Thanks to learning science and to the creativity of teaching and learning professionals, we know much more about the ways students learn experientially and collaboratively. For our courses, teaching scholars have identified practices and pedagogies that engage students to collaborate and experience deeper learning. Ken Bain has called Super Courses the courses that possess opportunities for learning in the classroom, the lab, and into the world where experiential learning joins course content. The course practices and pedagogies so fundamental to deep learning should also be included in program design (both for academics and campus life) and even the curriculum itself. Putting it all Together provides a frame that includes the pedagogies and practices and discussion of the larger contexts within which they can be applied. The book also offers more than thirty brief chapters of selected practices applied in individual contexts. The authors are faculty members, administrators, and staff professionals who have developed learning experiences for students. The rationale behind the book is simple: embedding the most powerful practices and pedagogies within courses, programs, and the curriculum calls for every professional at every institution to play a different but equally important role in improving student learning and student success.

The field of polymer research is progressing rapidly from passive materials providing a certain set of properties to active polymers, which provide, receive and respond to signals from their environment. This includes interactions with molecules, biological systems and physical stimuli. Research in active polymers has been driven by an increasing demand for intelligent materials, especially in biomedical and aerospace applications. Progress in synthesis, analytics and molecular modeling enable scientists to develop active polymer systems in a knowledge-based approach. Biological systems might serve as blueprints for biomimetic and bionic solutions, leading to innovative materials concepts. Emerging active polymers respond to a range of stimuli, from changes in pH and temperature, to light and magnetic fields. Remote and on-demand control is also envisioned. Contributors discuss shape-memory polymers; shape-changing polymers; responsive hydrogels; stimuli-sensitive systems; intelligent polymers in biological systems; polymer-based actuators, sensors, and switches; active surfaces; and biomedical applications of active materials, especially for tissue regeneration and controlled drug release.

Thanks to learning science and to the creativity of teaching and learning professionals, we know much more about the ways students learn experientially and collaboratively. For our courses, teaching scholars have identified practices and pedagogies that engage students to collaborate and experience deeper learning. Ken Bain has called Super Courses the courses that possess opportunities for learning in the classroom, the lab, and into the world where experiential learning joins course content. The course practices and pedagogies so fundamental to deep learning should also be included in program design (both for academics and campus life) and even the curriculum itself. Putting it all Together provides a frame that includes the pedagogies and practices and discussion of the larger contexts within which they can be applied. The book also offers more than thirty brief chapters of selected practices applied in individual contexts. The authors are faculty members, administrators, and staff professionals who have developed learning experiences for students. The rationale behind the book is simple: embedding the most powerful practices and pedagogies within courses, programs, and the curriculum calls for every professional at every institution to play a different but equally important role in improving student learning and student success.