was to make the real world a vital part of their project completion. With this in mind, he decided to have them complete a series of “Caption Photo” projects. In these projects students venture out into the real world and take a photograph or utilize a photograph they had taken at an earlier date and use it to demonstrate one of the concepts they learn about during class. Students then use their knowledge about urban geography to write an extended “Photo Caption” connecting the photograph to a topic that was covered in class. Dr. Bednarz asks his students to try to make their Photo Captions emulate those they have seen in textbooks but also go into enough depth that he can see their thinking and reasoning about how the photograph relates to the topic they have chosen. (Full report)

Marketing 325
From day one, students in Marketing 325 hit the ground running. Their task is to develop a comprehensive retail competitive audit for a business in the Bryan/College Station area as they work in instructor assigned teams of 4-5 students. The audits the teams must complete are complex. Students are required to analyze many aspects of the business they have chosen (e.g., customer base, competition, environment, etc.) and detail recommendations for ways in which the business can be improved. The methods students use to collect data to complete this assignment include interviewing store managers, surveying customers, and observing the practices of competitors. From this data, students put together both a written report and a condensed presentation which outline and justify the recommendations they make for their chosen business. (Full report)

Renewable Natural Resources 444
Dr. Popescu has designed a series of lectures, discussions and laboratory experiences that build on one another as they progress through the steps of image collection and processing that researchers use. This progression allows students knowledge and understanding about the various techniques and steps involved with image collection and processing to accumulate in a method similar to that which they will utilize when doing their own research projects. Students are asked to reflect on their learning experiences in brief write-ups of the weekly labs.  (Full report)

Statistics 407
Students are given the research report and supporting data set and set off to see what they can make of it, much like a real statistician would. Students need to write a report in which they critically analyze the statistical technique(s) utilized in the report and the assumptions made by the article’s author(s). Often, students are surprised to find that the authors have made claims that are hard to replicate. Students present their analysis to the class as well as hand in a written report for each project. (Full report)

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Dr. May Boggess,
Statistics 407

Dr.Sandi Lampo,
Marketing 325

Dr. Sorin Popescu,
RENR 444