Announcements
•
Update resumé: PCR, CF, primer design, gel…
•
Exam II take-home Part 1 is available for pick-up
•
Paper for tomorrow’s recitation is here too.
•
No Office Hours today (have a meeting) but can
make appts tomorrow afternoon if want to chat.
Verbal Final Exam
Feedback: What
helps your learning?
(switch clickers)
GROUPS: Did working in a
group help you LEARN?
(compared to solo)
A. Yep, a bunch!
B. Yep somewhat, working with others helped
me learn some more
C. Neutral, I think either way I’d learn just as
much and as well.
D. Not really that often, not with my group
E. No, I would have learned better solo
BOOK: Did reading and
studying the textbook help you
LEARN?
(compared to multiple choice)
A. Yep, a bunch!
B. Yep somewhat, the explanations were helpful
C. Neutral, I think either way I’d learn just as much
and as well.
D. Not really, I didn’t learn much
E. No, I would have greatly preferred to not read
WRITING: Does multiple drafts of
just one paper help you LEARN?
(compared to weekly “lab reports”)
A. Yep, a bunch!
B. Yep somewhat
C. Neutral, I think either way I’d learn just as
much and as well.
D. Not really, it’s OK but reports are better
E. No, I would have learned far better with
weekly lab reports
RESEARCH: Did independent
PCR research in lab help you
LEARN?
(compared to weekly cookbook labs)
A. Yep, a bunch!
B. Yep somewhat, designing our own plan is
good
C. Neutral, I think either way I’d learn just as
much and as well.
D. Not really that often, I was too confused
E. No, I would have learned better with
traditional cookbook labs each week
VERBAL: Do you think the VF
option is a good idea for learning?
(compared to the regular final exam approach)
A. Yep, a bunch! I’m jumping in the front of line.
B. Yes somewhat, the option is good
C. Neutral, I think either way I’d learn just as
much and as well.
D. Not really, I don’t see it as helpful
E. No, it’s far too much to expect from someone
at our level in this class.
Student Assessment
of Learning Gains
(SALG) website
Inquiry in the Classroom Laboratory: a
four-year study of “Teams and Streams”
Joseph Maleszewski, Marija Krha, Sarah Loznak and Douglas Luckie
Department of Physiology, College of Human Medicine, College of Osteopathic
Medicine and Lyman Briggs School of Science Michigan State University, East
Lansing, MI 48825-1107
What are TS Inquiry Labs?
Before:
Retroactive Learning?
Figure 1: Laboratories focused exclusively on individual learning.
Each student worked in lab alone, wrote lab reports alone and had
only teaching assistants as a source of ‘answers’ to their questions
during lab. Student comment: “I really only understood the
lab when I wrote the report about it a week later.”
•
The literature strongly supports that groups can be
much better learning environments (Johnson et al 1998,
Campbell & Smith 1997), but beyond that, they are
REAL LIFE. Scientists frequently work in groups to write
grant proposals, solve problems and publish papers. By
pooling a knowledge, experiences, and experiments,
groups are able to progress beyond what any individual
could do alone.
So we decided to change to Teams...
Before:
Lots of learning? A new lab every week
Figure 3: Laboratories focused exclusively on various week-long
investigations. Each week students began completely new topics,
techniques and objectives. Student comments: “Why are we doing
this?” “Nobody knows, just do what it says in the lab manual.”
•
A number of studies of longer-term laboratory
approaches have been done in introductory biology.
Lawson and Smitgen (1982) found that a series of
related laboratory investigations could improve the
ability of students logical thought. Similarly, cognitive
development and science process skills of biology
students was found to be promoted by a laboratory
program that emphasized longer integrated
investigations (Journet, Young, Stanley & Scheibe,
1987, Walosz and Yeany, 1984).
So we decided to change to Streams...
Before:
Are we done?
Figure 5. Students followed “cookbook” instructions (that even
explained how to label their tubes etc) to complete the structured
labs. Charged with performing lengthy tedious tasks with unclear
goals, students often recycled papers from the past to succeed.
They were bored and interested in being done and “going home.”
Student comment: “Why bother to repeat the exact same
experiments that every other student has done?”
•
The educational literature has observed that in college
science laboratories students perform cookbook-like
laboratories and are not learning the process skills of
science (Kyle, Penick & Shymansky, 1979, Stewart,
1988). If students are permitted to design their own
experiments, the laboratory protocol itself becomes
‘original thought.’ Planning their experiments often
proves to be more powerful for learning than either their
ultimate results or lab reports (Fogle 1985).
Why we decided to change to Inquiry...
Qualitative Data
1. Bloom meta-analysis
2. Survey data
Before
:
Survey Results
Question: What do you think of the course laboratories and what changes
would you suggest?
“Some things that we did in lab were mainly that the TA did them
for us. I didn’t learn a thing...”
“Weak point was the dullness of some lab experiments.”
“It’s lab, there aren’t really changes you can do.”
“The labs were good, but I think they could have done higher level
labs. I had done most of them in high school. (What changes
would you suggest) Higher labs. Labs requiring more thought.
More complex labs.”
“I didn’t like the potato lab with all the test tubes. Don’t remember
the name.”
Before
:
Survey Results
Question: What do you think of the course laboratories and what changes
would you suggest?
“Some things that we did in lab were mainly that the TA did them
for us. I didn’t learn a thing...”
“Weak point was the dullness of some lab experiments.”
“It’s lab, there aren’t really changes you can do.”
“The labs were good, but I think they could have done higher level
labs. I had done most of them in high school. (What changes
would you suggest) Higher labs. Labs requiring more thought.
More complex labs.”
“I didn’t like the potato lab with all the test tubes. Don’t remember
the name.”
Survey Results
After:
“The lab was set up much better than previous classes. This was
the best lab I’ve had here. I loved working in large lab groups.
Overall this class has improved my understanding of many
biology related systems.”
“I liked the lab – I’m usually not in favor of group work, but this
was different. I learned so much from them and understood what
we were doing when we designed our own labs. The fun
independent labs made the beginning cookbook labs seem
really dull. Because we had to write the big scientific papers I
really feel confident in my skills and I think that aspect was very
worthwhile.”
“Overall the class as a whole was big pain in the butt. However,
it is definitely the most worthwhile class I have taken in my entire
life. With having the class and lab together it allowed for greater
understanding of many biological concepts. Future classes
along with ours will complain about the workload, but what
Survey Results
After:
“The lab was set up much better than previous classes. This was
the best lab I’ve had here. I loved working in large lab groups.
Overall this class has improved my understanding of many
biology related systems.”
“I liked the lab – I’m usually not in favor of group work, but this
was different. I learned so much from them and understood what
we were doing when we designed our own labs. The fun
independent labs made the beginning cookbook labs seem
really dull. Because we had to write the big scientific papers I
really feel confident in my skills and I think that aspect was very
worthwhile.”
“Overall the class as a whole was big pain in the butt. However,
it is definitely the most worthwhile class I have taken in my entire
life. With having the class and lab together it allowed for greater
understanding of many biological concepts. Future classes
along with ours will complain about the workload, but what
Quantitative Data
MCAT exam questions- content knowledge data
Conclusions
Conclusions
Bloom data: The TS Inquiry approach raises the bar for
science and cognitive assessment in freshman biology
lab
Survey data: The TS Inquiry approach increases student
opinion of workload, learning and ‘affective’ elements of
lab
MCAT exam data: Freshman undergraduates who
completed TS Inquiry labs scored higher than peers on
knowledge questions developed and validated from
MCAT exams
http://surf.to/teamstreams
Why did I show you this?
✪ Helpful to understand the evidence to
support why lab is run this way