HOW TO PUT TOGETHER
STUDENT GROUPS TO
MAXIMIZE EFFECTIVENESS
Sue Wick, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
MY BACKGROUND: FOUNDATIONS OF
BIOLOGY FOR MAJORS, BIOL 2002
• SCALE-UP, “flipped” classrooms
• tables of 9, each w/ monitor,
microphones, whiteboard space,
& 3 computer hookups
• a melange of team-based
learning, POGIL, workshop
biology, cooperative learning, &?
Our class size has been ~ 126; has just increased to 171.
We offer two sections of Biol 2002 per semester.
For two class periods a week, teams of students
work through guided inquiry activities
[application/analysis]. The third day is devoted
mainly to work on a long-term project
[evaluation/synthesis].
One of these projects involves proposing to use
genetics to solve a problem or do something
useful to society: the GMO proposal project.
• Research Plan: How are we going to accomplish our goal?
Obtain
Drosophila Fbc2
cDNA from
Takahashi lab
Order pRSVneo
expression
vector from
Invitrogen
Insert Fbc2
cDNA in
pRSVneo at the
HindIII cut site
near the RSV
LTR
Culture Cos1
cells and purify
Fbc2 protein by
affinity
chromatography
RSV LTR
HindIII
Fbc2 cDNA w/ HindIII ends
WHAT OBJECTIONS DO STUDENTS
AND INSTRUCTORS HAVE
WHEN THE TOPIC OF GROUP WORK ARISES?
CHARACTERISTICS OF
EFFECTIVE/PRODUCTIVE TEAMS:
DIVERSITY
CHALLENGING WORK
ACCOUNTABILITY
CHARACTERISTICS OF
EFFECTIVE/PRODUCTIVE TEAMS:
* DIVERSITY (MANY KINDS OF DIVERSITY)
CHALLENGING WORK
(WORK NO INDIVIDUAL COULD DO ALONE)
* ACCOUNTABILITY
(DAILY, WEEKLY, SEMESTER-LONG PEER EVALUATION)
ACHIEVING DIVERSITY
ON TEAMS
W
h
a
t
k
i
n
Discuss with 1-2 others around you: based on
your course(s), the learning goals for your
course(s), and the population of students you
work with, what kinds of diversity would you
find helpful to include on student teams?
HOW TO GET STUDENT
ACCOUNTABILITY
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
NOTEBOOK
Each team’s intellectual property notebook for a
long-term project consists of the weekly
accountability forms plus a ½-1 page essay by
each team member, summarizing the best that the
person brought to the team’s work.
Peer evaluation that
counts towards grade
DEALING WITH KICKBACK
FROM STUDENTS
(IT IS NORMAL!)
What do these data tell us?
…and what about these data?
…and these?
DIVERSITY
CHALLENGING WORK
ACCOUNTABILITY
Acknowledgements: I am most grateful for my
thoughtful and insightful colleagues who have
worked over the past 7 years to refine our active
learning courses, especially Foundations of Biology.