I started research in chemistry as a sophomore in undergrad school. I worked for a semester a few hours a week in order to learn the ropes, then was offered a project. The PI put a structure of the starting material and the product and asked me how I would make the molecule. The reactions were all covered in sophomore organic so I was able to answer correctly. I was being evaluated to see how much effort the PI should spend on cultivating me as a chemist. Since I passed I got a lot of attention. The same thing happened when I interviewed for jobs in industry, and I was able to get a job quickly despite a recession at the time.
How do we cultivate thinking skills in science? Much emergent educational technology reduces higher order thinking by offering up easy answers quickly. One method that has been used to get students to think is case studies. I started using a technique similar to case studies two years ago. http://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/
Students read an article, then answer questions. The article is on an area of science related to a unit of study in my class. For example, the students read an article on allotropes for bonding and rocket fuels for electrochemistry. The key to the assignment is the questions, which range from low level to difficult application, analysis, and synthesis. I let students collaborate on the answers in groups of up to 3, and I even provide the answers, relying upon student desire to learn. This works in many cases. In other cases I see my answers rephrased poorly, or wrong answers with no reference to the correct ones I put up. The students usually use google docs to put their answers together.
This year I've implemented actual case studies. The students read the article at home, then I do some direct teaching on the difficult ideas, followed by the students working on questions in groups. Student feedback is positive. it seems that higher order thinking is improved when there is more context to a problem than just the generic back of the chapter chem or physics problem.
I am looking for collaborators on chem and physics case studies. Anyone can see what makes a case effective here: http://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/pdfs/FavoriteCases.pdf
