Brian Rybarczyk, Ph.D.UNC Chapel Hill

Department of Biology

Energizing the Classroom

Introduction to Active Learning

Objectives

• Introduce concept of active learning

• Demonstrate techniques & activities

• Incorporate active learning into your future teaching

da Vinci and the RenaissanceEmbodies essence of the

Renaissance

‘Rebirth’ of learning

Thinking outside the box

Ideas

Discovery

Experiment

Change is good

Brainstorm Activity

Write down ways that your professors taught you

Effective methodsIneffective methods

Brainstorm Activity II

What are some ways you learn best now as a scientist?

What is Active Learning?

Time of class (min)

10 20 30 40 60

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lecture

active learning

From: McKeachie, Teaching tips: Strategies, research and theory forfor college and university teachers, Houghton-Mifflin (1998)

What is Active Learning?

What is Active Learning?students solve problems, answer questions,

formulate questions of their own, discuss, explain, debate, or brainstorm during class

Active Learning

Problem-Based

Learning

Cooperative Learning

Learn By Doing

Inquiry-based learning

What is the purpose?

• Increase student participation

• Increase student engagement

• Increase student retention

• More student ownership in course

• Less lecturing by instructor

• More exciting classroom experience

• Higher level thinking

Improving Lectures

• Plan objectives• Include graphics, charts, graphs, etc• Plan what you want to annotate• Learn students’ names• Cue important points• Give short activities• Give students time to generate questions• Have students summarize major points

Examples of Active Learning

• Dr. Robert Beichner – NCSU

– SCALE-UP – researching effectiveness of active learning in physics and chemistry

– http://scaleup.ncsu.edu/

– Example of SCALE-UP Activity

Active Techniques

• Think-pair-share (pair-share)• Role playing, simulations• Muddiest point/clearest point • Group quizzing• Generate lists• Cooperative learning• Minute papers and writing assignments• PBL and case studies• Concept maps

Reading Primary Literature

• Provide one figure/table to each student group

• Propose a title for the paper

• Delete abstract and have students write a summary

Case Studies

Case Studies

Concerns & Issues

What are your concerns about using active

learning activities & techniques?

Suggestions

• Describe to the students what is happening and why

• State expectations

• Incorporate assessments with activities

• Start off simple (low risk)

• Ask questions, walk around classroom, be attentive to student questions

• Have students rely on each other

Resources

National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science (case study collection):http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/projects/cases/case.html

Problem Based Learning (U of Delaware):http://www.udel.edu/pbl/

MERLOT – (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teachinghttp://www.merlot.org

Journals of Interest:Innovate: www.innovateonline.info/index.phpCBE Life Science Education – www.lifescied.org/ Journal of College Science Teaching – www.nsta.orgBiochemistry and Molecular Biology Education – www.bambed.org

Brian Rybarczyk, Ph.D.

brybar@unc.edu