by Benjamin Freedman, Molecular and Cell Biology
Why had the fishing metaphor been so successful? I theorized that it gave the students a way to personally relate to the microscopic events of cell division. In the next class, I decided to take this one step further.
by Amy Lerman, Political Science
Each group had read their own article as a reasonably complete account of “the way it had happened.” When they began to see the differences between the pieces, though, they were struck by how disparate each account was from the others. In particular, the students were surprised by how even those that were technically “unbiased,” “academic” or “scientific” were unintentionally framed in certain ways.
by Kathryn Peek, Astronomy
The stellar evolution exercise followed from a tenet of my teaching philosophy: occasionally putting larger concepts aside to nail down the basics is important, and doing so can illuminate more complex ideas…The day that I did this exercise in my sections was one of my best days that semester.
by Aubrey Clayton, Mathematics
In addition to learning about the need for a precise definition when making an argument, the class learned to make sense of the symbols in the book by rephrasing them in their own words. Also, they learned that mathematics actually uses a lot of common sense, even if it is sometimes apparently obscured by notation.
by Sophie Dumont, Molecular and Cell Biology
The first few sections were frustrating to teach because I was not able to lead a section at an intellectual level which all students could…benefit from, and was not passing on what I really loved about the class material…Perhaps naively, I decided to try and introduce my students to the research world.
by Suzanne Blum, Chemistry
I realized that the students were not yet able to make the connection between what they were learning in the course and the bigger picture of professional chemical research…[so] I incorporated current literature into two lectures that I designed and presented to the class, as well as into problem sets and exam questions, thereby initiating student discussion about real research advances.
by Amanda Heddle, Environmental Science, Policy and Management
In the semester I taught…there were twenty-eight students enrolled which, in a content intensive course, presents a problem for developing activities that are inquiry-based. The immediate problems I faced as a teacher for this class were how to take the content of the class and facilitate learning through inquiry rather than memorization, and how to make sure that students received personal assistance with specific problems they faced when trying to identify their specimens.
by Elizabeth Shank, Molecular and Cell Biology
It was not necessary to understand the reasoning behind doing any single step, since the protocols in the laboratory manual made it easy to simply “follow the directions.” Because most of my students were reasonably adept at performing the mechanical aspects of each lab…it was all the more difficult to ensure that they understood why they were doing something.
by Lyn Paleo, Public Health
I believe that students in a practice-based field…should receive a combination of theory and skills development. Theory-based lectures are critical; however, they alone are insufficient to the task of teaching people how to design and conduct evaluations for health promotion programs.
by James Endres, Molecular and Cell Biology
At the first meeting I commanded rapt attention by announcing the secret to getting an A in the course. “If you understand the experiments presented in lecture,” I promised, “actively understand them, enough that you can change them to make and test novel predictions, you will get an A.”