Faculty often wish to devote time and resources to improve a course to be more in line with principles of how people learn but are not sure of the best path to follow. We present our tested approach to research-based course transformation, including development of learning goals, instructional materials based on student difficulties, and assessment to see whether the approach worked. This method of course transformation has measurably improved student learning in several courses, and we present one such course as a case study—an upper-division physics course. We relied on various support personnel, including undergraduates, to help instigate and maintain the course transformations, and we describe the departmental and institutional factors that are important for successful transformation and sustainability. This model, and the lessons we have learned through its implementation, may serve as a guide for faculty interested in trying a new approach in their own courses.
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First results from a 20-year survey of science knowledge and attitudes toward science among undergraduates are presented. Nearly 10,000 students taking astronomy as part of a general education requirement answered a set of questions that overlap a science literacy instrument administered to the general public by the National Science Foundation. The research questions addressed are: What is the level of science literacy among undergraduates, and what variables or attributes predict science literacy? Their attitudes toward science and pseudo-science were probed by a set of 22 statements coded on a Likert scale. On the knowledge items, freshmen perform only marginally higher than the general public, with exception of large positive differences in their knowledge of evolution and the Big Bang. Gains on any particular item through the time that students graduate are only 10%-15%, despite the fact that they have taken two or three science courses. Belief in pseudoscience runs high, and the fact that the level of pseudoscience belief does not correlate well with the level of science knowledge is particularly noteworthy. In addition, no variable in the analysis is predictive of science literacy. Over the interval 1988–2008, there’s no detectable improvement in undergraduate scientific literacy.
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Case study teaching had a long tradition in law and business before it made the jump to medical school education in the form of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) in the 1970s. Today, both the University of Delaware’s Clearinghouse and the University of Buffalo’s National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science (NCCSTS) have hundreds of cases and teaching notes on their websites that serve thousands of teachers worldwide. To determine who these users are, the authors decided to develop a brief survey consisting of 12 questions using SurveyMonkey, a web-based survey tool, and then invited members of their Listserv to respond to it over a several-week period this summer. They received 1,634 responses. The data in the figures included here and their comments below represent the results of this survey. Not all of the data add up to 100% as faculty chose more than one response for some questions.
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We incorporated an active, collaborative-based research project in our undergraduate Research Methods course for first-year sports medicine majors. Working in small groups, students identified a research question, generated a hypothesis to be tested, designed an experiment, implemented the experiment, analyzed the data, and presented their findings to the college community. We used a survey to assess students’ perception of and attitudes about research and research methods before and after the semester. In addition, students reflected on the research experiment through a weekly discussion and dialogue on Blackboard. Students were responsible for a final oral presentation and a poster presentation. Incorporating a participatory, collaborative, and active learning component to this course allowed students to grasp relevant research methodology theories and principles, acquire competency in research methodology techniques, develop interpersonal and professional skills, and improve their attitude regarding science and the research process. The results suggest participation in a research project can be an effective way to enhance first-year student learning and attitudes regarding research methodology.
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We are increasingly seeing incoming college students who haven’t experienced (or perhaps haven’t responded to) this gradual presentation of increasing uncertainty. And the author believes this is one of the profound and unrecognized disconnects in our relationships with our students. They are stuck in the certainty gradient. We should seek to be moving them (gently, if possible) a bit farther along this gradient. If we could manage this change in our own perspective, perhaps we could instill in some a love of the challenge in learning that would serve them well in the future.
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The Cell Organelle Pageant is an activity to reinforce student’s understanding of the structure and function of eukaryotic cell organelles. This activity should follow readings and a lecture presentation on cell types and structures. Students often learn about the structure of the eukaryotic cell in introductory biology courses, but they rarely move beyond a simple memorization of names and basic function. This activity not only requires that students remember these facts, but also expects them to move toward further understanding of the importance of various cellular functions.
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Primary research articles discuss aspects of scientific inquiry that are important in understanding the nature of science. Yet, most introductory science courses use textbooks that ignore the scientific process; opportunities for explicit discussion of the nature of science are lost. In Hampshire College’s science program, students read current primary research articles throughout their college careers. This article describes the pedagogy used and demonstrates that first-year students can make considerable progress in critically evaluating the research literature. A sample of 41 students in introductory natural science courses made statistically significant improvements in their abilities to explain the experimental design, data collection methods, and results sections of primary research articles over the course of their first semester. As Hampshire is a small liberal arts college, this article includes ideas for incorporating primary literature into many types of college science courses, large and small.
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The Journal of College Science Teaching announces that this long-running column will be discontinued. We will continue to publish those articles which have been previously accepted, but we will no longer accept new manuscripts for this column. We wish to thank each of our column authors for their fine contributions, and we acknowledge with gratitude the long service and exemplary leadership of the column's editor, Dr. Brian Shmaefsky. We also congratulate Dr. Shmaefsky on his new position as President of the Society for College Science Teaching.
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Have you ever had a student approach you after an exam, asserting that the problems on the exam were much harder than the homework you assigned—yet the test problems were taken directly from the homework? (OK, maybe some numbers were changed to protect the innocent, but the problems were essentially the same.) The author suggests a possible explanation for the disparity between students' efforts and the results: The problems in their texts are too well labeled. Although such labeling may be helpful in the instructor's edition when she or he selects representative problems to assign, it may be harmful to the student's ability to determine, unaided, what a specific problem is about.
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We revised a sophomore-level genetics class to more actively engage the students in their learning. The students worked in groups on quizzes using the Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique (IF-AT) and active-learning projects. The IF-AT quizzes allowed students to discuss key concepts in small groups and learn the correct answers in class. The students also worked in groups on active-learning exercises to predict the effects of mutations and the results of the classic Meselson-Stahl experiment on DNA replication. The results of normalized student learning gains are presented, as a pretest was administered at the start of the semester. Students showed 56.4% and 60.8% average normalized learning gains for questions on the inheritance of genes and the replication and expression of genetic information respectively. These approaches could be applied to other biology or science courses.
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To improve students’ retention rates in general chemistry, online homework was introduced into our curriculum. Replacing quizzes directly by online homework significantly improved (p < .0005) success rates in second-term general chemistry. Attitudinal Likert survey results indicate that the majority of students completed the online homework assignments (90%) and viewed the assignments as worth the effort (83.5%). Students were overwhelming (85.7%) in their recommendation that online homework use should continue. More consistent study habits were reported by 75.6% of students, and students reported using a suite of effective problem-solving approaches for questions marked as incorrect. Our instructors have willingly embraced the use of online homework and point to the incredible amount of time savings for the instructor as reason enough to use online homework.
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The development of students’ science reasoning abilities is a goal of science education. Researchers measure science reasoning using a variety of instruments, each with limitations and restrictions. In this study, contrasting instructional modes were analyzed for students’ science reasoning development over the course of a semester. A novel instrument was developed for this. The Constructive Inquiry Science Reasoning Skills (CISRS) test improves on other reasoning instruments in that it is (a) independent of mathematical or manipulative skills, (b) relevant without being dependent on prior content, (c) easily administered to a large group of students in a short period of time, (d) developmentally appropriate to the user, and (e) discerning of reasoning abilities. Students enrolled in contrasting styles of introductory biology courses were tested using the CISRS test. By this measure, students in the inquiry-based course made encouraging gains in reasoning ability similar to that of their peers in the major course.
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The authors explored whether a new pedagogy using personal response systems (clickers) along with case study teaching improved students’ perceptions of their understanding of science in large introductory biology classrooms. Twelve faculty from nine institutions and 1,457 students across the United States and Canada participated in this study. Faculty taught six to eight topics in biology by lecture or clicker case method, alternating the methods within the same course. Data include student responses to a survey questionnaire. Results indicated that students, especially women and nonscience majors, were generally positive toward the use of both clickers and cases.
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Testing strategies centered around open-ended assessments are generally thought to result in deeper learning compared with close-ended questioning. However, the time requirements involved in grading open-ended assessments on exams often limit the feasibility of using such assessments. This article presents an index card questioning strategy designed to mitigate the grading workload associated with using open-ended assessments as a centerpiece of larger courses. This strategy additionally encourages collaborative learning, provides data on class progress, assists in identifying student misconceptions, and helps to align student and instructor expectations.
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The genome projects of the past decades have created extensive databases of biological information with applications in both research and education. We describe an inquiry-based exercise that uses one such database, the National Center for Biotechnology Information Influenza Virus Resource, to advance learning about influenza. This database contains genomic sequences of virus ranging from the strains that caused the 1918 pandemic and subsequent seasonal cycles of influenza, as well as the H1N1 “swine” flu, which has recently caused pandemic disease, and the H5N1 “avian” flu, which remains a potential threat. The web interface to this database allows retrieval of gene and protein sequences from selected strains of virus, alignment of these sequences, and construction of evolutionary trees. In this exercise, students develop hypotheses about the epidemiology or evolution of influenza originating from species, locations, or time periods. The hypotheses are tested by retrieving sequences from specified viral strains and constructing an evolutionary tree to visualize the origin of these strains. We describe the use of this exercise in a human biology course for nonscience majors as part of a unit about influenza.
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In this article, the authors describe how a syllabus can be used to set the stage for effective use of assessment-for-learning principles. Nearly all college instructors use a syllabus, but this document typically dwells on logistics and evaluation. Research has suggested that courses should go beyond evaluation to include aspects of assessment such as specific learning objectives, formative feedback to students, and adjustment of instructor practice on the basis of feedback from students. They believe that this refocusing should start on the first day of class within the syllabus.
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