Tag Archives: biology

Using drawing to engage students in large lecture cell biology

What is the strategy?

During the semester, in-class drawing activities were used to foster student engagement in several ways.  In general, three strategies were used: (1) Asking students to draw cellular representations to understand where biochemical processes happen and their mechanisms in cell function (e.g., drawing the mitochondria, labeling pH values of compartments, and drawing ATP synthase facing the appropriate direction); (2) table generation alongside artwork depicting critical cellular functions (CAM, C3 and C4 photosynthetic pathways is a major example); and (3) conceptually integrative artwork that typically compared cellular processes and integrated other core concepts (cell cycle and mitosis vs. meiosis is a major example).  A notecard process (see prior design memo by Schwebach) was used for students to share their artwork with the class.  Students were told to discuss lecture content or solve problems with their peers (these discussions would take about 5 min. from initiation to students reporting out), using the artwork as a conversation piece and some of the art was handed in for extra credit or for participation points to show the class how other students were thinking about critical concepts in cell biology. 

Continue reading →

Qualitative Analysis: Now you have data, what do you do with it?

Introduction

This design memo describes an in-class assignment where students are given data from a real research project and asked to code answers to open ended questions. The purpose of the exercise is to give students firsthand experience at making coding decisions within the context of a research question.

Continue reading →

Embedding review questions in lecture videos

What is the strategy?

As part of the first iteration of the distance-learning version of Biostatistics for Biology Majors I created a series of lecture videos as the main method of learning for the course. In order to create an opportunity for students to engage in active learning while watching lecture videos, I designed short activities that I embedded in each lecture video. On average, lecture videos are 13.5min (±5.6min) in length and there are 1-3 activities per lecture. After I introduce the activity in the video a Powerpoint slide is shown detailing the question or problem for the students to work through. This activity introduction slide says, “It’s your turn. Pause the video and try the following activity”. Directly after the activity is presented, a follow-up slide is shown that says, “Did you really try the video? Pause the video and try it. Warning: Answers coming next”. This slide is meant to encourage students to participate in the activity rather than choosing to skip it and passively sit watching the video. Following the slides, I present the answer to the question or problem and explain any wrong answers. For activities that will take longer than a few minutes, I end a lecture video by presenting the problem and the following video explains the answers. In this way, there is a natural break to encourage students to attempt the activity.

Continue reading →

Introduction to Reading Primary Literature

Introduction

Reading a scientific paper can be a daunting task for an undergraduate. This assignment is designed to provide a structure for students to read a paper from primary literature. This exercise will instruct students to analyze each figure individually and identify the authors’ conclusions. They will then interpret the data themselves and decide whether their conclusions coincide with the authors’ conclusions.  

Continue reading →

Integrating active worksheets into a lecture-based Biology course

What is your strategy?

The factual information that is required for understanding the topics being discussed in each lecture are presented in a short Powerpoint presentation, which is posted on Blackboard directly after class.  At the start of each lecture, students are provided a list of the learning goals and objectives that clearly state what facts, concepts, and skills they are expected to acquire from the lecture. The short presentations are supplemented with worksheets that are designed to be completed at different points during class time, usually intermittent with the Powerpoint presentation.  Activities written within the worksheets are varied and include learning games, designing experiments, and analyzing figures from primary literature to reinforce the facts and concepts addressed during the Powerpoint presentation.  Importantly, students are allowed to choose whether they work on the worksheets on their own or in small group (no more than 3 students per group).  After giving students 3-10 minutes per question on the worksheet, students share their answers and have the opportunity to analyze and provide feedback for each other’s responses.  Ultimately, the bulk of the time spent in the classroom is spent addressing any misconceptions or confusion about the material introduced in the Powerpoint presentation.  With the students consistently engaged in the material, they learn from their instructor, each other, and on their own throughout the 90 minutes of class time. 

Continue reading →

Mitotic and Meiotic Chromosome Movement Demonstration

What is the strategy?

At George Mason University (GMU) all biology majors must take and pass cell biology (Cell Structure and Function) with a grade of C or better prior to taking genetics.  Students are introduced to the cell cycle and meiosis in their cell biology course, however, many students enter class with misconceptions about the cell cycle and meiosis.  Some of these misconceptions or misunderstandings include mitosis makes up the entire cell cycle; accurate depiction of chromosome movement during mitosis and meiosis; the difference between mitosis and meiosis.  The genetics course offered at GMU begins with the cell cycle and meiosis and if students do not have a firm understanding of the topics, they can quickly fall behind.  For this reason, we developed a two-part activity that will increase understanding of these two challenging concepts.

Continue reading →

Research immersion through ‘Elevator Speech’ role play

What is the strategy?

Undergraduate students in a mid- or upper-level biology course are tasked with identifying a research laboratory in the United States that has an active, federally funded research project using the NSF Award search website. Once they identify a laboratory with a funded project, the student must conduct research to understand the proposed research well-enough to present an elevator speech as though they are an undergraduate researcher in the lab. Elevator speeches have received considerable attention lately, with several scientific organizations (e.g., ASCB) providing international competitions for ‘best elevator speech’. Variants on the ‘Elevator Speech’ include the Three Minute Thesis (3MT), which seeks to encourage graduate and undergraduate researchers to distill their thesis or dissertation projects into an approachable, short format talk for a broad, non-scientific audience. George Mason University has recently begun participating the Science Slam event, which although is not short-format, is a competition to present research in an interesting way to a non-scientifically trained public.

Continue reading →

Evaluate scientific information

Introduction

This design memo describes a strategy implemented in Introductory Biology for non-majors during the Fall 2014 Semester.  This exercise was implemented in the lecture portion of the course over a series of 3 different lectures throughout the semester. The goal of the exercise was to help non science majors better evaluate scientific information as well as become engaged in the subject matter.

Continue reading →

Peer Review as part of the Undergraduate Lab Report Assignment

Introduction

This design memo describes a strategy implemented in the Introduction to Environmental Science and Policy Courses during the Spring 2015 Semester.  This peer review component was incorporated into an existing lab report assignment with the goal of increasing student understanding of the scientific method as well as the lab activity. At the end of the semester students and faculty were surveyed regarding their experience.

Continue reading →

Use of the Shark Tank model to solve a current conservation issue

What is the strategy?

The strategy is to use the model of the television show ‘Shark Tank’ as a way to illustrate a solution to a current conservation issue.  The ‘Shark Tank’ model is one where entrepreneurs have three minutes to pitch an idea to millionaires who have available start-up capital.  I used this as an exercise in a Conservation Biology classroom in the Spring of 2015.  Critical thinking and creativity are emphasized in this strategy. Students are required to research an issue, devise a possible solution (or use a solution to fundraise), determine project costs, develop a project timeline, create a sample press kit, and present the idea to the class.  The class are the millionaires with the $100,000,000 venture capital to enable the project.  After all presentations, classmates vote on the project they wish to fund. The project that ‘wins’ receives two extra points toward the final grade.

Continue reading →

Means of engaging students with peer reviewed journal articles

What is the strategy?

The strategy in this class is to help students become active learners.  In this class students really lead the classroom topics and discussion.  Students are required to research a topic, present on the topic, and field questions from their fellow class mates.  The teacher takes a hands off approach and only intervenes when questions arise that the presenters cannot answer.

Continue reading →

Communication skills development in large lecture using notecards

What is the strategy?

During the semester, notecards were used to foster student engagement in several ways.  In general, five strategies were used: (1) Randomly calling students and asking questions (about 20 cards drawn per class), (2) assigning students to bring questions to the following class meeting (this method was used about three times during the semester, names were randomly drawn before class and the list displayed on the overhead), (3) giving students the option to be asked a question or to ask the professor a question during the current lecture (this depended on the lecture topic and the level of discourse in the class session; this strategy was mixed with the first method of randomly calling students), (4) during peer discussions, students were told to discuss lecture content or solve problems with their peers (these discussions would take about 5 min. from initiation to students reporting out); the student whose card was drawn was the reporter who explained the small group dialogue (typically 3 cards were drawn, to hear report-outs from 3 groups), and (5) using a similar strategy as 4, except the peer discussion was centered on the class solving iclicker questions from chapter study guides.

Continue reading →