WHAT MAKES SCIENCE RELEVANT?:STUDENT PERCEPTIONS OF MULTIMEDIA CASE LEARNING EXPERIENCES IN ECOLOGY AND HEALTH Bjørn Wolter, Mary Lundeberg, & Mark Bergland

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Overview Research on relevance in science Research questions Methodology

Wolf telemetry project Case It! genetic assays

Results Discussion

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Previous work

“Why are we

studying this?”

Students often find science hard to relate to (e.g. McManus, 2001; Schreiner & Sjøberg, 2004) For students to find science relevant, the methods of instruction must become more culturally relevant and authenticMayoh & Knutton (1997) assert that there are two dimensions of relevancy that must be considered in any form of education: Relevant to whom? Relevant to what?

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Aikenhead’s 7 categories of relevance

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1. What do non-majors students in an introductory biology class think is relevant to learn?

2. What reasons do students cite for their ideas of relevance?

Research questions

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Methodology Conducted focus group interviews with

32 (20 women, 12 men) Questions centered on experiences in:

Lecture Wolf telemetry case project Case It! – a health related case-based

project 4 focus groups

(5-10 participants each)

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Methods

Wolf Tracking

Project

Hybrid lab focused on tracking gray wolves in the Superior National ForestObjectives:Introduce students to observational data collection in biological settings Introduce students to the scientific methodHelp students understand wolf protection programs Utilized pre-existing dataset at www.wolf.org Used Google earth to map individual’s and pack movements

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Methods

Case It! Multimedia, case-based learning environmentStudents work in teams of 2-3, and research genetic or infectious diseases presented as real-life case studies 3 parts:Wet lab simulationsOnline poster creation and presentationRole-playing interaction with other students

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Methods

Case It! 27 teams were assigned to research genetic and infectious disorders (e.g. breast cancer, fragile X syndrome)After viewing a case, students role-play as researchers testing blood and DNA samples Results are presented to “patients” as an online poster, where the researchers answer questions posed by fellow students acting as the patient

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1. What do students find relevant?2. What are student views of

relevance?

Results

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What do students find relevant?

We identified 19 categories of relevance

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Need-to-Know Science Linked to current or potential need Over 30% of all student comments fell into

this category Includes comments related to effective

communication and self-efficacy[Case It!] may be our only exposure to these diseases until one of us has to face it later.

If you were in a situation where you were presented the results for a friend or family member, [one can] compare and interpret it.

...It is useful to have the experience and diagnostic information to help make decisions.

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Enticed-to-Know Science Majority of comments (14.4% of 19%)

coded as role-playing and self-motivated learning

Conferencing is where I personally learned the most just because...I was essentially forced to go look for [answers]...once I got into [role-playing]...I actually forgot what I was doing...I got really into it.

...We had to do a lot of research in helping explain to [patients] what their question was about and what we knew, even if we didn’t know it, we had to research it.

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Science-as-Culture 9.5% of all codes were about global issues Complex topic

…Its important to study both [local and global issues], but for this project it was more important to study local things

People tune out more with global issues, but still think it’s important...What is local?…Global issues affect me locally.

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Value systems in Science Created a new category of relevance to

encompass comments related to human connections in science Altruistic Science Moral & ethical issues Social cynicism Humanistic Science

...I think by doing this...its bringing up our awareness at an age group where we can do something about it still....[and] we can go out and act together or something.I don’t think a lot of diseases are portrayed in the media.

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Personal curiosity Science Personal relevance and curiosity were

important factors to students About 13% of all student comments

Focus on things more related to you personally. When it comes to crops, I don’t care.

I didn’t feel as close to [the wolf project] as I would have it were a child or parent or family member.

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Discussion

Students preferred cases over lecture Interaction between content and

pedagogy MMLE (Caseit!) created need to know science, enticed students to learn science,

personal curiosity.Value systems new category missing from

Aikenhead.

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Discussion

Limitations Areas for future research