Teaching Freshmen to Think: Active Learning in Introductory Biology

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The principal investigators, Dr. Judith Miller, Dr. Ronald Cheetham, and Dr. John Wilkes, have designed and conducted a novel freshman biology sequence in which the student take an active role in learning. Students work in small groups to solve problems which they have helped to devise. Laboratories are individually paced and culminate in independent investigations. Philosophy, mechanics, subjective results, and partial quantitative results support the conclusion that the course has been very successful, but problems remain. Under this grant, the principal investigators will undertake new strategies and tasks to improve efficiency; improve individual learning and small group dynamics; upgrade laboratory offerings; and disseminate their teaching methods and materials. This award will enable them to enhance their course offering in order to make it maximally effective for their students and to make their methods available to other college biology teachers.