Reforming Laboratory Instruction and Hands-on Experiences for the Millennial learners in STEM

许多教育工作者承认，千禧一代学生的学习方式与其他学生不同，但几乎没有采取任何措施来改变实验室教学以应对这一代际转变。该项目将进行教育研究，评估科学案例研究教学方法在改善实验室教学中的应用。这种教育教学法提倡使用案例或互动故事来吸引学生参与 STEM 课程并帮助改革 STEM 教学。 这些案例将用于介绍实验室概念，作为与实验室中学习的分析技能相关的一种方式。该项目的总体目标是改革实验室“循序渐进”的教学方法，使其变得更加主动、更具吸引力并且与千禧一代的学习者相关。 更具体地说，该项目将使用案例研究方法评估学生的学习偏好、学生参与度、材料保留以及课程概念的学习。将进行定性和定量评估，以评估学生对生物学、环境工程和入门工程课程中方法使用的看法、学生的学习收获和批判性思维。这项研究将评估和比较三个截然不同的大学环境中基于性别、种族和机构类型的数据。这项工作具有产生广泛影响的潜力，因为人们对改善 STEM 领域的教育实践有着广泛的兴趣。这项工作的目标是确定实验室教学的案例研究是否有可能为实验室教学提供跨领域的新范式。

Many educators acknowledge that the millennial generation of students learns like no other, yet little has been done to alter laboratory instruction in response to this generational shift. This project will conduct educational research that evaluates the use of the Case Study Teaching in the Sciences method to improve laboratory instruction. This educational pedagogy promotes the use of cases, or interactive stories, to engage students in STEM courses and to help reform STEM instruction. The cases will be used to introduce the lab concepts as a way to bring relevance to the analytical skills being learned in the lab. The overarching goal for this project is to reform laboratory "step-by-step" instruction to a method that will be more active, engaging and relevant to millennial learners. More specifically, the project will evaluate student learning preferences, student engagement, retention of material, and learning of course concepts using the case studies method. Qualitative and quantitative assessment will be conducted to evaluate student perceptions for use of the methods, student learning gains, and critical thinking of students in biology, environmental engineering, and introductory engineering courses. This study will evaluate and compare data based on gender, ethnicity, and institutional type across three very different university environments. This work has the potential for broad impact because there is widespread interest in improving educational practices across STEM fields. The goal for this work will be to determine if the case studies for laboratory instruction can potentially provide a crosscutting new paradigm for lab instruction.