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It’s Flipping Amazing! Using screencasting to partially flip a freshman biology course

Melanie Styers , Dept. of Biology, BSC. It’s Flipping Amazing! Using screencasting to partially flip a freshman biology course. What is the course?. BI 125: Cell and Molecular Biology

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It’s Flipping Amazing! Using screencasting to partially flip a freshman biology course

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  1. Melanie Styers, Dept. of Biology, BSC It’s Flipping Amazing!Using screencasting to partially flip a freshman biology course

  2. What is the course? • BI 125: Cell and Molecular Biology • Covers topics ranging from molecular structure (proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids) to the central dogma of molecular biology to cellular organelles and metabolism.

  3. What is the course? • No pre-requisites, required for the biology major and for all pre-health students. • Tagged SM (Scientific Methodologies)

  4. What are the challenges? • Course enrolls approximately 50 students. • Students in the fall range from first-semester freshmen to junior and senior chemistry majors picking up an additional course for pre-health or other programs. • A great deal of content has to be covered in the course, as it is a prerequisite for many upper level biology courses.

  5. What do I see as the biggest issues for students in the course? • Less prepared students struggle with the pace of the course. • Students have a tendency to be “passive learners” in the course without substantial prodding. • It is difficult to get students to prepare for class. • Students have a hard time visualizing processes at the molecular level. • Some students haven’t yet learned how to approach studying at the college level.

  6. What was my approach to improving student learning in BI 125? • Use Camtasia to prepare videos that take the place of ~10 minutes of introductory material for each chapter. Videos were posted on my YouTube channel for easy access. • https://www.youtube.com/user/BSCCell

  7. What was my approach to improving student learning in BI 125? • Hold students responsible for watching the videos and doing the reading via clicker questions.

  8. What was my approach to improving student learning in BI 125? • Increase time for in-class activities and problem solving. • Model kits • Group problem solving

  9. What was my approach to improving student learning in BI 125? • Lectures use a variety of instructional methods, including PowerPoint, writing on the board, and videos. • All lecture materials are posted on Moodle. • Give weekly in-class quizzes to force students to study “as we go.”

  10. What difficulties did I experience? • Finding time to prep all of those videos ahead of time. • Figuring out how to pace in-class activities. • Even when held responsible, not every student will prepare for class. • Figuring out the technology—Camtasia and Turning Technologies reporting functions. • How do I deal with excused absences (sports, etc.)?

  11. What did the students say? • “I like how you did videos. That helped me study for the quizzes because I could always re-watch them.” • “With the videos it has really prepared me for class the following day.” • “The class activities and the videos helped A LOT.” • “The videos before each chapter were helpful in preparing.” • “Videos and class activities made the course interesting.”

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