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Volume 13, Number 196

number of matches minus any mismatches or gaps needed

for the alignments. To continue the game, you must at leastmatch the par score for the initial heurist ic alignment and

any optimization provided by other players. If you cannotreach the par score in the time allotted, the game ends. The

program also provides the regional sequence informationfor a related common ancestor at the branch of the regions

being analyzed. You can call this common ancestor up onthe game page by clicking the phylogenetic tree root to helpwith your own alignment.

The game presents a very good visual representationof heuristic algorithms and how they process and organize

large amounts sequence data. I think it can be used as agood pedagogical tool to visually demonstrate and putinto practice sequence alignment without having to get

too heavily into algorithm design. The fact that this is allweb-based means there is no need for any special bioin-

formatics software or access to a supercomputer. In myopinion, it is an activity meant for college-level students

or extremely bright high school students. Phylois challeng-

ing and students should probably have an introduction tobioinformatics and human genetic disorders before playing.

I feel that this background information will help energizethe students, especially if you point out how their align-

ments will help optimize the information put forth by theHuman Genome Project. Speaking as someone with a

strong competitive nature, my interest was piqued by themore complex alignments. I did fairly well playing differ-ent levels, but I could get extremely frustrated with the

timed nature of the game. Some younger students couldbecome too focused on the time allowed, rather than thelearning benets of multiple sequence alignment that the

game provides. However, players with the maturity will seePhylofor the challenge that bioinformatics can in itself be.

Michael R. Leonardo

Coe College, Cedar Rapids, IAE-mail: mleonard@coe.edu

A Case for Active Learning

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.v13i1.398

Bard College faculty jointly review the National Center for

Case Study Teaching in Science (Buffalo Case Studies)http://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/collection/

A lot of recent research investigates the value of case

studies in promoting active learning in the science class-room. Such cases involve the use of scientic concepts

(often based on published data), and engage students withelements such as playacting and dialog, guided analysis ofscientic gures, and critical thinking questions for discus-

sion and reection. Whereas case studies can be effective

at many levels and with differing course structures, as with

most resources they require custom tailoring by the facultymember using them.

At Bard College (a private, selective liberal arts college

in New Yorks Hudson River Valley), rst-year students

are required to participate in a three-week course on the

methods of evaluating evidence in science called CitizenScience. In the program, faculty members are recruited

worldwide from professionally diverse positionsincludingpost doctoral researchers and emeritus faculty. Students

work together on three modules that include laboratoryexperimentation, computer-based modeling, and problem-based learning, and must complete the course during theirrst academic year at Bard. Because they are not grouped in

a Citizen Science classroom according to major or previous

science experience, students of all backgrounds make up aclass section, which provides richness in perspective andinterests. This classroom composition can pose a challenge

to providing appropriate level of rigor. Thus case studiesprovide a platform for challenging students with materialthat is varied and exible, at different levels of complexity.

Additionally, case studies facilitate group work environments

that can enhance student learning, and are especially relevant

in groups of students with mixed subject preparedness.Case studies can be accessed in a number of different

ways, including publications in peer-reviewed journals suchas theJournal of College Science Teaching, or via web sites,

including the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) website(www.cdc.gov/epicasestudies/). These sources do provide

case studies in their entirety; however, cases are oftenpublished alone, or with only a small number of other casestudies for comparison and use. One composite reference

is the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science(NCCST; www.sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/ ), formerly

known as the Buffalo Case Studies Collection.The NCCST resource site, funded by the NSF, is not

only a clearinghouse for case studies, but also provides amechanism for training and support. The NCCST currentlyoffers over 400 faculty-authored cases. These are indexed

by subject (i.e., genetics, ecology, medical ethics, journal-ism, marine science), as well by level. Additional information

based on targeted student interaction is also provided,allowing faculty to customize a classroom experience. For

example, some cases are designed to stage class debate; inothers, students participate in small group Problem BasedLearning (PBL), or the reading of primary literature in-be-

tween classes is required (often referred to as interruptedcases). Some cases, referred to as clicker cases, provide

prompts and questions especially designed for use withstudent response systems (clickers). (One example: I dontneed a u shot by William D. Rogers www.sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/collection/detail.asp?case_id=474&id=474).

Sites usually also provide instructors with guidelines andlinks to examples that will help them decide on the bestapproach for the student audience (www.sciencecases.lib.

buffalo.edu/cs/collection/method.asp).The Bard Citizen Science faculty used a number of the

NCCST cases to facilitate the classroom experience duringthe program in 2012. We chose those that t our focus on

mailto:mleonard@coe.eduhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.v13i1.398http://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/collection/http://www.cdc.gov/epicasestudies/http://www.sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/http://www.sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/collection/detail.asp?case_id=474&id=474http://www.sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/collection/detail.asp?case_id=474&id=474http://www.sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/collection/method.asphttp://www.sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/collection/method.asphttp://www.sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/collection/method.asphttp://www.sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/collection/method.asphttp://www.sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/collection/detail.asp?case_id=474&id=474http://www.sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/collection/detail.asp?case_id=474&id=474http://www.sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/http://www.cdc.gov/epicasestudies/http://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/collection/http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.v13i1.398mailto:mleonard@coe.edu

8/9/2019 A Case for Active Learning

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97Volume 13, Number 1

So, You Want to Be a Better Educator

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.v13i1.395

Review of: Three highly recommended online resources atacademic teaching and learning centers:The McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning at PrincetonUniversity, www.princeton.edu/mcgraw

The Institute for Teaching, Learning, and Academic Leader-ship (ITLAL)at the University of Albany, www.albany.edu/teachingandlearningThe Center for Teaching and Learning at the University ofMinnesota, www.umn.edu/ohr/teachlearn/index.html

Academic Teaching and Learning (T&L) centers aretremendous resources for university faculty, especially in

the sciences where faculty backgrounds during their gradu-ate schools and post-doctoral fellowships are research-

focused and mostly devoid of pedagogical training. SomeT&L centers not only serve their local users, but also place

open material on the web. These are good sources of free,

reliable information and guidance for faculty. One excellentexample is The McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning

at Princeton University (www.princeton.edu/mcgraw). Sec-tions are available for faculty, graduate teaching assistants,

and undergraduates as learners. Resources include: a blog called The Scholar as Teacher

a list of 44 tip sheets on topics such as motivating

students, writing effective exams, dealing with largelectures, and cultivating reasoning skills

28 handouts on time management, effective reading,

problem solving, and other study skills for students online learning styles inventory

Assistant Instructor Handbook (68-page pdf)

I can provide many examples of how I personally foundthe sites useful in a variety of areas. For example, we all have

experience with some students who earn low grades onexams, yet report studying for many hours. I have used the

learning inventories in courses to help students understandthe ways they learn most effectively and thus make moreefcient use of their study time. Inventories allow study

advice to be tailored to a specic students needs.

Another example of a useful T&L site is the Institute for

Teaching, Learning, and Academic Leadership (ITLAL) at theUniversity of Albany (www.albany.edu/teachingandlearning).

This site has a large number of resources, mainly as links.These include:

a list for faculty and one specically for graduate

TAs, organized by general teaching questions, suchas How do I integrate technologies? or What do

I do on the rst day of class?

a special section for new faculty, which contains

a gem (a list of top 10 books for new instructors,including reviews and tables of contents)

a section covering Service Learning (SL) specically,

including how to design and evaluate SL

an infectious disease curriculum, as well as cases that were

specically designed for introducing techniques that use

evidence to test hypotheses. One effective example was thecase Salems Secrets, written by Susan M. Nava-Whitehead

and Joan-Beth Gow (www.sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/

collection/detail.asp?case_id=307&id=307). In the classroom,the students were able to examine data of individuals with

symptoms of mass hysteria in Salem, Massachusetts, andthe controversies surrounding the Salem Witch Trials. Also

effective was a case focused on use of the scientic method

in discovering the cause behind Childbed Fever (ChildbedFever: a Nineteenth Century Mystery" by Christa Colyer).

Cases like Bad Blood: A Case Study of Tuskeegee SyphilisStudies written by Ann W. Fourtner, and Tragic Choices:

Autism, Measles, and the MMR Vaccine by Matthew P.

Rowe, were utilized in multiple sections and were adaptablefor audiences of various science backgrounds. Case sites

provided student material, as well as material (includinganswer keys) for registered faculty members only. Faculty

who were surveyed reported they often used questions

posed in a case study as entry points for class discussion,used supplementary primary literature readings to provide

concrete examples, and did not necessarily lead the classthrough all parts of a particular case.

Some faculty found that the dialog in some of the casesto be stilted and perhaps a bit too dramatic; however, this

may work in a class that enjoys more play acting, or it mightbe the type of activity/part of the case that can be used astake-home reading. Since cases are fully referenced, there are

ways to alter even the dialog to be more suitable for class level.For example, one may alter a conversation to present it as a

physicians patient notes, or have the students come up withscenarios that they nd more realistic. In the Citizen Science

classroom, non-Science and Science majors alike benet from

these types of engaged writing activities, and they allowedstudents with various academic strengths to participate fully.

The NCCST is the currently the most comprehensivesite providing case studies and support for faculty in the

classroom. The website includes links to other case studyrepositories, links to publications that support the use of

case studies in the classroom, a directory of faculty involvedin case study writing, and an in-depth look at the role of casestudies in student learning. The center also provides training

for interested faculty in a face-to-face format during a summerworkshop and fall conference, as well as via training videos. As

with most education resources, case studies in the classroomare not a one size ts all activity. However, the NCCST

does deliver the tools and support to allow educators tomake the most of an active learning based classroom design.

Acknowledgments: The author would like to thank thefaculty of the Bard Citizen Science program for their helpfulcontributions to the writing of this article.

Brooke A. Jude

Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NYE-mail: bjude@bard.edu

http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.v13i1.395http://www.princeton.edu/mcgrawhttp://www.albany.edu/teachingandlearninghttp://www.albany.edu/teachingandlearninghttp://www.umn.edu/ohr/teachlearn/index.htmlhttp://www.princeton.edu/mcgrawhttp://www.albany.edu/teachingandlearninghttp://www.sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/collection/detail.asp?case_id=307&id=307http://www.sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/collection/detail.asp?case_id=307&id=307http://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/collection/author_list.asp?author_id=514https://owa2007.wcsu.edu/owa/redir.aspx?C=46f20fb5b39f41118053d6e96d001960&URL=mailto%3abjude%40bard.eduhttps://owa2007.wcsu.edu/owa/redir.aspx?C=46f20fb5b39f41118053d6e96d001960&URL=mailto%3abjude%40bard.eduhttp://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/collection/author_list.asp?author_id=514http://www.sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/collection/detail.asp?case_id=307&id=307http://www.sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/collection/detail.asp?case_id=307&id=307http://www.albany.edu/teachingandlearninghttp://www.princeton.edu/mcgrawhttp://www.umn.edu/ohr/teachlearn/index.htmlhttp://www.albany.edu/teachingandlearninghttp://www.albany.edu/teachingandlearninghttp://www.princeton.edu/mcgrawhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.v13i1.395