To succeed in the 21st century, students have to learn how to be creative problem solvers who can work in collaborative groups. These new-world students must have the ability to think critically, use technology efficiently, and communicate effectively. This means teachers have to seriously rethink what is taught. The National Science Education Standards were published in the mid 1990s and were a big step forward. Now, the challenge is to ensure they effectively address the 21st-century skills required in order for students to compete in today’s global market.
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Designed for an introductory nonmajors biology course, this case study presents students with a series of short news stories describing a scientific study of cell-phone use and its health effects. Students read the news stories and then the scientific paper they are based on, comparing the information presented by the news media to the information contained in the original research article.
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Students are seldom prepared. They have many things, most not related to school, on their minds in college. In large classes in particular, student attendance falls off precipitously with each passing week of the semester, regardless of the skill of the lecturer. But no matter, say the most censorious of profs, it is their loss. But our frivolous students come a cropper when they find themselves in a case-study class where their lassitude and ennui can do them in. Unfortunately, the instructor and the other members of the class also pay a price for someone’s lousy preparation. What can we do to come to grips with this perennial problem, getting the immature student to prepare for the case? Here are some thoughts.
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Research shows that many students hold misconceptions related to plant functions (Hershey 2004). Some of these students will become teachers with little content understanding to identify their students’ misconceptions about plants (Amir and Tamir 1994). The literature on teaching about plants doesn’t help; it contains frequent errors, misconceptions, and overgeneralizations, providing few reliable resources to inform teaching practices (Hershey 2004). It is within this context that the National Research Council (NRC) encourages science teachers, including those in the life sciences, to adopt inquiry-based teaching practices (1996; 2000; 2001). However, this effort is hampered by teachers’ limited background knowledge about plants and a lack of appropriate inquiry-based instructional resources that focus on concepts related to plant functions. This article describes a series of activities that address each of these issues.
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Most students have heard about situations in which the paternity of a child is questioned; in a surprising reversal, in this case study, maternity is in question. Designed for an introductory biology course, the case involves concepts from genetics, inheritance, and the formation of pedigrees. Students develop hypotheses to explain how a mother might not be genetically related to two of her three sons, then reject these and form new hypotheses as additional data are revealed in a progressive-disclosure format.
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A recent issue of the American Physical Society newsletter (2007) described the various reactions that research physicists have to the NSF requirement that grant applications seeking support for basic research include a section describing the broader societal impact of the work and ways in which investigators propose to bring their work to the attention of the wider community. At a time when science is under attack by various factions, competition for research money is keen, tenure track positions in some disciplines are scarce, and fewer young Americans seem to be attracted to scientific careers, we need to intensify our efforts to reach out to the public to explain why our work is significant. This month’s column describes how the teaching scientists and science educators who read JCST can help.
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To circumvent the problem of academic dishonesty through the mass administration of multiple-choice exams in college classrooms, a study was conducted from 2003 to 2005, in which multiple versions of the same examination were color coded during testing in a large-enrollment classroom. Instructors reported that this color-coded exam system appeared to work remarkably well. However, some students strongly asserted that they only performed well on the blue tests, or that certain examination colors negatively affected their test performance. As a result, this study attempts to determine, through the investigation of the test scores earned by students on the different colored examination versions, whether there was any significant effect of examination paper color on student test performance.
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It’s common for college professors to require students to complete a reading from the textbook prior to coming to class. Most professors who maintain syllabi for their courses list the chapters or page numbers that class members should read ahead of time. But studies indicate that students rarely read the information ahead of time (Marbach-Ad and Sokolove 2000), and an informal poll of the author’s colleagues confirmed this assertion. However, it’s important to understand that it is not being suggested that students shouldn’t read their textbook. Rather, the effort should be made after students hear the information from the instructor, not before. The role of a textbook is to support what is being taught, not to initiate it.
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To understand more about faculty perceptions of the instructional benefits of and barriers to using case studies, the authors surveyed 101 science faculty at universities and colleges in the United States and Canada. The results provided evidence that, overall, faculty think cases have a positive impact on student learning, critical thinking, and participation.
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In this case study, groups of students represent countries as they negotiate an agreement to limit greenhouse-gas emissions. While initially developed for and used in an environmental-science course for first-year college students, the case could be applicable to other courses dealing with conflict resolution such as public policy, international relations, and certain business courses.
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In this case study, based on the reported rediscovery of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in April 2005, students examine a real-world example of the scientific process and explore the practical implications of their conclusions. The case tells the story of Brad Murky, a student and research assistant who must decide whether the available evidence is sufficient for him to accept the bird’s existence. In a series of e-mails, Brad and his sister debate the evidence, and Brad is left to wonder whether the press conference called to announce the rediscovery of the bird has been scheduled in haste.
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Faced with the challenges of addressing a variety of student learning styles, academic levels, and demographics, incorporating innovative learning strategies, attaining higher-level thinking skills, and offering new courses with contemporary content, associated colleagues and the author turned to a case-study method as a pedagogical tool to address these challenges not only in face-to-face courses, but more importantly, in courses offered through distance learning.
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