BSCI 207 Principles of Biology III:
Organismal Biology
1) To help BSCI students master the fundamental principles of
organismal biology focusing on the function, structure, and diversity
of all organisms.
2) To help BSCI students develop student-centered and groupenabled skills for greater success in UM courses and future careers.
Bacterium Archaean
Protist
Plant
fig.cox.miami.edu/~cmallery/150/scimeth/c1x11-domains.jpg
Fungus
Animal
Academic activities vs. job skills
First discussion: Identify the activities to which you
devoted the most time in previous biology classes.
A well-known Vatican scholar’s interpretation
of university education
Academic experiences vs. job skills
First discussion: Identify the activities to which you
devoted the most time in previous biology classes.
Second discussion: Identify the job skills that will be
most important for professional biologists in 21st century.
Academic experiences vs. job skills
First discussion: Identify the activities to which you
devoted the most time in previous biology classes.
Second discussion: Identify the job skills that will be
most important for professional biologists in 21st century
How do you feel about these differences?
BSCI Program Is Transforming Itself
• Focus on BSCI 207 as the gateway course into BSCI major
• Switch the emphasis from acquiring isolated facts toward
developing conceptual models for organizing knowledge
• Utilize active-engagement approaches to encourage studentdirected and group-enabled learning and problem solving
(Friday AM @ 9 (section 0101) or 10 (section 0102) in PLS 1140)
• Do diagnostic assessments of student learning and attitudes
• Use education specialists to study the teaching of BSCI faculty,
and how students learn from those faculty
Bacterium Archaean
Protist
Plant
fig.cox.miami.edu/~cmallery/150/scimeth/c1x11-domains.jpg
Fungus
Animal
Grading scheme – Total points - 450
Diagnostic assessments
Diagnostic exam (30 pts) – BSCI 105/106 or AP Biology background.
In-class exam: Wednesday 1/26. If necessary, remedial work for full credit.
Attitude surveys (20 pts) – pre-class and post-class online surveys (10 pts
each) available on ELMS class website. Take pre-class survey now!
Deadline: Friday 1/28
Outside-Class Group Work – groups will form in Friday 1/28 discussion
Homework assignments (120 pts) – 9 assignments @ 15 pts each,
drop lowest assignment. Format: group discussion, but individual writing.
In-Class Exams
3 Midterm exams (150 pts) – 75 pts each, drop lowest score, no makeups.
Final exam (130 pts)
BSCI 207 Team
• Professors – Jeff Jensen and Todd Cooke
• ELMS class website (https://elms.umd.edu) – syllabus, lecture
pdfs, homework assignments, discussion board, etc.
• Teaching assistants – Juannan Zhou and Hafsa Mustafa
• Guided study sessions – Turna Mukherjee
• And the stars of the show – the organisms
Bacterium Archaean
Protist
Plant
fig.cox.miami.edu/~cmallery/150/scimeth/c1x11-domains.jpg
Fungus
Animal
I did not get past this slide
If your clicker looks like …
Push “GO”
Enter “41”
Push “GO” again
Push “Menu”
Down arrow to
“Change Channel”
Push “Enter”, then “41”
Push “Enter” again
For web-accessible devices, go to:
http://www.clickers.umd.edu/students/index_students.html
For general clicker assistance, go to: www.clickers.umd.edu
Fail-safe clicker
Disagree
Don’t know/neutral
Agree
For general clicker assistance, go to: www.clickers.umd.edu
Clicker Test – Your BSCI 105
credit comes from
1. BSCI 105 at UM
2. Comparable course at
other college/university
3. Comparable course at
community college
4. AP waiver
5. Other
BSCI 207: Organismal Biology
Universal physical and chemical laws
Common genomic heritage
Diverse structure-functional relationships
Charles Darwin’s concluding sentence
F. Fig. 23.1
“There is grandeur in this view of life,
with its several powers, having
been originally breathed into a few
forms or into one; and that, whilst
this planet has gone cycling on
according to the fixed law of gravity,
from so simple a beginning endless
forms most beautiful and most
wonderful have been, and are being,
evolved."
On the Origin of Species, 1st Edition, 1859
Is there a major difference between how students and
professional biologists (doctors, teachers, researchers,
etc.) approach biology learning?
Clicker question: Professional biologists have trained
themselves to have better memories for storing
biological facts
1. Strongly disagree
2. Disagree
3. Neutral
4. Agree
5. Strongly agree
How do doctors work?
How do researchers work?
Bottom-up organization starting with isolated facts
vs.
Top-down organization starting with major
concepts/broad principles/big ideas/large systems/etc.
Content Reform in Biology Classes
SFFP
pic
New pedagogy - focus on mastering concepts/principles/big ideas,
and using facts to define, explain, evaluate, and apply
those concepts
One 207 goal – to help you learn how to build conceptual models
Pedagogical reform
Clicker question: I believe that I will get better grades
by studying on my own, as opposed to working in
small groups.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Strongly disagree
Disagree
Neutral
Agree
Strongly agree
Overwhelming evidence in favor of small groups
(for everyody else?!)
Treisman (1992) College Mathematics Journal 23:362-372
Observations: at-risk students tend to study alone
excellent students tend to study in groups
Results: the differences disappear if at-risk students study in groups.
Why?
Wood (2007) Life Sciences Education 7:263-264
Procedure – 1) Ask a clicker question, and sort out the students with the
right answer from those with the wrong answers; and
2) Pair the wrong students to discuss the subject, and then ask a similar
question. Over 75% of the students in the wrong pairs got the second
question right.
Why?
Overwhelming evidence in favor of small groups
Treisman (1992) College Mathematics Journal 23:362-372
Observations: at-risk students tend to study alone
excellent students tend to study in groups
Results: the differences disappear if at-risk students study in groups.
Why?
Wood (2007) Life Sciences Education 7:263-264
Procedure – 1) Ask a clicker question, and sort out the students with the
right answer from those with the wrong answers; and
2) Pair the wrong students to discuss the subject, and then ask a similar
question. Over 75% of the wrong pairs got the second question right.
Why?
New pedagogy – to encourage active group-enabled learning,
as opposed to passive individual learning
Another 207 goal - to improve your group learning skills
Basic structure of 207 GAE
(Group Active Engagement)
For example, this Friday 1/28 GAE
Developing
skills
Group
dynamics
Conceptual models
for major principles
Biological energy
flow; thermodynamic
laws
In-class group
activities
Flow diagramming;
brainstorming
Outside – class
group activities
Apply model to
solve problems
Conceptual models in subsequent weeks – e.g., phylogenetic trees,
endosymbiosis, random walk simulations, transport models, etc.
Homework – outside-class group discussion (Monday-Thursday),
and individual writing (after that discussion and due Friday 2/4)
Grading scheme
Diagnostic exam (30 pts) – BSCI 105/106 background. In-class exam:
Wednesday, 8/31. If necessary, remedial work for full credit.
3 Midterm exams (120 pts) – 60 pts each, drop lowest score, no makeups.
General attitude surveys (20 pts) – pre-class and post-class online
surveys (10 pts each) available on ELMS class website. Take pre-class
survey now. Deadline: Monday, 2/1/2010.
Group Homework assignments (120 pts) – 9 assignments @ 15 pts each,
drop lowest assignment. Format: group discussions, but individual writing.
Final exam (90 pts)
Total points - 470
New pedagogy #3– perform formative (on-going) assessments of the
effectiveness of the teachers and class activities
207 response - Bio education specialists (Kristi Hall and Jessica Watkins) –
use class surveys and student interviews to evaluate class
Is there a major difference between how students and
professional biologists (doctors, teachers, researchers,
etc.) approach biology learning?
Clicker question: Professional biologists have trained
themselves to have better memories for storing
isolated biological facts
1
Strongly
disagree
2
Disagree
3
Neutral
4
Agree
5
Strongly
agree
Top-down organization starting with major
concepts/broad principles/big ideas/large systems/etc.
vs.
Bottom-up organization starting with isolated facts.
How do doctors work?
How do researchers work?
I do not announce to my colleagues that I have memorized all
the facts in a particular chapter of Freeman. We don’t practice
memorizing facts.
We do something different, and so do you. Just not yet in biology.
I want you to spend the next minute or so writing the first sentence
of an essay describing the University of Maryland
Clickers: Do this …
If your clicker looks like …
Push “GO”
Enter “41”
Push “GO”
again
Push “Menu”
Down arrow to
“Change Channel”
Push “Enter”, then “41”
Push “Enter” again
For clicker assistance, go to: www.clickers.umd.edu
Clicker Test – Your BSCI 105
credit comes from
1. BSCI 105 at UM
2. Comparable course at
other college/university
3. Comparable course at
community college
4. AP waiver
5. Other