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 groupE. 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 muchE. 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 somewhatC. Neutral, I think either way I’d learn just as much and as well.D. Not really, it’s OK but reports are betterE. 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 goodC. Neutral, I think either way I’d learn just as much and as well.D. Not really that often, I was too confusedE. 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 goodC. Neutral, I think either way I’d learn just as much and as well.D. Not really, I don’t see it as helpfulE. 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?

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.

Before:

Retroactive Learning?

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...

Figure 3: Laboratories focused exclusively on various week-long investigations. Each week students began completely new topics, techniques and objectives.

Before:

Lots of learning? A new lab every week

Student comments: “Why are we doing this?” “Nobody knows, just do what it says in the lab manual.”

So we decided to change to Streams...

• 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).

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.”

Before:

Are we done?

Student comment: “Why bother to repeat the exact same experiments that every other student has done?”

Why we decided to change to Inquiry...

• 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).

Qualitative Data

1. Bloom meta-analysis

2. Survey data

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.”

Before:

Survey Results “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 comes out of the learning is amazing.”

After:

Survey Results “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 comes out of the learning is amazing.”

After:

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

✪ Helpful to understand the evidence to support why lab is run

this way

Why did I show you this?