7/30/2019 Exploring Beyond the Core: Science Literacy in an Undergraduate Integrated Curriculum

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Exploring Beyond the CoreScience literacy in an undergraduate integrated curriculum

S.L. Symons, A. Colgoni, C.T. Harvey, C.H. Eyles, McMaster University

 What is iSci?i Sc ii s an i nn ova *ve fo ur- yea r un de rg ra du at e pro gr am o ffe red b y th eF ac ul ty

ofScienceatMcMasterUniversity.Withanintakeoffewerthansixty

st ud en ts , a fo cu s on l ea rn in g by re sea rc h, a nd a u ni qu e pe da go gi ca l mo de l,

i Sc ia Dra ct s hi gh -a ch ie vi ng s tu de nt s wh o wa nt a v ar ie d, c ha ll en gi ng an d

integratedsciencedegree.

i Sc is tu de nt s wo rk o n co ns ec u* ve “ re sea rc h pr oj ec ts ” wh ic h pro vo ke ,g ui de ,

andstructuretheirlearning.Theresearchprojectscontainbothgroupand

individualelements,andrequireposi*veinterdependence2, wi th s tu de nt s

sharinginforma*onandresults.Weintroducestudentstogroupworktechniquesandencourage

reflec*veprac*ceandcollabora*veauthorshipskills.Ourtypicalgroupsizeisfour3.

iSciisbothlearningbyresearchandlearningtoresearch.iScistudentsarelearningtobecomescien*sts

bydoingscience4notonlyintheclassroomandlaboratory,butalsobyprac*cinghowscien*sts

communicatetoacademicandgeneralaudiences,howdataisgatheredinthefield,andhowresearchisplannedandperformed.Thisresearchexperienceattheundergraduatelevelwillpreparestudentsfor

theirprofessionallives5.

 What is Science Literacy?

Science Literacy Skills

Teaching Techniques

Survey Methods

Preliminary Survey Results

Conclusions & Next Steps

References

“Teachingunenriched byresearch canseemimpoverished.”1

1.Fernández-Armesto,F.(2010)THES.8April2010.

2.Johnson,.W.,Johnson,R.T.,&Smith,K.A.(1998)Ac*veLearning.

3.Raine,.J.&Symons,S.L.(2005)PossiBiLi*es.hDp://goo.gl/zKv66

Background•  PartofalongitudinalstudyoftheiSciprogram

•  Allcurrentstudentsinvitedtopar*cipateattheendoftheiracademicyear

•  Ethicsapproved,informedconsent,methodsdescribedanddiscussed(awarenessofresearch

ac*vi*es)

•  PilotedsurveyinstrumentinApril2012

•  N=84;91%responserate

•  Academicintegrity

•  Personalandteam*meandtaskmanagement

•  Informa*onretrieval

•  Sourceselec*onandevalua*on

•  Cita*ons,bibliographies,styles,bibliographicsoware

•  Individualandcollabora*vewri*ng

•  Posterandoralpresenta*on

•  Communica*ngwithdifferentaudiences

•  Preparingvisualinforma*on(slides,posters,graphs)•  Thepeerreviewprocess

•  raingandedi*ngofwriDenwork

•  Readingandwri*ngacademicpapers

•  Researchethicsandinformedconsent

•  Researchprocessesandapproaches

•  Professionalcommunica*onandinterac*on

•  Careerdevelopment

Figure2:Sa*sfac*oninopportuni*esforreceivingfeedbackinthestudents’iScicoursevs.non-iScicoursesthisyear(Levels1-3

aggregated).Numberofresponsesisindicatedonthexaxis.

Studentsindicatemuchmoresa*sfac*onwiththeopportuni*es

withintheprogramcomparedtoexternalcourses.

Awarenessofethics,informedconsent,and

researchprojectdesigninanareaoutside

sciencewerestrengthenedbydiscussingthis

pedagogicresearchprojectwithstudents.

Instrument•  SurveyinstrumentwasanonlineLimeSurveyusingLikert

scaleques*ons,plustwopaper-based"graphing"ques*ons

•  Eightpairsofques*onsondifferentskills:

o  Howimportantdoyouthinkthisskillis?

o  HowconfidentareyouthatiScihelpsyoudevelopthis

skill?•  Twoques*onsonlibraryresources

•  Aques*onaboutScienceLiteracyintheiSciprogramat(up

to)threelevelsoftheprogram

•  Aques*onabouttherela*veamountoffeedbackwithin

iScicomparedwithothercourses

EvaluationWealsoevaluatedtheinstrumentfordevelopmentpurposes,askingifeachques*onwasclearly

worded,askingtheexternalconsentmonitorforreflec*onsonsurveyprocedure.

Figure1:Asamplegraphingques*onwhichasked

studentstodrawtheirperceivedskillandconfidence

over*me.

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Completelylackingconfidence

Lackingconfidence

Somewhatlackingconfidence

Neutral

Somewhatconfident

Confident

Veryconfident

Individualwringskills

Level1

Level2

Level3

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Completelylackingconfidence

Lackingconfidence

Somewhatlackingconfidence

Neutral

Somewhatconfident

Confident

Veryconfident

Collaboravewringskills

Level1

Level2

Level3

Figure3:ConfidencethatiSciisdevelopingstudents’skillsin

individualwri*ng(top)andcollabora*vewri*ng(boDom)by

leveloftheprogram.Numberofresponsesisindicatedonthex

axis.Thisdatasetsuggeststhatstudentsareincreasingly

confidentthattheprogramisdevelopingtheirwri*ngskillsas

theyprogressfromyeartoyear.Responsesalsodemonstratethe

generallyposi*vestudentpercep*onofwri*ngsupportwithin

theScienceLiteracycomponentandthewidercourse.

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Completelydissa*sfied

issa*sfied

Somewhatdissa*sfied

Neithersa*sfiedordissa*sfied

Somewhatsa*sfied

Sa*sfied

Verysa*sfied

iScicourses

non-iSciCourses

Level1 Level2 Level3

Informa*on

retrieval

Presenta*on

skills

Presenta*on

skillsMost

Informa*on

evalua*on

Edi*ngyour

ownwri*ng

Edi*ngyour

ownwri*ng

Presenta*on

skills

Collabora*ve

authorship

Informa*on

retrieval

Individual

authorship

Individual

authorship

Informa*on

evalua*on

Edi*ngyour

ownwri*ng

Informa*on

retrieval

Individual

authorship

Collabora*ve

authorship

Informa*on

evalua*on

Collabora*ve

authorship

Preparing

visualmaterials

Preparing

visualmaterials

Preparing

visualmaterialsLeast

Figure4:Arankedorderofstudents’perceivedimportanceofscienceliteracyskillsbylevelintheprogram.Mostimportantskillsareatthe

top.Someskills,likeedi*ngone’sownwri*ngandpresenta*onskills,

becomemoreimportanttostudentsastheyprogressintheprogram.

Bothoftheinforma*onuseskillsstartoffimportant,dipinLevel2,but

riseagaininLevel3.

Scienceliteracy,aswedefineit,isthewring,reading,communicaonandinformaonresearchskills

requiredtopraccescience.Scienceliteracy(ormorecolloquially,‘SciLit’)isacorecomponentofthe

programfromyearsonethroughthree.InLevel1,SciLitisatwo-hourweeklyclass.Conceptsdeveloped

intheinterac*ve,collabora*vely-taughtscienceliteracyclassessupporttheresearchprojectsthatform

thebasisoflearninginiSci.

TeamTeaching: TheSciLitcomponentandclassisco-administeredand

co-taughtbySymonsandColgoni.EachbringsuniqueskillstoSciLit,with Symonsanac*veresearcherandColgoniaprofessionallibrarian.

ClassesandContext:TheLevel1SciLitclassroomcontentoendirectly

su pp ort s up co mi ng p ro je ct c on te nt . Se ssi on s ar e a mi xtu re o f tr ad i*o nal

blackboardteaching,learningac*vi*es,forma*vequizzes,discussion,

andstudentpresenta* ons.Thestudentsar epr ov idedascaffolded

learningexperiencesuchthatanupcomingprojectpresenta*onhas

classsupportforslidedesign,deliveryandprac*ce.

AssessmentandAlignment:Assessmentcomesfromindividualwri*ng

andcommunica*ontasksincludingwri*ngscienceblogpostsandseeking

feedbackonwriDenworkbeingpreparedforotherpartsofthecourse.Inthehigherlevels,studentscan

gaincreditforawiderangeofsciencecommunica*onac*vi*es.

Feedback:Manyprojectsusepeerfeedbackgroups2duringtheauthorshipphase.Studentsarealso

invitedtogivefeedbackonthecourseitself,whichpromotesasenseofinvolvementinprogramdesign

asthecourseevolves.

Skillsemphasis:Student’spercep*onsofpresenta*onskillsasveryimportantsuggestthattheprogram

maybeover-emphasizingitrela*vetoindividualauthorshipandself-edi*ng(thesebeingmore

importantforprac*cingscien*sts).

Highvs.Low:Studentsvaluethehigh-stakesintegratedandcollabora*vewri*ngtasksmuchmorethan

thelow-stakesindividualwri*ngtasks.

GraphingQueson:Weseeinteres*ngpersonaljourneys,buttheyarequitedifficulttoevaluateenmasse.Studentsfinditdifficulttoassesstheirownskillsaccurately.

Longitudinal:Thissurveyispartofalong-termplantogatherstudentfeedbackduringandaerthey

leavetheprogram.Willtakestudentfeedbacktoeditandclarifythisinstrumentforcomingyear.

iSciAlumni:Surveysperformedatone,threeandfiveyearspost-gradua*onwilliden*fywhethertheSci

LitcomponentofiScihasbeenpreparingstudentsforthekindofcareertheyeventuallychoose.

"Students reallyonly begin toget the knackof discoveryand researchby repeating

 the process.”5

Thegraphingques*on(seeFigure1)revealedthatallLevel1

studentsgainedinbothskillsandconfidenceinwri*ngandinforma*onskills.Level2and3studentsseemedtoreflect

moreonconfidencelevels,some*messhowingdips,plateausor

recoveriesthroughtheLevels.Mostoen,confidencelevels

movedinparallelwithskilllevel,however,thiswasnotalways

thecase.

4.HunterA-B,Laursen,S.L.,&Seymour,E.(2007)Scienceeduca*on.91(1)pp.36-74.

5.Russell,S.H.,Hancock,M.P.,&McCullough,J.(2007)Science.316(5824)pp.548-549.

6.Seago,J.L.(1992)TheAmericanBiologyTeacher.54(7)pp.401-405.