Category
Partner Profiles
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Understanding Science: Resources for Teaching a More Sophisticated View of Science
02.24.09
BioQUEST has had the pleasure of collaborating with many interesting projects over its 20+ year history. We are developing a series of Partner Project Profiles to share some of that richness with the broader community. For this profile we spoke with Judy Scotchmoor (Project coordinator), and Anna Thanukos (Project assistant and author) of Understanding Science. This profile interview was conducted via e-mail over several days in February 2009.
In a nutshell, what is Understanding Science and why should faculty teaching undergraduate biology be aware of it?
Understanding Science is a fun and freely accessible online resource that communicates what science is and how science really works. In addition to basic content on these topics, we provide tools and strategies for teachers at all grade levels to reinforce the nature of science throughout their science teaching. Research suggests that even college students fail to understand basic characteristics of the nature and process of science. The Understanding Science website can help undergraduate faculty better prepare their students to become scientifically-informed decision makers, more thoughtful scientists, and pro-science citizens who view science as an exciting, interesting, and inherently valuable human endeavor. We have an undergraduate teachers’ lounge that provides many tools to help faculty with this effort.
Can you identify 1 or 2 specific resources that are popular or that you would recommend to faculty teaching introductory biology?
Ahhh… that one is super easy! Understanding Science has developed a Teachers’ Lounge for each grade span, including one for undergraduate faculty. There, faculty will find a growing number of resources. We recommend several introductory activities that can set the tone for the semester by presenting an accurate and engaging perspective on what science is really about:- Mystery boxes: Uncertainty and collaboration Students manipulate sealed “mystery” boxes and attempt to determine the inner structure of the boxes, which contain a moving ball and a fixed barrier or two. The nature and sources of uncertainty inherent in the process of problem-solving are experienced. The uncertainty of the conclusions is reduced by student collaboration.
- How scientific is it? (50kb pdf) Students are given six knowledge statements and asked to rank them according to how scientific they feel the statements are. A group discussion ensues. This activity is adapted from Scharmann et al. 2005.
- Amazon fly This short activity quickly engages the participants in the process of developing testable hypotheses. Students come up with multiple hypotheses to explain a set of observations and figure out how to test these hypotheses. The activity is appropriate for small or large group discussion that could take place during a lecture.
- Thinking about science survey (75kb doc) This survey can be used to help you identify student preconceptions about science.
Where do you get your material? How can faculty help out or provide input?
Our text and graphics are all original. We have an extraordinary team: Anna Thanukos, primary author; Josh Frankel, webmaster (and cartoonist); and Dave Smith (graphic artist). However, the determination of WHAT to include has been the result of in depth communication with all members of our Advisory Boards. Our advisors have reviewed and re-reviewed each word and image included. This has been a highly collaborative effort! Now we are adding additional materials that include profiles, case studies, and teaching resources. We welcome contributions from others and suggestions for other resources that would be useful! As for input, we are very interested in finding out how the resources are being used and how they can be improved, so any feedback would be terrific. You can contact us directly or leave a suggestion on our website.You haven’t mentioned the Science Flowchart. I think the BioQUEST Community is going to be very interested in it. Can you say something about it?
The Science Flowchart is a new, and much more accurate, way to represent the process of science than the usual presentation of the 5-step Scientific Method. You can explore an interactive version of the flowchart and access multiple versions of the flowchart to support your teaching. The Science Flowchart is helpful in conveying the true process of science because it emphasizes science’s nonlinearity, the unpredictability of scientific investigations, the role of the scientific community, and the benefits that scientific knowledge can offer us. Not only is the Science Flowchart a more accurate representation of the process of science, it’s much more exciting too! We think that students will be inspired (and perhaps surprised) by the flexibility of the process of science and the role that creativity plays in science.Who should folks contact if they have comments, questions or suggestions?
Please feel free to contact:
Judy Scotchmoor – Project Manager, jscotch@berkeley.edu 
Anna Thanukos – Project Assistant, thanukos@berkeley.eduEditor’s Note:
I really appreciate Judy and Anna taking the time to do this interview. After their enormous success with Understanding Evolution it was exciting to see the University of California Museum of Paleontology receive National Science Foundation support to take on the nature of science. I was excited to be asked to play a role on their advisory board and it has been a great experience. Their Undergraduate Faculty Lounge is just getting off the ground, but I think it can play an important role in how we explicitly address scientific processes in our classrooms and labs. I’m a big fan of the poster sized version of the science flowchart which you can download here.If you have suggestions for projects that we should profile or other comments please add them below or send them via email to bioquest@beloit.edu.Share this post:
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ActionBioscience: An issues approach to biology
02.13.09
BioQUEST has had the pleasure of collaborating with many interesting projects over its 20+ year history. We are using Partner Profiles to share some of that richness with the undergraduate biology education community. For this profile we spoke with Oksana Hlodan, the Editor in Chief of ActionBioscience.org. The profile interview was conducted via e-mail over several days in February 2009.
In a nutshell, what is Action Bioscience and why should faculty teaching undergraduate biology be aware of it?
ActionBioscience.org is the education web site of the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) and was created to promote bioscience literacy by examining issues in seven topical areas:
- environment – why preserve life’s variety?
- biodiversity – how fragile is our planet?
- genomics – what does the genome reveal?
- biotechnology – how is biotech changing the world?
- evolution – what is life’s history on Earth?
- new frontiers in science – why is it the age of biology?
- bioscience education – what do we know about teaching and learning science?
Articles addressing these issues include links to other websites and resources to enhance bioscience teaching. The peer-reviewed articles offer a convenient way to incorporate current issues and up-to-date discoveries into the classroom. Discussion of the articles can be used to foster student analysis of issues and the application of course concepts to real world situations.When Scientific American chose the web site as one of the five best biology sites in 2003, it stated that,“This straightforward site … contains annotated papers by the world’s most esteemed scientists, plus classroom materials; each article is even correlated to the U.S. National Science Education Standards so teachers will have no problem working the site’s databases into their curricula.”
Since this award was given, the site’s educational resources have expanded to include Spanish translations of select articles, a blog about educational technology, links to articles in the journal BioScience and the AIBS media library. The web site draws almost 2.5 million page views a year and, according to a 2004 online survey, more than half of the readership consists of educators and students.
Can you identify 1 or 2 specific resources that are popular or that you would recommend to faculty teaching introductory biology?
As a starting point I would recommend:Error and the Nature of Science by Douglas Allchin
and
Evolutionary Biology: Technology for the 21st Century by Jim BullOne of the biggest challenges to learning from topical science issues, such as cloning and climate change, is learning how to deal with the information. Basic scientific concepts provide a framework, but students must also know about the processes—how research is pursued, how conclusions are justified, even how scientists may sometimes make mistakes or be shaped by cultural or political influences. Allchin’s article lists the features of the nature of the science that are most important to know, provides examples of errors made by science and how the nature of science self-corrects these problems, and offers teaching strategies to introduce and reinforce scientific habits of mind. Included are links to activities to illustrate the nature of science, including black box exercises and mock forensic activities. Bull’s article is important because it addresses evolutionary biology, an area of science that is so deeply misunderstood. He provides ample concrete examples in accessible terms of how evolution affects research and impacts our lives. Supplementary teaching activities include preparing a mock HIV court case and tracking a Hantavirus outbreak.Neither of the above articles are the most popular statistically — Intelligent Design, with views presented by 3 ID proponents countered by the views of 3 evolutionary biologists is the big one. That’s understandable since the general public (half our audience) is very interested in this topic. However, I would certainly not start intro bio with this topic. The other most-read articles are:
- Genetically Modified Foods: Are They a Risk to Human/Animal Health? by Arpad Pusztai
- Primer on Ethics and Human Cloning by Glenn McGee
- Designer Babies: Ethical Considerations by Nicholas Agar
- The Sixth Extinction by Niles Eldredge.
As you can see biotechnology and evolution topics are a big draw.Where do you get your material? Can faculty submit ideas for topics or contribute resources?
Generally, our staff contacts potential authors with an invitation to submit an article or lesson. However, we consider ideas submitted by writers who provide a synopsis and brief outline of the proposed article.All of our articles examine issues in one of the topic areas listed above. All content is peer-reviewed, and many articles are accompanied by lesson plans written by professional educators and keyed to US National Science Education Standards, with vetted links to teaching resources published online elsewhere. Articles range from 1600 to 2400 words, and are written at the level of National Geographic or Discover magazine. We pay an honorarium for published articles. Many of the articles are translated into Spanish by Hispanic scientists. You can learn more about our publishing policies at [http://www.actionbioscience.org/aboutus.html].Who should folks contact if they have comment, questions or suggestions?
Please feel free to contact:
Oksana Hlodan, Editor in Chief, ohlodan@aibs.org
Sarah Sheehan, Editorial Manager, ssheehan@aibs.org
Editors Note:
Thanks so much to Oksana for sharing information about ActionBioscience. I have always valued the site for the rich content it provides and the fact that the issues focus really grabs students. BioQUEST has had a long relationship with ActionBioscience.org and the American Institute of Biological Sciences and we are looking forward to our continued collaborations.
If you have suggestions for projects that we should profile or other comments add them below or send them via email to bioquest@bleoit.edu.
Invitation to comment:
Have you used resources from ActionBioscience? How did you use them? How might we use issues to drive biological education? Please feel free to share your thoughts by posting a comment.
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