Promising Practice - Frameworks for Reasoning

1. Promising Practice - Frameworks for Reasoning John Merrill, Director Biological Sciences Joyce Parker, Division of Science and Mathematics Education Duncan Sibley, Assoc. Dean College of Natural Science Michigan State University

2. An interdisciplinary team Charles Anderson Merle Heidemann Tammy Long John Merrill Brett Merritt Joyce Parker Ron Patterson Gail Richmond Duncan Sibley Dave Szymanski Mark Urban-Lurain Christopher Wilson The Division of Science & Mathematics Education Teacher Education Biological Sciences Program Geological Sciences

3. A two-semester introductory biology sequence Serves: ~1000 students per year including 70 - 80% pre-service secondary science teachers.

4. Many common structural problems • large enrollment • students with diverse goals • instructors resistant to reform • instructors who believe content knowledge must precede reasoning

5. Undesirable student outcomes Procedural display - Students manipulate words, numbers, and symbols that are not personally meaningful to them.

6. Procedural display Students who can correctly fill out a Punnet square problem, but cannot correctly identify the possible gametes of the same cross. Common student drawing of a heterozygous cell.

7. Informal reasoning about embodied experience Embodied experience includes: • tacit expectations, • practical knowledge, and • stories linked by metaphors

8. Where did the mass go? “The fat was also deposited out of his system through feces and excretion of sweat.” “The fat was burned up.”

9. Defining understanding to: • delineate desired outcomes for instructor and students • guide development of assessment and analysis of students’ ideas • provide a framework for instruction and learning

10. Desired outcome - Principled reasoning • Using organizing principles to make sense of complex processes • Organizing principles - tracing matter, tracing energy, tracing information, context/location • Connected to embodied experience • Free of procedural display

11. Defining understanding to: • delineate desired outcomes for instructor and students • guide development of assessment and analysis of students’ ideas • provide a framework for instruction and learning

12. Framework for reasoning • Content specific • Using the organizing principles to structure the content • Shorthand model of content

15. Assessment • You have a friend who lost 15 pounds of fat on a diet. Where did the mass go? • 1) The mass was released as CO2 and H2O. • 2) The mass was converted to energy which was used up. • 3) The mass was converted to ATP molecules. • 4) The mass was broken down to amino acids and eliminated from the body. • 5) The mass was converted to urine and feces and eliminated from the body. NSF grant DUE-0243126

16. Instruction Classroom intervention to address problems in student reasoning about matter and energy in cellular metabolism

17. marshmallow + campfire --> flaming marshmallow Where has the free energy of the marshmallow gone? • the flame • free energy of products • heat release • disorganized matter • free energy of products, heat and disorganized matter

18. marshmallow + campfire --> flaming marshmallow Where has the mass of the marshmallow gone? • burned up, converted to heat • became smoke • released as CO2 and water

19. Research Preliminary data • 2 sections of cellular biology course • Different instructors • Same basic tools • Section 1 framed metabolism around tracing matter and energy • Common Qs on final • Controlled for differences in students through GPA

21. Middle achieving students • Minority students • Prospective teachers

22. Extending frameworks to other courses • Chemistry • Introductory chemistry • Introductory biology • Upper level biochemistry • Genetics • Introductory biology • Upper level genetics • Community college biology & genetics