Teaching the Processes of Science: A Research Paper-Laboratory Technique

Using web-based instruction to improve large undergraduate biology courses: An evaluation of a hybrid course format

Note from the EditorsToo often, biology has been considered by both students and faculty as the ideal major for the scientifically inclined but mathematically challenged, even though the advantage of quantitative approaches in biology has always been apparent.Increasingly, biologists are utilizing mathematical skills to create simulations or manage and query large data sets.The need for basic mathematical and computer science (CS) literacy among biologists has never been greater.But does this require a fundamental change in the organization of the undergraduate biology curriculum?What is the utility of math/CS in different areas of biology?How can we best provide math/CS instruction to biologists so that the utility is appreciated?Do all biology students require a stronger math/CS foundation, or only those interested in research careers?Given the speed at which technology changes, what is the best preparation?Three different points of view are offered below.Dr. Roger Brent, President and Director of the Molecular Sciences Institute, reflects on the "innumeracy" common among biologists and argues that significant insights into biological problems may be gained from better mathematical intuition.

Exam anxiety has been well-documented to reduce student performance in undergraduate biology courses, especially for students from marginalized groups, which can contribute to achievement gaps. Our exploratory study surveyed 61 undergraduate biology students to better understand how exams affect their anxiety levels, focusing on the impact of exam types, proctoring practices, and time constraints. We also solicited students’ preferences for exam type and recommendations for improving the structure of exams in undergraduate biology courses. Our findings indicate that closed-note exams and proctoring practices, such as LockDown Browser, significantly heighten student anxiety. Conversely, open-note and cheat-sheet exams were associated with lower anxiety levels as these formats allowed students to focus on understanding concepts rather than rote memorization. Students also provided recommendations for improving exam structure, such as allowing students to use some form of notes, reducing time constraints, and balancing exam difficulty with exam length. These findings contribute to the growing body of literature on test anxiety in undergraduate biology courses and provide practical insights for biology instructors seeking to create more supportive and equitable assessment practices.

This thesis describes the design, development, and evaluation of a personalized system of instruction (PSI) in a Chemistry I course at an Australian college of advanced education. The research project had three main aims: 1. To design and develop integrated, self-paced theory and practical courses in Chemistry I using the PSI technique. 2. To construct a course evaluation model and to evaluate the Chemistry I course using this model. 3. To investigate the relationship between personality and performance of students in the PSI Chemistry I course and a more conventionally taught Biology I course. A description is given of the operation of the PSI Chemistry I course. Essentially the five major features of PSI, as identified by its founder, F.S. Keller, were incorporated in the course. These features were: self-pacing; mastery orientation; student proctors; an emphasis on written and oral communication; and motivational lectures. PSI derives its rationale from two major principles of educational psychology. Firstly, that students should be provided with a set of terminal behaviors which clearly specify outcomes; secondly, a system of rewards should be set up and managed so that their application is contingent upon positive behavior by the students. Personalized systems of instruction can be traced as an application of behavior theory in conjunction with the social aspect of treating individual students as important. The research design employed was based on the case study approach to the course evaluation process. A multiple methods evaluation strategy was developed to implement the model, with a particular extension of the model to self-evaluation by the instructor. The strategy involved formative evaluation in the initial design and development stages of the project. The process of course design and development was identified as comprising the first stage of the evaluation strategy. The second part of the strategy could be termed the illuminative stage in which major issues involved in the PSI course were identified and then focused on. The research methods used were: observation, feedback slips, analysis of course materials, questionnaires, interviews, outside evaluator assistance, student records, written comments, and a pre-test, post-test study of the relationship between personality and student performance. A feature of the PSI course was the demands it placed ‚Äö on the management of a complex teaching-learning system. As well as incorporating the elements of the original Keller plan, a PSI learning centre was designed and constructed in order to provide asuitable social learning environment. It was found possible, within the normal constraints of a college system, to run a resource efficient, cost-effective, innovative PSI program in Chemistry I. Performance of students in the PSI course, as measured by grades achieved, were at least as good as in the conventional course of 1973. The problem of procrastination and dropouts was successfully combated by several measures. From course questionnaire results it was concluded that students reacted very favourably to the PSI Chemistry I course and that their interest in the subject had increased during the course. A pre-test, post-test study of the relationship between personality and performance was carried out. Overall, the results suggested that conscientious, responsible, and conforming students performed well in both a traditional biology course and the PSI Chemistry I course. In particular, however, it was found possible to pre-determine from personality profiles which students had greater probability of being at risk in the PSI Chemistry I course. Such students had personality profiles whose Californian Personality Inventory scores varied, in any direction, by large amounts from the mean scores. A further finding was that divergent thinkers were more likely to succeed in PSI Chemistry I than convergent thinkers.

This study examined the effectiveness of the virtual classroom concept for an undergraduate course in management science. A traditional classroom lecture course was compared with the same course with an on-line component to determine if any difference in effectiveness emerged. The course with the on-line option was found to be as effective as the traditional course. In addition, several factors were studied to determine if any were associated with performance in the two instructional approaches. The students' grade point averages and classroom attendance were found to be associated with performance in both cases.

This study investigated demographic, personality, and attitude differences between students enrolled in online courses and students enrolled in traditional, lecture courses. Subjects were 120 education majors enrolled in required Master's of Education core courses. Students enrolled in either online (n = 51) or traditional course format (n = 69) during summer and fall semesters 2001. The two groups of students were compared on an author-designed questionnaire assessing students' demographic characteristics and attitudes toward both online and traditional instruction and the Cattell Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire. Analysis indicated high demographic and interpersonal similarity between students enrolled in online course formats and students enrolled in traditional, face-to-face course formats. Significant differences in attitude were found between the two groups; online courses were rated higher by online students but viewed with considerable ambivalence by students enrolled in traditional section courses.

OF THESIS AM I ABLE TO PREDICT HOW I WILL DO? EXAMINING CALIBRATION IN AN UNDERGRADUATE BIOLOGY COURSE Students who are self-regulated are more likely to succeed academically, whereas students who have deficiencies in their learning have been recognized as having a lack of metacognitive awareness (Valdez, 2013; Zimmerman, 2002). If students are metacognitively unaware in large introductory courses, they may have difficulty knowing when to self-regulate and modify their learning (Lin & Zabrucky, 1998; Stone, 2000). One manner in which researchers have assessed students’ metacognitive awareness is by asking students to estimate how they think they will do on tasks compared to their actual performance, known as calibration. The purpose of this study was to examine students’ calibration and study habits. Participants were undergraduates (N = 384) in an introductory biology course at a southeastern U.S. university. Students completed four surveys that assessed their exam score expectations and the study habits they used prior to each exam. Results showed that students’ estimates are most discrepant from their actual performance early in the semester and become more accurate at the end of the semester. A closer look at students’ study habits revealed that the inaccuracy of students’ exam judgments showed little connection to the study strategies that students used. Findings from this study are important for biology instructors.

With the blossoming of evolutionary developmental biology and evolutionary genomics following on the heels of the recent molecular revolution in evolutionary biology, the field is arguably expansive and integrative than ever. This growth has infused an air of excitement and anticipation into the discipline, as it appears to be on the verge of providing long-awaited answers to questions such as the structure of the tree of life, the origin of body plans, the genetic changes that underlie speciation, and the genetic basis of those traits that make us uniquely human (Avise 2003; Coyne and Orr 2004; Carroll 2005; The Chimpanzee Sequencing and Analysis Consortium 2005). At the same time, the fact that the pageantry of research in evolutionary biology is so diverse presents vexing questions for those of us faced with teaching undergraduate courses in evolutionary biology: how much of this vast discipline should we attempt to cover in a single course, and what is the best way to organize the material? The question of how much to cover is certainly not unique to evolutionary biology. Indeed, recent examples of streamlined textbooks for other survey courses such as ecology (e.g., Molles 2005), genetics (e.g., Hartl and Jones 2006), and general biology (e.g., Cain et al. 2006), suggests a growing sense that biology students in general may be best served under a less is more model of education. It is debatable whether this trend is motivated by the impracticalities of squeezing a rapidly expanding discipline into a single course, or by the reality of facing students who are poorly prepared for college science courses. However, one additional contributing factor is certain; most students in an upper level survey course in biology have no intention of pursuing a career in that biological subdiscipline. Thus, only a small fraction of students in such a course hunger for the subtle nuances of the field. As instructors, it is clear that these self-motivated students do not present our greatest educational challenge. Rather, our challenge in survey courses, including evolutionary biology, is in helping the uninspired majority learn both the central concepts and the ways of approaching questions in the major fields in biology. Given that challenge, it is difficult to argue against the less-is-more philosophy. Ironically though, it is probably safe to say that the majority of those who currently teach undergraduate courses in evolutionary biology cut their eye teeth while chewing (figuratively, one hopes) on the famously dense, exhaustively integrative, and encyclopedic Evolutionary Biology (Futuyma 1979, and subsequent editions). But while such a textbook provided abundant inspiration for students destined to become evolutionary biologists, its very strengths made it a

Achievement gaps between underrepresented minority (URM) students and their white peers in college science, technology, engineering, and mathematics classrooms are persistent across many white-majority institutions of higher education. Attempts to reduce this phenomenon of underperformance through increasing classroom structure via active learning have been partially successful. In this study, we address the hypothesis that the achievement gap between white and URM students in an undergraduate biology course has a psychological and emotional component arising from stereotype threat. Specifically, we introduced a values affirmation exercise that counters stereotype threat by reinforcing a student's feelings of integrity and self-worth in three iterations of an intensive active-learning college biology course. On average, this exercise reduced the achievement gap between URM and white students who entered the course with the same incoming grade point average. This result suggests that achievement gaps resulting from the underperformance of URM students could be mitigated by providing students with a learning environment that removes psychological and emotional impediments of performance through short psychosocial interventions.

Field biology courses provide the ultimate experiential education as students discover the links between theory and practice in ecology and evolution directly in nature. During the spring and summer of 2020, the COVID‐19 pandemic led to the cancelation of face‐to‐face classes in almost every university in Canada. Whereas traditional university courses were mostly transferred online, the online transition for field biology courses was not so common. Here, I provide an account of a successful transition from traditional field biology course to an online “backyard biology” field course with a small class size of 10 students. While the online field course may not provide the same level of interpersonal benefits of the traditional field course experience, the model outlined here demonstrates that an online field course that incorporates direct experience with the natural environment is possible and should no longer be considered an oxymoron.

Over the past decade, repeated calls have been made to incorporate more active teaching and learning in undergraduate biology courses. The emphasis on inquiry-based teaching is especially important in laboratory courses, as these are the courses in which students are applying the process of science. To determine the current state of research on inquiry-based teaching in undergraduate biology laboratory courses, we reviewed the recent published literature on inquiry-based exercises. The majority of studies in our data set were in the subdisciplines of biochemistry, cell biology, developmental biology, genetics, and molecular biology. In addition, most exercises were guided inquiry, rather than open ended or research based. Almost 75% of the studies included assessment data, with two-thirds of these studies including multiple types of assessment data. However, few exercises were assessed in multiple courses or at multiple institutions. Furthermore, assessments were rarely based on published instruments. Although the results of the studies in our data set show a positive effect of inquiry-based teaching in biology laboratory courses on student learning gains, research that uses the same instrument across a range of courses and institutions is needed to determine whether these results can be generalized.

Poor instruction has been cited as a primary cause of attrition from STEM majors and a major obstacle to learning for those who stay [Seymour and Hewitt [1997]. Talking about leaving: Why undergraduates leave the sciences. Boulder, CO: Westview]. Using a double‐blind design, this study tests the hypothesis that the lack of explicit instructions in scientific inquiry skills is a major factor in both low STEM retention and academic underperformance. This project delivered supplemental instruction to students in a laboratory‐based undergraduate biology course (n = 314) that was derived either from cognitive task analyses (CTAs) conducted with expert biologists (treatment) or was authored and delivered by an award‐winning biology instructor (control). Students receiving traditional instruction were almost six times more likely to withdraw from the course than students in the treatment condition (8.1% vs. 1.4% of initial enrollment). Of the students who completed the course, those who received the CTA‐based instruction demonstrated significantly higher levels of performance in the discussion section of their written laboratory reports. Significantly higher performances were seen specifically in the areas of analyzing data to formulate valid conclusions, considering alternative explanations, consideration for the limitations of the experimental design and implications of the research. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47: 1165–1185, 2010

Assessing the Impact of an Undergraduate Biology Course for Non-Majors on Students’ Scientific Literacy, Perceptions of Science, and Confidence in Their Ability to Engage in Scientific Inquiry

Chapter 12 Desegregating Undergraduate Mathematics and Biology—Interdisciplinary Instruction with Emphasis on Ongoing Biomedical Research

Students often struggle with weighing multiple sides of bioethical dilemmas. The assignment described here incorporates discussion of ethical dilemmas in an upper-level undergraduate biology course. Students are introduced to ethical dilemmas in genetics through discussion of issues in small groups. They are then polled as to what positions they take on each dilemma and are assigned to argue a side opposite of one of their choices. Each student receives a subpoena to appear before a Senate subcommittee to give testimony as an expert witness. This role-play provides students with a starting point and motivation for developing their argument as well as a way to distance themselves from their own opinions by acting as someone holding the opposite stance. At the end of the presentations, students are required to reflect on the experience.