Biological Literacy Through Classroom Community

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Biology teaching should incorporate the process of scientific inquiry, not just the information resulting from it. Only by involving students directly in scientific experimentation and intellectual debate can they be expected to develop the fundamental understanding of biology required for biological literacy. Engaging students in this process demands a classroom that motivates learning, teaches analytical skills as well as information, and captures the spirit of curiosity and questioning. To meet these demands for the broadest spectrum of students we will address three objectives. First, we will design and evaluate simple, low-cost experimental exercises that illustrate fundamental biological principles and can be conducted in an introductory course without a laboratory. Second, we will construct a set of exercises in scientific study skills that will address the difficulty, shared by many college students, of learning scientific material. The innovative aspect of our approach to study skills is that we will teach them in a forum that is tightly coupled with the biology instruction, which will provide for exchange between the biology instructor and the study skills instructor. Finally, drawing on cooperative learning approaches that are highly effective in other fields, we will develop exercises that can be used to involve all members of small or large classes in active thinking and learning. The product of this project will be a published manual that will explore the philosophy of building community in the classroom and will describe the exercises in experimentation, study skills, and cooperative learning that can be incorporated into introductory-level biology curricula.