Pogil - Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning

Read Adriana Kezar (USC) and Sean Gehrke's (Lewis-Clark State College) 3-year study of STEM Communities of Practice, including the POGIL Project.  

See the new video honoring Rick Moog, Jim Spencer and Frank Creegan - Winners of the 2015 James Flack Norris Award

Download The POGIL Project's 2015 Annual Report

 The Fall POGIL Inquirer is Now Available

POGIL's Fall newsletter is now available for download.

Rick Moog Earns National Teaching Honor from American Chemical Society

Richard "Rick" Moog, professor of chemistry at Franklin & Marshall College and Founder/ Director of The POGIL Project (www.pogil.org) in Lancaster, Pa., has been named the 2016 winner of the George C. Pimentel Award in Chemical Education from the American Chemical Society and Cengage Learning.  Click here for more information.

 POGIL Project Trio Earns James Flack Norris Award

The Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society (NESACS) has announced the recipients of the 2015 James Flack Norris Award:

• Frank J. Creegan, the W. Alton Jones Professor Emeritus at Washington College;
• Richard S. Moog, Professor of Chemistry at Franklin & Marshall College; and
• James Spencer, the William G. and Elizabeth R. Simeral Professor Emeritus at Franklin & Marshall College.

Click here for more information.

Click here for more information.

 The Spring 2015 POGIL Inquirer is Now  Available.

POGIL's Spring Inquirer newsletter is now available for download.

 The 2014 POGIL Annual Report is now available as a downloadable PDF.

Watch our new POGIL video "What is POGIL"!

Click here

 St. Vincent's Caryl Fish Earns Boniface Wimmer Award

Dr. Caryl Fish, associate professor of chemistry in the Saint Vincent College Herbert W. Boyer School of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Computing, was honored with the presentation of the Boniface Wimmer Faculty Award at the Saint Vincent College spring Honors Convocation on April 24 in Saint Vincent Basilica.

 POGIL PCL Publishes First Newsletter

The POGIL-Physical Chemistry Laboratory Project has published its first newsletter.  Click here for access.

 The POGIL Projects Posts its Strategic Plan

This Strategic Plan was constructed and approved by the POGIL Project Steering Committee during 2012 with considerable input from more than 70 individuals from the larger POGIL community. 

New NSF-Supported Effort to Study Successful STEM Networks

The National Science Foundation has funded the University of Southern California, under the leadership of higher education change and reform expert Dr. Adrianna Kezar, to examine ways to spread STEM education reform through the use of networks.  

The proposed project will examine and compare four longstanding and successful undergraduate STEM reform networks (SENCER, PKAL, BioQUEST, and The POGIL Project) that have different designs, but a common purpose, in order to understand how the networks can be most effectively designed to spread innovations among network members and ultimately on the campuses where they are employed. 

 The  Summer Issue of The POGIL Inquirer is Now Online!

Click the link above to download the latest issue.

 Suzanne Ruder Honored by VCU with Distinguished Teaching Award

Former POGIL Steering Committee member Suzanne Ruder was recently honored at her home institution, Virginia Commonwealth University, with the university's Distinguished Teaching Award.  Ruder is an associate professor of chemistry.

 Spectroscopy Society Announces  $5,000 Award to The POGIL Project

The Spectroscopy Society of PIttsburgh (SSP) has awarded The POGIL Project $5000 to further the already existing aims of the project.

Next Generation Science Standards are now online

The first public draft of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) is available at www.nextgenscience.org/ from May 11 to June 1

Steering Committee Member Laura Trout Honored by ACS

Laura Trout was named recipient of the 2012 Allen Floyd Whalen Memorial Award for high school chemistry by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Section of the American Chemical Society.

 

Washington College Announces Creegan Chair in Green Chemistry, Names First Recipient

Anne Marteel-Parrish, an associate professor of chemistry at Washington College, has been named the inaugural recipient of the Frank J. Creegan Chair in Green Chemistry. The chair was established last spring with a $2 million gift from an anonymous donor in recognition of Professor Creegan’s 40-year service to the College and his longstanding development and oversight of the chemistry program.

HSPI POGIL Activities Now Available through Flinn Scientific

One goal of the HSPI Project was to create a full set of high-school level, POGIL activities for First-year Chemistry, AP Chemistry, First-year Biology, and AP Biology.  The first two collections, POGIL Activities for High School Chemistry and POGIL Activities for High School Biology are now available through Flinn Scientific, Inc.  Please visit their website for ordering information.  Please input POGIL into the search function to be taken to the pages for these products.

Vicky Minderhout Named Washington State's Professor of the Year by Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

Seattle University's Vicky Minderhout has earned the Carnegie Foundation's prestigious Professor of the Year designation for Washington State for her innovative approach (POGIL!) to teaching biochemistry.

Diane Bunce Honored with George C. Pimentel Award

Diane Bunce, has won the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) 2012 George C. Pimentel Award in Chemical Education for “outstanding contributions to chemical education.” Bunce will receive the Pimentel Award and a $5,000 prize at a dinner at the American Chemical Society’s meeting and exposition in San Diego, Calif., in March 2012. 

HSPI Partner Named Teaching Ambassador Fellow

Bruce Wellman, Chemistry/Material Science and Engineering Design teacher at Olathe Northwest High School in Kansas and HSPI Partner, was named a Classroom Fellow for the 2011-12 school year.  Use this link to read more about the Ambassador Fellow program and the other awardees.

Improved Learning in a Large-Enrollment Physics Class

Use of deliberate practice teaching strategies can improve both learning and engagement in a large introductory physics course as compared with what was obtained with the lecture method.

 Teaching Tough Course Led Chemistry Professor to Push Peer-Learning Approach

Jack Kampmeier, a University of Rochester professor who died last month, tried a new method of team learning in his classroom 16 years ago, and it caught on.

 POGIL Launches Newsletter!

The POGIL Project is happy to announce the launch of its brand-new newsletter!  Click the link above to go to a downloadable version, take a look and send us your thoughts.  We are looking forward to hearing from you, getting your news, and, most important, finding a name for our new publication!

A Different Small Group Learning Method - POGIL

Amy Nathanson, Pharm.D. at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, discusses her undergraduate POGIL experience on the EdTheory blog.

Andrei Straumanis Gives TED talk in San Miguel, Mexico

POGILer Andrei Straumanis recently gave a TED talk in San Miguel, Mexico, on the benefits of using POGIL in the classroom.  Click on the link above to watch Andrei's presentation.

 USF's Catherine Beneteau Receives Undergraduate Teaching Award

Six College of Arts and Sciences professors received the University of South Florida Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award for the 2009-10 school year, including POGILer Catherine Beneteau.

POGIL Makes Cover of Sept. 13 Issue of Chemical and Engineering News

POGIL Project Director Rick Moog was quoted in the Sept. 13 issue of Chemical and Engineering News in its cover story on "Measuring Success."  In the article, he discusses his thoughts on assessment and evaluation.  Photos from Laura Trout's (HSPI) class were featured on both the cover of the magazine and in the inside story.  

POGIL Cited as Example of Cooperative, Hands-on Learning in June 2, 2010 Issue of NATURE Editorial

POGIL was recently mentioned in an article in Nature titled "Education Ambivalence". Nature Publishing Group's educational division, Nature Education, last year conducted a survey of 450 university-level science faculty members from more than 30 countries. The first report from that survey, freely available at go.nature.com/5wEKij, focuses on 'postsecondary' university- and college-level education.  The article states "there is strong evidence that talking at students isn't nearly as effective as engaging them with cooperative, hands-on learning activities" and cites POGIL as a prime example of this type of hands-on learning.

HSPI Partners Receive Presidential Award

Two High School POGIL Initiative Partners were recently named as recipients of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching.  The POGIL Project extends hearty congratulations to Melissa Hemling (WI) (below left) and Bruce Wellman (KS) (below right).  Full details of the award are available in the White House press release - click on the headline above.

• • 
  • Hemling and Wellman

Student-centered schools put learning first

By GREG STACK

If you think back to the time you were in school, high school or earlier, you probably remember classes where you did well and were engaged, those that bored you, and still others that you found too challenging.

Measuring Learning, Using the Results

In recent years, state and federal lawmakers and accreditors have placed much more emphasis on measuring student learning, institution by institution, instead of just focusing on the grades individual students earn or the programs colleges offer. As this trend has taken off, many have voiced concern that as colleges adopt assessment systems, they aren't necessarily using the results to do anything beyond telling outside groups that they have some assessment tool in place.

On March 31, at noon Eastern, Inside Higher Ed will sponsor an audio conference, led by a national expert on . . .

Fixing US STEM education is possible, but will take money

Ars Technica

The state of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education in the United States has seen some unflattering appraisals in recent years, and deservedly so. In early February, the House of Representatives heard testimony . . . .

March 7, 2010

Camelot teachers, staff, implement new learning techniques

Brookings Register
Classroom activities in a PBL program are more student-centered , and less teacher-in-front-of-a-group . The teacher becomes the guide, offering assistance ...

February 23, 2010

CULC designs revealed at open house 

by Emily Chambers, Editor in Chief, The Technique

The la