ABSTRACT

1. Roadmap to Implementing POGIL in a General Biology Course Beatriz Y. Gonzalez, Ph.D. Santa Fe College ABSTRACT One day the author of this poster realized she was dizzy just from hearing herself talk. “There must be other ways to help my students learn without me doing all the talking”, she thought. Even though the author consistently received high evaluations from her students, she wanted to involve her students more in the learning process. After reading about collaborative learning, she decided to try a simple group exercise in class. The students’ response was so overwhelmingly positive that she decided she needed to learn how to produce more of those exercises, how to manage her classes, and meet other like-minded professors. After attending a POGIL workshop, the author obtained many of the tools needed to make guided inquiry a part of her course. Even though the author has not abandoned lecturing entirely, she has “pogilized” most of her course. A pictorial roadmap will guide the reader on the author’s journey of transforming her course. A list of suggested topics amenable to transformation will be presented with ideas on how to carry out the transformation to a POGIL classroom. In addition, roadblocks on the road to transforming a course will be mentioned along with suggestions on how to overcome those roadblocks. ROADMAP DESTINATION: POGIL BACKGROUND • Studies have shown that strictly lecture-based science education may not be the optimal way to learn science (Lord 2001; NRC 2003). Currently there are several projects advocating a shift in higher science education toward a more collaborative and cooperative approach . One notable project is the NSF-funded POGIL (Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning) project (www.pogil.org). A variety of activities and literature are available for the instruction of chemistry; however, resources for teaching biology are scarce. Here are some suggestions that might help biology professors in the implementation of POGIL followed by a list of topics that lend themselves well for guided-inquiry exercises: • Try not to introduce more than one concept per activity. • Questions in the guided inquiry report must be challenging. You may start with a few simple questions, but they must be followed by questions which answers cannot be found in the book or googled, they must be reasoned. • Correct common mistakes or misconceptions next time you meet with your students (and return them their papers), but resist the temptation to lecture. • They must be tested later on the material they were supposed to have learned. LITERATURE CITED Barkley, E.F. et al. 2005. Collaborative Learning Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Gonzalez, B.Y. and J. H. van Oostrom 2009. Using Dice to Explore the Consequences of DNA Mutations, Journal of College Science Teaching 38 (5): 56-59 Lord, T. 2001. 101 Reasons for using cooperative learning in biology teaching. The American Biology Teacher 63 (1): 30-38. National Research Council (NRC) 2003. BIO2010: Transforming Undergraduate Education for Future Research Biologists. Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press. POGIL Project. www.pogil.org ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This work was funded in part by a Santa Fe College Provost’s Research as Teaching Grant award.