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University of Wyoming

-Biology-

 

Originally involving two Biology courses, the CLAAS project is now serving as a model for the entire Biology program!  Scroll down or use these links to see examples of CLAAS work in the undergraduate biology curriculum:

Discovering Science (BIOL 1002)

Life Science (BIOL 1020)

Current Issues in Biology (BIOL 1003)

The Biology Program

 

Discovering Science (BIOL 1002)

Mark Lyford

Director, Biology Program; Lecturer, Department of Botany

 

"Everything I think about now has been influenced by this project.  It's been amazing.  When I think about how I think about my course, the biology program, everything - it's influenced by what I've learned here from everyone around the table."

Mark Lyford

Discovering Science is an interdisciplinary course that integrates biology, chemistry, physics, and earth science for non-science majors.  Fundamental concepts from each discipline are concurrently addressed through lectures, while weekly laboratory activities and discussion groups enable students to understand how to conduct scientific investigations and place science into larger societal issues.  Mark has identified the following literacies:

                 Interdisciplinary connections          Scientific process                  

                                                Thinking as citizens

While these literacies appear throughout the course content, the lab component primarily addresses scientific process, lecture emphasizes interdisciplinary connections, and discussion focuses on thinking as citizens.  The discussion component in particular has been redesigned to help students think more critically about scientifically and socially complex issues.  Mark has developed the following method for teaching this literacy:

  • Four weeks of discussion are devoted to each of three complex and controversial issues: energy use, global warming, and genetic engineering.

  • Students take identical opinion surveys on these issues both before and after they are covered in discussion.

  • Students take the same opinion surveys on three issues not covered in discussion: human cloning, space exploration, and wolves in Yellowstone.  Surveys are administered at both the beginning and end of the semester.

As opinions on such issues are often formed on the basis of limited and biased information, the goal of this activity is for students to appreciate and consider the complexity of issues when forming their opinions.  The desired results are 1) for students to become less certain of their opinions after discussing an issue, and 2) for students to transfer this thought process to issues which they have not discussed in class.  Observation, student feedback, and data analysis have revealed positive change in the way students think about these issues.

 

The following link provides more information on this course:

Sample Opinion survey

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Life Science (BIOL 1020)

Jane Beiswenger

Senior Lecturer, Department of Zoology and Physiology

 

“The students do think that bringing in the societal implications is important in a science class.  They are interested in the topics which are out there in the world regarding biology that aren’t necessarily in their textbook.”

 

Jane Beiswenger

Life Science is an introductory course for elementary education majors.  This course focuses on three general areas: the fundamental principles of biology, the methods of science, and the connections between science and society.  The overall goal is teaching students the essence of science and how to think about it.  Jane has identified the following literacies:

                              Scientific process               Scientific relevancy

                                               Asking good questions

The literacies of scientific process and scientific relevancy are embedded in the lectures, lab activities, and discussions, which are taught as a single block rather than at separate meeting times.  For the CLAAS project, Jane has focused on the literacy of asking relevant, thought-provoking questions about scientific topics and issues as they affect society at large.

To address this literacy, Jane has added a weekly presentation component in which students find a recent article on a scientific topic, submit a written critique on it, and present it to the class.  The rest of the students then question the presenter about the topic.  the goals of this activity are 1) to build up an active awareness of science by continually making connections between the classroom and current scientific issues, and 2) to help students understand the value of asking good questions – a skill which is at the heart of both scientific investigation and civic responsibility. 

Over the period of several semesters, Jane and her assistants have monitored the presentations and analyzed the kinds of questions students are asking.  Ultimately, the project has revealed that although the ability to formulate good questions is often dismissed as a most basic literacy, it is neither easily taught nor formulaically learned.  Through this repeated classroom activity, students’ attention is drawn not only to the value of inquiry, but to the direct relationship between the quality of the presentation (teaching) and the ability of the listeners to synthesize information (learning).  All of these are valuable lessons for the future educators who enroll in Jane’s Life Science course.

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Current Issues in Biology (BIOL 1003)

Jane Beiswenger & Mark Lyford

 

In the Spring of 2005, Jane Beiswenger (Life Science) and Mark Lyford (Discovering Science) began collaborating on an additional revision to the biology program.  Principles of Biology (BIOL 1000) is a general education science course intended for non-majors.  Jane and Mark received approval to create a new course, Current Issues in Biology (BIOL 1003), to replace BIOL 1000.  They have completely restructured the course, moving it from the traditional lecture-lab format to an integrated block based on the Life Science model.  The new course meets three days a week for two hours at a time, and CLAAS principles are employed throughout.

Like Jane and Mark’s original CLAAS courses, Current Issues in Biology emphasizes literacies of science and society, focusing on three current issues that are globally relevant.  The scientific content formerly covered in BIOL 1000 (ecology, evolution, cell biology, and genetics) have been rearranged to fall under the following categories:

                                    ·        Antibiotic resistance

                                    ·        Population growth

                                    ·        Genetic engineering

Jane and Mark have also designed this course in a way that will allow for changes in global issues.  They envision that in upcoming years, the course structure and basic scientific content will remain in place while the topics listed above could be replaced by others that become more pertinent.  By approaching biology in the context of these large social questions, Current Issues in Biology compels students to apply scientific knowledge rather than simply acquire it.

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The Biology Program

 

In the second year of the CLAAS project, Mark Lyford (Discovering Science) was hired as the Director of the Biology Program, an interdepartmental program that serves life science students from three colleges as well as non-majors fulfilling general education requirements.  With the help of his colleagues, Mark is creating a long-term plan to revise the curriculum from first-year to senior level with a structure of working literacies that could transfer from one course to the next.

His team members have begun this immense undertaking by identifying literacies for General Biology (BIOL 1010), with a focus on the skills and knowledge students need for effective data analysis and communication.  Several labs are being revised to systematically incorporate instruction and practice in literacies of analysis and communication throughout the semester, much like the Physical Geology labs designed by CLAAS instructor Erin Campbell-Stone.  Additionally, two of the three General Biology sections currently offered are being taught with substantial interactive components – a significant step considering the class sizes of more than 230 students.  Instructors report that attendance thus far has already improved in comparison to previous years.

Because of his work with CLAAS, Mark has become convinced of the value of assessment, not as something that happens at the end of a process, but something that occurs regularly throughout the curriculum, something that not only tests students’ knowledge but helps them to learn.  As Director of the Biology Program, Mark will be working to infuse this way of thinking into the overall plans for revision.

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