Faculty Career Enhancement Workshop on Science Education at Grinnell College

1. Project Kaleidoscope –Associated Colleges of the Midwest—Faculty Career Enhancement Workshop on Science EducationGrinnell College, December 5-7, 2008 Project Kaleidoscope Pedagogies of Engagement Project-NSF CCLI Funded (www.pkal.org) Associate Colleges of the Midwest Faculty Career Enhancement Andrew W. Mellon Foundation funded

2. Goals • Strengthen expertise within and across networks committed to adapting, implementing, and assessing research-based approaches that strengthen student learning in STEM fields. • Find ways for ACM colleges to collaborate in supporting excellence in undergraduate science education.

3. Notebook • Schedule • Participant list • Maps (building, campus, to Rubes) • Computer directions • PKAL draft Guide (comments to pkal@pkal.org)

4. A Decade and a Half of Efforts in Science Education, Five Tales Jim Swartz, Dack Professor of Chemistry For my Committed Colleagues

5. Problems • We teach science very differently than we do science. • The generally educated public is not very scientifically literate. • The population of scientists looks dramatically different than the population of the nation. • The facilities that support science education do not facilitate effective teaching.

6. Projects • A Science Division wide approach to improving introductory science teaching with the goal of creating a better overall curriculum and particularly encouraging and enabling those traditionally under-represented in science to be successful. • A Grinnell College initiated new approach to teaching introductory biology

7. Projects • Institutionalization of student-faculty research. • A constortial approach to revising the introductory chemistry curriculum • Improvements in science facilities to assist these changes.

8. Demographics of Who Does Science The Grinnell College Story

9. In the late 1980’s we began to worry in an organized way about the lack of women and students of color among our science graduates.There is some evidence that some students are more sensitive to problems with the curriculum and pedagogy and that changes will benefit all students.

10. Barriers to the Successful Study of Science Acclimation to student life. Different learning styles. Role models and contexts for the study of science.

11. Program Elements to Address Barriers Pre-orientation Program Students are invited to campus a week prior to New Student Days to participate in a special pre-orientation program.

12. Program Elements to Address Barriers Curricular changes Being informed by the work of Treisman, Tobias, Project Kaleidoscope, and of HBCUs, we decided to incorporate more interactive, personal elements into courses. Students are encouraged to work in groups and be part of a 'community of learners'. Several models have been tried, including introduction of one-credit 'workshop' courses taken by some students concurrently with standard courses, partial revision of existing courses, and conversion of standard courses to a workshop format.

13. Program Elements to Address Barriers Early entry into student-faculty research We provide mini-research opportunities for first and/or second year students during academic breaks. These projects may be a week long project, just to get the taste of research. In addition we will attempt to place Grinnell Science students into summer research projects at the end of their second year.

14. Goals of the Grinnell (New) Science Project To foster acclimation to college life through participation in pre-orientation week • Alleviate anxieties of first year which may hinder academic performance and provide uncomfortable campus climate • Acquaint students with services available • Provide a small cohort in which relationships and a support network may be built • Introduce and acquaint students with faculty and Grinnell Science Director • Help students become comfortable with campus

15. Goals of Grinnell Science Project To respond to different learning and teaching styles through interactive science and mathematics courses • Focus on helping participants excel rather than merely avoid failure • Emphasis on collaborative learning and small group teaching methods • Faculty sponsorship and support

16. Student-Faculty Research • We established special short term research opportunities during academic breaks for students who were members of the target population • We generally increases the number of summer student-faulty research opportunities, with some emphasis on early opportunities for students from the target population

20. Funding • Lilly Endowment - General program support including additional faculty • GTE-Focus - Summer research for New Science students • National Science Foundation - Undergraduate Course & Curriculum, Institutional Reform, CCLI, AIRE • Howard Hughes Medical Institute - Curricular Reform and Student/Faculty Research • Grinnell College

21. Evolution • Overtime the pedagogical changes have both accelerated and mainstreamed • The pre-orientation program has been mainstreamed and none of the early faculty are involved and all faculty members involved came to the College since the program started • Early research opportunities have blended into the mainstream of research opportunities

22. Pedagogical Changes • Introductory Biology—A research course • Introductory Physics—Half sections are in workshop format • Introductory Chemistry—All sections use modular problems based materials and some are in a workshop format. • Introductory Computer Science—All sections use a workshop format

23. Charles H. Sullivan1, Clark A. Lindgren1, Jonathan M. Brown1, and David E. Lopatto2 Departments of Biology1 and Psychology2, Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa 50112 The Student as Scientist:A First Course in Biology at Grinnell College

24. Problems with Introductory Biology • Field and information content is exploding • Course traditionally taught in a relay-style in large lecture sections with observational or ‘canned’ labs • Faculty have a hard time agreeing on ‘coverage’ • Lots of content coverage, but students learn/retain little • Students get little sense of what biologists do

25. A New Approach—Introduction to Biological Inquiry • Research-based learning to move away from teaching biology as a collection of facts and toward teaching biology as it is actually practiced. • Each faculty member teaches a section focused on a unique biological question that is related to her or his research interests.

26. A New Approach—Introduction to Biological Inquiry • All sections teach similar skills such as using the scientific literature, designing experiments, analyzing data, and writing scientific papers. • Instead of the more traditional three lecture classes and one three-hour lab per week, each section is taught in the “workshop” format where lecture, laboratory, and discussion are integrated.

27. Assessment We include two types of assessment each semester the course is taught. • The first is course-specific and is given in a pre-test/ post-test format. • The second is a survey given at the end of the course and asks the same questions of students enrolled in all sections of the course.

28. Pre-test Post-test • On the first day of the course, students took a short written exam testing their knowledge of some factual information, data analysis, and experimental design. Similar questions were embedded on the midterm or final exams. Sample questions from one of the sections (The Language of Neurons) are shown below: • 1. Factual Information: What does the term “threshold” mean when it is applied to the nerve impulse?

29. Pre-test Post-test Pre-test Post-test • 2. Data Analysis: The data to the right illustrate the results of an experiment to determine the effect of tetraethyl-ammonium (TEA) and 4-aminopyridine (4-AP) on the resting membrane potential of muscle cells in the superficial extensor muscle of the crayfish. What can you conclude about the effects of TEA and 4-AP on the resting membrane potential?

30. 2. Because of taking this course I am more confident in my ability to learn something about a scientific topic that is new to me. 1. This course gave me insight into the process by which biological knowledge is advanced. 3. I have a different perspective on science than I did before taking this course. 4. Because of taking this course I am more confident in my ability to critique scientific work.

31. What to Do about Introductory Chemistry In the early 1990’s after I taught our introductory chemistry course I felt dissatisfied with a number of different things • The course was not interesting for students • The course lacked coherence • The course gave no clue to students about what is interesting about chemistry

32. The Montillation of Traxoline It is very important that you learn about traxoline. Traxoline is a new form of zionter. It is montilled in Ceristanna. The Ceristannians gristerlate large amounts of fevon and then brachter it to quasel traxoline. Traxoline may well be one of our most lukized snezlaus in the future because of our zionter lescelidge. Directions: Answer the following questions in complete sentences. Be sure to use your best handwriting. • What is traxoline? • Where is traxoline montilled? 3. How is traxoline quaselled? 4. Why is it important to know about traxoline? (attributed to the insight of Judy Lanier)

33. What do Chemists Do? • Ask questions • Consult literature and peers for knowledge and approaches to solutions • Design experiments • Deal with non-linear problem solving • Interpret data and try to draw conclusions • Understand the difference between facts and theories

34. A Little Help From Your Friends--ChemLinks • Gather interested colleagues to define the problem, find points of commonality, design an approach to the solution • Write a grant proposal, ChemLinks is born • The NSF steps in • Shotgun marriage with MC2

36. What is ChemConnections? • series of curriculum modules for first-year chemistry • driven by real-world questions • based on active learning strategies • produced by ChemLinks Coalition and ModularChem Consortium (MC2) • 12 modules published, more to come • based on the “tool kit” • chemical principles • ‘thinking like a scientist’ skills

37. What does a module do? ask real-world questions requiring chemical knowledge make explicit connections with other disciplines build in active and collaborative learning strategies address both chemical principles and thinking skills use multimedia or Internet where appropriate  require 2-4 weeks of class and lab time per module

38. Would You Like Fries With That? The Fuss About Fats in Our Diet From Brock Spencer, Heather Mernitz, Beloit College, Sandra Laursen, University of Colorado

39. The Organization of a ChemConnections Module Set up ‘storyline’: What IS all the fuss about fats? 2 3 4 5 6 1 Culminating project: Summarize, synthesize, apply Bulk of chemistry content, driven by storyline

40. What’s All the Fuss About Fat? Session 1: Is it Unhealthy to Eat Fat? Creating the Context Evaluating Scientific Studies and Media Reports Risk Perception Session 2: What Makes Fats Different From Other Nutrients? Chemical Notation and Model Building Functional Groups Structure-Property Relations

41. What’s All the Fuss About Fat? Session 3: Why is Fat a Necessary Nutrient? Polarity Solubility Digestion Session 4: How is Fat a Concentrated Energy Source? Introduction to Thermochemistry: Calories, Combustion, ∆H and ∆E, Bond Energies,Hess’s Law

42. What’s All the Fuss About Fat? Session 5: What Kind of Fat Should We Eat? Saturation and Unsaturation Isomerism and Hydrogenation Oxidation and Anti-Oxidants Intermolecular Forces Session 6: Should We Eat Fake Fat? Fat Replacers Olestra Culminating Activity

43. Session 5What Kind of Fat Should We Eat? Macroscopic Consequences of Microscopic Structure

44. What Kind of Fat Should We Eat? Session 5 Goals To use titration to determine the degree of unsaturation in fat To use intermolecular forces to explain the differences in chemical and physical properties in different types of fats To learn about oxidation and hydrogenation and how these processes alter fats and oils

45. What Kind of Fat Should We Eat? Session 5 Goals To understand how the chemical structure and physical properties of fats are interrelated To ultimately make a judgment about which types of fats to eat and in what amounts

46. What Kind of Fat Should We Eat? Thinking Skills observation, classification, measurement, using tables and graphs, using models to interpret data and make predictions Science Skills reaction stoichiometry (review), molecular shape (review), intermolecular forces, introduction to crystallography, organic reactions, free radical reactions

47. Exploration 5A: What is the Difference Between Fats and Oils? Exploration 5B: How Can We Explain the Difference Between Fats and Oils? Laboratory Experiment: Bromine Titration Worksheet: Classifying Trends in Saturation Background reading: Cardiovascular Disease Modeling Molecular Shape and Molecular Packing 3D models, RasMol computer modeling

48. Exploration 5C: Should We Eat Fats or Oils? Exploration 5D: Should We Eat Butter or Margarine? Background Reading: Radicals, Rancidity, and Oxidation Data Analysis Problem: Antioxidants Background reading: Trans Fatty Acids Laboratory Experiment: Hydrogenation Data Analysis Problem: Hydrogentated Oil

49. Would You Like Fries with That? The Fuss about Fats in Our Diet

50. Would You Like Fries With That? The Fuss About Fats in Our Diet http://www.cchem.berkeley.edu/~midp http://mc2.cchem.berkeley.edu http://chemlinks.beloit.edu with a link to Web Tools at http://chemistry.beloit.edu http://www.wwnorton.com to order an examination copy and link to Web Tools