This document discusses ways to update science courses by refreshing knowledge of current science topics and involving students in hands-on research experiences. It recommends taking time for professional development, setting up undergraduate research programs, doing field trips to research labs, establishing science seminars, and applying for grants to support student research projects and equipment. Funding opportunities are provided from the VCCS, foundations, and scientific societies. Examples of successful student research presentations and positive student impressions of participating in scientific conferences are also included.

1. From Newton’s Laws to the Higgs
Particle—How Do We Update Our
Science Courses?
2013 VCCS New Horizons Conference
Roanoke, VA
Walerian Majewski
Northern Virginia Community College
Annandale, Va

2. We need to refresh our knowledge of
discipline, and then update it for students
• Take time release from the VCCS Professional
Development Program to study
• Take a sabbatical and visit science research labs as an
educator
• Set up an undergraduate research program for your best
students; get equipment grants and learn with students.
Small Research as opposed to Big Research!
• Go to field trips with your students to the area research
labs; send your students to internships
• Establish a regular Science seminar, invite researcher
speakers

3. CERN Large Hadron Collider
Laboratory, Geneva

4. Funding
• Chancellor’s Innovation Find - release time; equipment
• VCCS Professional Development program – release
time; equipment
• Educational Foundations – release time; equipment
• SCHEV Equipment Trust Fund – equipment
• Society of Physics Students grants - equipment
• American Chemical Society Student Chapter grants –
equipment
• Geological Society of America: undergraduate grants
• Enter into an undergraduate research consortium or a
partnership with a university next door

5. Undergraduate research through the
student chapter of the American Chemical
Society
Create a place for students interested in chemistry
careers to get together as a Student Chapter of the
American Chemical Society and to be offered
extracurricular activities, undergraduate research
and internship finding opportunities otherwise not
available to them. This should facilitate their choice
of careers in chemistry or related professions and
improve their chances of a desired transfer.

6. Chemistry/premed majors
• ACS Starter Student Chapter grant
• Undergraduate ACS Programming grant
• Activities: seminars, field trips, internship
information
• Invite other instructors to be mentors in some
of our research projects.

7. Authentic Research in Biology Labs
• A joint project of the Association for Biology
Laboratory Education (ABLE) and the Council
on Undergraduate Research (CUR), the goal of
this incubator Research Coordination Network
in Undergraduate Biology Education is to
engage faculty in a discussion of how to
implement authentic research experiences in
introductory biology laboratory courses.

8. Geological Society of America
• The Geological Society offers grants to support
individual research by undergraduates.
Supervise individual Undergraduate Student
Research Projects funded by GSA for student
members of GSA

10. The following NVCC student posters were
presented at the March Meeting 2013 of the
American Physical Society, Baltimore, MD.
• 7,500 participants, 9,000 papers presented
• NVCC student’s impressions:
Our trip to Baltimore dramatically changed my
ideas about physics. Before, I believed that
physics was best done with nothing but a
sheet of paper, a pencil, my professor’s words,
and a healthy imagination. What I saw,
though, is that the field is more populated,
more specialized, more dynamic, but, still,
more collaborative than I had thought.