Midterm

Susan came down with my cold I caught two weeks ago. She is still asleep upstairs. I lived on Nyquil for three days and slept through most of it. I still have the cough though. Mucinex has helped some but it hasn't gotten rid of it.

My bio classes heard about mutations this week and were brutally beaten by a fairly innocuous quiz. I was shocked how many still couldn't transcribe a gene. Anyway, the ordeal continued when I hurt their brains with the hemoglobin B-chain gene. I love it because it sums up everything we covered in nucleic acids. Plus, they get to see a real-life gene. The part that makes me smile is their discovery of introns. All of a sudden the gene skips a huge section that isn't translated. Plus the gene makes this weird shift between reading frames. It is a struggle. By the end they are worn out and fried. I had one group bail five minutes before the end of class but I talked them down. The test is on monday and tuesday: 77 questions. It is easier than the quizzes. I've already had a few students ask me if there is any hope for them getting a C (one just wants a D--Pell Grant). Hard to say after just one exam. But there is a trend that exam scores run about the same throughout the semester. I've been really trying to push the idea that they need to study 5-10 hours a week outside of class. Apparently they don't believe me.

Physical science had their midterm this week. Fifty terms to match with their definitions. I had a couple of 100's and a few in the teens. Fortunately for the unengaged students, I didn't weigh the midterm very much so although they failed two exams they are still in the passing range. I guess the rest of the semester will sort of be like a balloon payment. They have a unit exam in two weeks. I really hope my athletes get their acts together by then. Three came late to the midterm so it cut my lecture time in half so instead of starting fresh with geology on Tuesday I will be finishing astronomy.

I was successful on my reshuffling of courses for Spring. They had A&P I down as a hybrid on our campus. I think that is really unfair for students. They do much better and are happier in a traditional course. If they want a hybrid, they can go to MacArthur where all they have is hybrids.

My math colleague Pat Senn and I put in Foundation mini-grant applications for ceiling mounted projectors in two classrooms. For years the math folks have wheeled portable projectors down the hall to teach their classes. I hope we get at least one down in the math room on the first floor. They are about $2000 a piece.

I have returned to my long-range plan of teaching BIO 103 as a PBL class. PBL stands for problem-based learning and looks like a more effective and interesting way to teach. My goal is to cover four units during a semester. So far I have two units mapped out: malaria and milk. By exploring these two topics, students will hit upon the major principles of general biology. It will also help them focus more directly on the goals of college: reading for understanding, writing to communicate, logical reasoning and critical thinking. I would really like a two more units, preferably one dealing with photosynthesis and another dealing with reproduction and inheritance.

I had an epiphany yesterday when I realized that I needed topics that repeated the same general principles in their own way. So by encountering the same principles four times, hopefully, learning will be reinforced. That took a lot of the pressure off.

My big obstacle right now is what to do about the labs. It has taken me years to develop lab activities that reinforce and expand upon material covered in lectures. By eliminating lectures and the traditional slog through the book, what will the lab consist of?

My second problem is dealing with evaluations. How are the students going to demonstrate their comprehension of the material? Exams and quizzes will still be in there but they will also have to be revised. The writing component plagues me the most. Lately, I have been extremely impressed with graphic novels. Since biology is such a visual topic, I thought it would be great for each student group to illustrate their findings as "graphic non-fiction". A few months ago I read about a wonderful library in NYC where they hand out blank sketchbooks. People can fill them with anything. The one caveat is they must donate it to the library. So now they have a growing collection of hand-drawn works. I thought of making my own learning journal when I watch my teaching company course on the weather. So I picture my student groups making their own "graphic biology book" for each unit.

What I will need to do before all of this comes to pass is to work out one unit completely and see if it is possible. I am also considering teaching one course where we would have one unit the first month and then the remaining three as traditional just to see how it works. I am really excited about all of this. I wish I could find some kindred spirits who I could exchange ideas with. I am sure there are other PBL fans out there teaching biology.