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Joliet Junior College
Curt Hieggelke and colleagues transformed his introductory physics
courses into meaningful and exciting learning experiences for his
students. Key to his success is the use of computer-based labs that
actively engage his students through real-time acquisition and
analysis of data, connections to real-world events, visualization and
simulation. These software tools allow students to visualize patterns
of data, use graphical representations in ways that enable them to
avoid getting lost in the data setup and collection details that
accompany most lab activities, and experiment easily with different
parameters in the same lab setup. For years Curt had been using
computers in the classroom to aid in the analysis of data when it
dawned on him that he might go beyond using computers merely for
analysis and instead use them to transform the way his students learn
physics. In particular, he was excited about the possibilities of
using electronic probes that interface with a computer; such devices
would enable his students to actually collect and analyze data
themselves, fostering a predict-observe-explain learning
process that Curt felt was essential to getting his students to
understand-not just memorize and regurgitate-important physics
concepts.
Jeanette has integrated simulation software, Protein Lab, into
her "Protein Bioseparations" course. The software provides students a
virtual laboratory where they can purify 20 different proteins. She
says her students need something like Protein Lab to show them
that the techniques and strategies they are using apply differently
to each protein that they may encounter. The Protein Lab
software allows them to do this by providing them a virtual
laboratory where they can purify many different proteins, and purify
each one in an hour or less. Jeanette emphasizes that once the
Protein Lab software came along, she no longer had to rely so
much on explaining the big picture to her students. Rather,
she could put her students in charge of their own learning. Because
of the balance that Protein Lab brought, Jeanette is confident
that those who complete her class will be well-rounded, successful
lab technicians.
Eric uses software that allows students to see complex
three-dimensional shapes, and understand geological processes in a
way that would be very difficult without the use of technology. The
tools he uses vary from simple color tools to high-end tools such as
VoxelGeo and GOCAD. His classes also use other software that allow
for interactive processing of imagery and commercial image processing
programs such as ENVI, Earth Resources Mapper (ER Mapper) and Image
Web Server. In the past, students learned structural geology via
textbooks, lectures, a multitude of pictures, and years of
field-work. With current technologies, the learning can occur at an
accelerated pace while students simultaneously gain a deeper
understanding of the processes that shape our earth.
William Waller, Linda Becerra, and Ongard Sirisaengtaksin teach at
the University of Houston-Downtown, a 4-year urban university with a
commuter and ethnically diverse student population, many of whom are
under-prepared and work full-time. They observed that students
learned mathematics simply by becoming familiar with the
manipulations and calculations required in their courses.
Fundamental concepts, as well as their relevance to real life
problems, were often entirely ignored by both students and faculty.
Students did not appreciate algebra's use and applicability to
real-life situations, and moreover, the algebra skills supposedly
learned often had to be re-taught in subsequent courses. The faculty
also faced a major problem: Poor student performance in which 70% of
the students in Math 1301 failed. With traditional mathematics
teaching methods not connecting with students, the three faculty
members initiated college algebra reform to improve student
performance and preparation. The reformers re-created the course:
provided numerous opportunities to learn, emphasized learning
fundamental concepts and skills through real-world problems,
stimulated interest by making mathematics relevant, increased math
literacy, used diverse teaching strategies, and created a
technology-dependent curriculum with the design of a simple-to-use
computer interface that their students could use.
Jerry Uhl has been working to develop and implement reform calculus
courses since the late 1980s. Well known for the
Calculus&Mathematica, courseware that he and colleagues
developed at UIUC, Uhl has used his expertise and experience to
assist the UIUC School of Life Sciences (SOLS) in the creation of an
introductory calculus course offered specifically to life science
students. BioCalc is a special section of an introductory calculus
course required of all life science majors at UIUC. Rather than
lectures and textbooks, however, the instructional medium for this
course is a sophisticated symbolic manipulation software program,
Mathematica, that integrates text, lots of graphics, and
commands into an electronic "notebook" format. The program is used to
run the Calculus&Mathematica (C&M) courseware developed by
Uhl, Horatio Porta and William Davis.
The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth is a comprehensive
University with a largely commuter student population. Five faculty
members initiated engineering reform by establishing the IMPULSE
(Integrated Mathematics, Physics, and Engineering) program to reduce
engineering student attrition rates between the freshman and
sophomore years. The IMPULSE program offers an integrated approach
to the introductory engineering, physics, and mathematics classes.
Technology allows instructors to carry out laboratory demonstrations,
experiments, or simulations in a studio classroom rapidlyso there is
time for discussion and interpretation of results. Students progress
through the introductory sequence in cohorts, collaborative learning
methods is used throughout the program, and the attrition rate has
dropped from 40% to 17.3% since the implementation of the program.
Students acknowledge that the program makes them more attractive in
the workforce, believe the program involves an increase in the
workload, offers little flexibility in course schedules, and has a
cohort approach not always appropriate for college life.
Faculty at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor have designed and
teach Global Change I, a team-taught, interdisciplinary course that
focuses on the complex, related factors that affect the world. These
factors include, among others, chemical, biological, ecological, and
astronomical phenomena, as well as sociological and economic issues.
Global Change I is a 4-credit course that has no prerequisites, and
is the part of a three course curriculum that forms the core of a
minor in Global Change. The topics of study addressed in Global
Change I include: origin and evolution of the universe, solar system,
and the Earth; origin of the elements; geological processes; the
Earth's atmosphere and oceans; chemical and biological evolution;
origin and evolution of life; life processes; biogeochemical cycles;
ecosystems and ecosystem dynamics; atmosphere-biosphere interactions;
paleoclimate; sea level changes; climate change and global warming.
The course introduces interactive dynamical modeling. Drawing on
material and computer-based tools from their respective academic
areas of study, and on the expertise of guest lecturers from the
social and natural sciences, these instructors seek to synthesize a
broad array of knowledge into what one student called a "melting pot"
of ideas about global change.
In 1996, Betsy Longley got interested in using modules to teach
better. In 1997, Betsy decided to completely "modularlize" an
introductory course that she alone was teaching. Based on that
experience, she persuaded her department colleagues to use modules in
the three "regular" sections. Data collected indicated that students
performed as well on end-of-semester exams as those who took
non-module sections in previous years, and the module-based sections
reported greater student enthusiasm, less absenteeism, and greater
retention of content knowledge. The following year, neither Betsy
nor her colleague taught the module-based course. When Betsy left the
department, the movement to modularize Chem 111 foundered. Even
though an innovative and effective educational approach may improve
student learning, there is no guarantee it will persist. Why don't
successful innovations "stick?" That question is the focus of this
case study. We present a kind of cautionary tale that suggests that
the toughest part of reforming undergraduate science education is not
about innovating but finding ways for innovations to survive.
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