In helping our students become informed and active members of society, it is necessary that they develop certain skills that will empower them to improve their community and governance. These skills include communication, collaboration, and application of information. One way of helping students develop these important skills is through deliberative pedagogy. In this article, we present the curriculum for a small group activity called Deliberative Democracy (DD). Here we describe one DD activity that was iteratively developed over five years for an introductory biology course. In this DD activity, students were asked to develop a policy statement that addresses the question: “What kind of regulations should be placed on cosmetics that contain potential endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs)?” We incorporate multiple strategies in this activity, including readings, videos, worksheets, clicker questions, small group and individual work, and whole class discussions. This activity supports students in developing important democratic skills and provides an opportunity to apply course content to real- world issues.
{"title":"What is in this? Students Deliberate on Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals Found in Everyday Healthcare Items to Build Democratic Skills","authors":"Liz Rain-Griffith, Emma C Goodwin, E. Shortlidge","doi":"10.24918/cs.2022.31","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24918/cs.2022.31","url":null,"abstract":"In helping our students become informed and active members of society, it is necessary that they develop certain skills that will empower them to improve their community and governance. These skills include communication, collaboration, and application of information. One way of helping students develop these important skills is through deliberative pedagogy. In this article, we present the curriculum for a small group activity called Deliberative Democracy (DD). Here we describe one DD activity that was iteratively developed over five years for an introductory biology course. In this DD activity, students were asked to develop a policy statement that addresses the question: “What kind of regulations should be placed on cosmetics that contain potential endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs)?” We incorporate multiple strategies in this activity, including readings, videos, worksheets, clicker questions, small group and individual work, and whole class discussions. This activity supports students in developing important democratic skills and provides an opportunity to apply course content to real- world issues.","PeriodicalId":72713,"journal":{"name":"CourseSource","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69329413","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Photosynthesis is a conceptually challenging topic. The small scale at which photosynthesis takes place makes it difficult for students to visualize what is occurring, and students are often overwhelmed by all of the details of the process. This activity uses a freely-available comic to make learning photosynthesis more approachable and to help students identify their own misconceptions and questions about the process. This activity is appropriate for any college-level introductory biology course and although it was designed for an online class, it could be adapted for in-person learning. In this activity, students work through a four-part online module. Each part consists of readings and videos containing background information on the steps of photosynthesis followed by the corresponding portion of a comic on photosynthesis. Students then use the background information in the module and the comic to identify their own misconceptions and questions and post these in an online discussion forum. The online module is followed by a live session in which the instructor uses the student discussion posts to clarify any remaining questions. Learning about photosynthesis in the unique visual format of a comic allows students to more easily visualize a process that they cannot see with their own eyes. Students enjoyed this activity because it makes learning photosynthesis fun and less intimidating. This lesson is powerful because it allows the instructor to hear from all students in the course via the discussion forum and then tailor the live discussion session to cover student identified problem topics. ,
{"title":"Exploring the Complexities of Photosynthesis Through a Comic Strip","authors":"Ellen M. Wisner","doi":"10.24918/cs.2022.33","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24918/cs.2022.33","url":null,"abstract":"Photosynthesis is a conceptually challenging topic. The small scale at which photosynthesis takes place makes it difficult for students to visualize what is occurring, and students are often overwhelmed by all of the details of the process. This activity uses a freely-available comic to make learning photosynthesis more approachable and to help students identify their own misconceptions and questions about the process. This activity is appropriate for any college-level introductory biology course and although it was designed for an online class, it could be adapted for in-person learning. In this activity, students work through a four-part online module. Each part consists of readings and videos containing background information on the steps of photosynthesis followed by the corresponding portion of a comic on photosynthesis. Students then use the background information in the module and the comic to identify their own misconceptions and questions and post these in an online discussion forum. The online module is followed by a live session in which the instructor uses the student discussion posts to clarify any remaining questions. Learning about photosynthesis in the unique visual format of a comic allows students to more easily visualize a process that they cannot see with their own eyes. Students enjoyed this activity because it makes learning photosynthesis fun and less intimidating. This lesson is powerful because it allows the instructor to hear from all students in the course via the discussion forum and then tailor the live discussion session to cover student identified problem topics. ,","PeriodicalId":72713,"journal":{"name":"CourseSource","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69329431","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mutations in genes can lead to a variety of phenotypes, including various human diseases. Students often understand that a particular mutation in a single gene causes a disease phenotype, but it is more challenging to illustrate complex genetic concepts such as that similar mutations in the same gene cause very different phenotypes or that mutations in different genes cause similar phenotypes. We originally designed this lesson to build off of the CourseSource lesson “A clicker-based case study that untangles student thinking about the processes in the central dogma,” but it can also stand alone. In our lesson, students read or listen to a real-life case study featuring a patient who doggedly pursues the underlying genetic cause of her own disease—muscular dystrophy—and stumbles upon a similar mutation in the same gene that gives an athlete the seemingly opposite phenotype: pronounced muscles. The lesson also leads the students to overlay their understanding of the central dogma and mutation on protein function and disease, compares muscular dystrophy to the disease progeria, and concludes with an ethical challenge. We tested the lesson as both an independent homework assignment, as well as a small group in-class worksheet and both formats were successful.
{"title":"A Muscular Dystrophy Case Study Illustrating the Phenotypic Effects of Mutation","authors":"L. Hodkinson, Julia L. Gross, Leila E. Rieder","doi":"10.24918/cs.2022.42","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24918/cs.2022.42","url":null,"abstract":"Mutations in genes can lead to a variety of phenotypes, including various human diseases. Students often understand that a particular mutation in a single gene causes a disease phenotype, but it is more challenging to illustrate complex genetic concepts such as that similar mutations in the same gene cause very different phenotypes or that mutations in different genes cause similar phenotypes. We originally designed this lesson to build off of the CourseSource lesson “A clicker-based case study that untangles student thinking about the processes in the central dogma,” but it can also stand alone. In our lesson, students read or listen to a real-life case study featuring a patient who doggedly pursues the underlying genetic cause of her own disease—muscular dystrophy—and stumbles upon a similar mutation in the same gene that gives an athlete the seemingly opposite phenotype: pronounced muscles. The lesson also leads the students to overlay their understanding of the central dogma and mutation on protein function and disease, compares muscular dystrophy to the disease progeria, and concludes with an ethical challenge. We tested the lesson as both an independent homework assignment, as well as a small group in-class worksheet and both formats were successful.","PeriodicalId":72713,"journal":{"name":"CourseSource","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69329641","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Immunology is relevant to our everyday lives, driving a need for more engaging and inclusive undergraduate immunology education. One way to engage a diverse group of learners is by teaching them how to read and interpret the scientific literature. This introduction can be challenging for immunology research, which often includes jargon and significant background information. The lesson described here meets this challenge by first teaching students the basics of reading a journal article. Students then read a seminal research article in the field and discuss the data and conclusions via think-pair-share in the classroom. This lesson teaches students the overall structure of a journal article, how to read a journal article, and the ability to read and interpret a research article’s findings. Additionally, students learn specifically about the organization and expression of the genes encoding B-cell receptors.
{"title":"Introducing Immunology Research Literature to Understand B-cell Receptor Gene Expression","authors":"D. E. Morgan","doi":"10.24918/cs.2022.36","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24918/cs.2022.36","url":null,"abstract":"Immunology is relevant to our everyday lives, driving a need for more engaging and inclusive undergraduate immunology education. One way to engage a diverse group of learners is by teaching them how to read and interpret the scientific literature. This introduction can be challenging for immunology research, which often includes jargon and significant background information. The lesson described here meets this challenge by first teaching students the basics of reading a journal article. Students then read a seminal research article in the field and discuss the data and conclusions via think-pair-share in the classroom. This lesson teaches students the overall structure of a journal article, how to read a journal article, and the ability to read and interpret a research article’s findings. Additionally, students learn specifically about the organization and expression of the genes encoding B-cell receptors.","PeriodicalId":72713,"journal":{"name":"CourseSource","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69329498","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Science is a process of discovery where failure is inherent and iteration is necessary, yet instructors often teach the scientific process as if it is a controlled, highly supervised, confirmatory practice of following directions to get a known answer. We believe this mismatch occurs because instructors often struggle to feel comfortable in facilitating open-ended inquiry and giving students the trust and autonomy to experience an authentic scientific process. In this quarter-long lab curriculum, we bring the scientific process into the classroom in the form of an authentic course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE). We present a pedagogy, which is hands-on for students and hands-off for instructors, that incorporates and celebrates the learning that occurs from failing safely and often. The research project presented in this article is a genomics-based CURE where students sequence and analyze DNA genome segments. Throughout the lesson, we present core instructional structures and techniques that are transferable to any project and help scaffold and support the learning impact of the CURE. In the following curriculum, we outline this pedagogy, applied to a model CURE focused on sequencing a bacterium, and suggest ways that both the pedagogy and the core components of our CURE ( i.e., journal club, posters, lab notebook, and self-assessments) transfer to other courses, and other research projects.
{"title":"Hands-On, Hands-Off: The Community College Genomics (ComGen) Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience","authors":"Gita Bangera, Kimberly Harrington, Irene Shaver","doi":"10.24918/cs.2022.37","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24918/cs.2022.37","url":null,"abstract":"Science is a process of discovery where failure is inherent and iteration is necessary, yet instructors often teach the scientific process as if it is a controlled, highly supervised, confirmatory practice of following directions to get a known answer. We believe this mismatch occurs because instructors often struggle to feel comfortable in facilitating open-ended inquiry and giving students the trust and autonomy to experience an authentic scientific process. In this quarter-long lab curriculum, we bring the scientific process into the classroom in the form of an authentic course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE). We present a pedagogy, which is hands-on for students and hands-off for instructors, that incorporates and celebrates the learning that occurs from failing safely and often. The research project presented in this article is a genomics-based CURE where students sequence and analyze DNA genome segments. Throughout the lesson, we present core instructional structures and techniques that are transferable to any project and help scaffold and support the learning impact of the CURE. In the following curriculum, we outline this pedagogy, applied to a model CURE focused on sequencing a bacterium, and suggest ways that both the pedagogy and the core components of our CURE ( i.e., journal club, posters, lab notebook, and self-assessments) transfer to other courses, and other research projects.","PeriodicalId":72713,"journal":{"name":"CourseSource","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69329546","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Teaching scientific literacy skills can help combat the propagation of misinformation online. This lesson is intended to give students practice identifying reliable scientific information on the Internet, in the context of vaccine safety. It was designed for a first-year seminar taught fully through remote instruction but can be adapted for any in-person or blended course. It can also be easily modified to use for other biologically-relevant topics and is especially well suited for controversial topics. This lesson consists of three activities. First, students review an article about identifying reliable Internet resources and search online for vaccine safety information. Then, students meet in small groups to review and rank the resources that each of them found from most to least reliable, referencing the criteria laid out by the CRAAP test (Currency, Relevance, Accuracy, Authority, Purpose). After ranking each resource, students reflect on how their thinking about online resources has changed during the activity and how they will evaluate scientific information online in the future. Finally, students use the reliable resources that they and their classmates compiled during the activity as references to write about how the biology of vaccines relates to the five Core Concepts. Following this lesson, 100% of student groups were able to correctly identify at least one reliable and unreliable online resource and 95% of groups were able to articulate particular qualities of resources that helped them establish their reliability. Further, 100% of groups could articulate how their thinking had changed throughout this activity.
{"title":"Online Information Literacy: Applying the CRAAP Test to Vaccine (Mis)information","authors":"E. Holzhausen, Jhewelle Fitz-Henley, C. Theisen","doi":"10.24918/cs.2022.44","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24918/cs.2022.44","url":null,"abstract":"Teaching scientific literacy skills can help combat the propagation of misinformation online. This lesson is intended to give students practice identifying reliable scientific information on the Internet, in the context of vaccine safety. It was designed for a first-year seminar taught fully through remote instruction but can be adapted for any in-person or blended course. It can also be easily modified to use for other biologically-relevant topics and is especially well suited for controversial topics. This lesson consists of three activities. First, students review an article about identifying reliable Internet resources and search online for vaccine safety information. Then, students meet in small groups to review and rank the resources that each of them found from most to least reliable, referencing the criteria laid out by the CRAAP test (Currency, Relevance, Accuracy, Authority, Purpose). After ranking each resource, students reflect on how their thinking about online resources has changed during the activity and how they will evaluate scientific information online in the future. Finally, students use the reliable resources that they and their classmates compiled during the activity as references to write about how the biology of vaccines relates to the five Core Concepts. Following this lesson, 100% of student groups were able to correctly identify at least one reliable and unreliable online resource and 95% of groups were able to articulate particular qualities of resources that helped them establish their reliability. Further, 100% of groups could articulate how their thinking had changed throughout this activity.","PeriodicalId":72713,"journal":{"name":"CourseSource","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69329695","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The ability to collate information from diverse scientific resources and effectively employ scientific writing is an essential skill for scientists. This lesson describes a semester-long project entitled “Pick Your Poison,” which is designed for use in a one-semester Toxicology course. Students are each assigned to or choose their own individual toxicant as a case study from a pre-selected list of toxicants (poisons) that align with the theme of the course. As content is covered in the course, students complete ten scaffolded, low-stakes writing modules that are shared with groupmates of 4–5 students. Each module covers a major feature of the toxicant, such as chemical features, characteristics of absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination (ADME), and organ-specific toxicities. Students share their work with their group mates and the instructor, peer review one another’s work, and then edit their original post as appropriate to produce a concise, 3–4 paragraph product. At the end of the course, students compile their writing modules into an article in the format of the Encyclopedia of Toxicology. This project can be adapted to any toxicology course through alteration of the content and number of modules and/or the type of final deliverable. Several evidence-based and inclusive teaching practices are included, such as writing-to-learn, peer review, and low-stakes assessments.
{"title":"Pick Your Poison: A Semester-Long Case Study for Undergraduate Toxicology","authors":"J. Gray","doi":"10.24918/cs.2022.46","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24918/cs.2022.46","url":null,"abstract":"The ability to collate information from diverse scientific resources and effectively employ scientific writing is an essential skill for scientists. This lesson describes a semester-long project entitled “Pick Your Poison,” which is designed for use in a one-semester Toxicology course. Students are each assigned to or choose their own individual toxicant as a case study from a pre-selected list of toxicants (poisons) that align with the theme of the course. As content is covered in the course, students complete ten scaffolded, low-stakes writing modules that are shared with groupmates of 4–5 students. Each module covers a major feature of the toxicant, such as chemical features, characteristics of absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination (ADME), and organ-specific toxicities. Students share their work with their group mates and the instructor, peer review one another’s work, and then edit their original post as appropriate to produce a concise, 3–4 paragraph product. At the end of the course, students compile their writing modules into an article in the format of the Encyclopedia of Toxicology. This project can be adapted to any toxicology course through alteration of the content and number of modules and/or the type of final deliverable. Several evidence-based and inclusive teaching practices are included, such as writing-to-learn, peer review, and low-stakes assessments.","PeriodicalId":72713,"journal":{"name":"CourseSource","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69329734","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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