Plant Biology
Learning Outcomes/Goals:
Students who earn a BS degree in Plant Biology will have the ability to:
1. Communicate understanding of and connections among concepts in plant
biology.
2. Demonstrate the nature of science and habits of mind of scientists.
3. Develop model-based reasoning skills to use and apply science knowledge to
solve problems within and across the fields of plant ecology and evolution,
plant physiology, molecular and cellular biology and environmental plant
biology.
4. Interact as a productive member of a laboratory team.
Activities in Support of Goals:
1. In 2004, the faculty redesigned the undergraduate curriculum. The outcome was
condensing seven areas of specialization in plant biology to three: 1) Plant
Ecology and Evolution, 2) Plant Physiology, Molecular and Cellular Biology and
3) General Plant Biology.
2. All specializations now require a course in Evolution, the Biology of Plants, and
Experiments in Plant Biology. The intent of these courses is for students to
integrate the concepts of plant biology at multiple scales ranging from molecules
to ecosystems. Similarly, the faculty designed a new required seminar course for
the graduate level, Integrative Topics in Plant Biology. Both the undergraduate
and graduate curriculum changes reflect the innovative research programs of the
department that encompass all levels of biological organization, from molecules
to ecosystems.
Assessment Methods:
1. Faculty will reexamine the goals and objectives of each course to determine how
well each articulates with the new curriculum. During this process, faculty will
identify what they want students to know and do upon completion of the courses,
and design assessments that provide acceptable evidence of students’
accomplishment of the goals. The instructional design and approaches of the
revised curriculum are founded on ‘scientific teaching’ (Handelsman et al 2004),
which involves active learning strategies to engage students in the process of
science, and teaching and learning methods that were tested and shown to
improve student learning.
2. The initial step in assessing the new curriculum was to gather baseline data from
the existing courses. A representative sample of exams was collected from the
courses taught during the 2003-2004 academic year. Each question was examined
to determine the cognitive level students were expected to master. Bloom’s
Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (adapted from Anderson and Krathwohl
2001) was used to categorize the exam questions into six groups: (1) knowledge,
(2) comprehension, (3) application, (4) analysis, (5) synthesis, and (6) evaluation.
The data were analyzed by course level (100-to 400-levels) and represent the
percent of each category of Bloom’s questions at a course level (Figure 1). The
trends show over half of the questions on exams in 100- and 300-level courses are
testing recall of knowledge. This changes in the 400-level course exams, with a
decrease in knowledge-level questions and an increase in comprehension,
application, analysis and synthesis questions.
Figure 1. Proportion of exam questions at each course level based on Bloom’s cognitive
levels: (1) knowledge, (2) comprehension, (3) application, (4) analysis, (5) synthesis, and
(6) evaluation. * denotes the total number of questions categorized at each level.
3. Data from exams and assigned projects will be weighted to determine the
proportional contribution to a students’ grade. Faculty can use the baseline
information about the assessment data they are gathering from students to guide
course and curricular changes over time. During fall semester 2005, questions
from each course level (100-400) will be designed by the faculty to assess the
integration of concepts of plant biology at multiple scales. Introductory Plant
Biology is the first course to incorporate these assessment questions.
4. Introductory Plant Biology is a new 200 level course that focuses on major
concepts in plant biology and demonstrates how molecular processes ultimately
affect ecosystems. The following backwards design process was used to develop
this course. The instructor for the course met with the principle faculty member in
each laboratory. The first question asked was, “What do you want incoming (firstyear) graduate students to understand about major concepts in biology that form
the basic conceptual foundation for research in your laboratory?” The subsequent
discussion led to the next question, “What is the problem you would ask these
incoming graduate students to address in order to determine how well they truly
understand this fundamental concept?” Based on these problems, the course was
designed by integrating basic biological concepts into the cutting edge research
conducted at different scales throughout the department. The data from students’
responses to these assessments and others will be shared with the faculty so that
we have an empirical basis to inform the curriculum in subsequent courses.
Assessment Results:
- n/a
Future Plans:
-None listed