Curriculum Development Stand-Alone Report 1 (Progress)

Outside Evaluation Report of Drexel University's Enhanced Bioscience Education Program
1996-1997 (EBE)

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Focus Group

About eight students, several TA’s and five faculty met with the evaluator on May 23, 1997 as part of a focus group discussion about their EBE experiences.

When you look back over this past year in EBE, what stands out for you? What does it mean to be in EBE?

From two TA’s point of view, EBE takes a lot of their time, but they see creative and critical thinking:

• Our work is very time-consuming; we have many interactions, there’s creative thinking, and informal way of interacting with students. It’s on the cutting edge of pedagogy.
• The students’ thinking is good; they research all different kinds of resources.

One student spoke up with her version of how the TA’s help her learn:

• I came in here not knowing anything about working on a team or even how to conduct experiments. But the feedback from the TA’s helps me be more comfortable. The TA’s are on your level. All my friends who are not in EBE are having problems in their courses, but here everyone is helping you to understand things. Since we can make mistakes; we learn better.

One TA spoke about his experience with the groups and made several suggestions:

• I think there needs to be development of better group interactions. It seems like there’s always problems with certain groups that could be solved by getting the groups to work better together. In the first year we were assigned and by the third term, we picked anyone. There’s got to be a better way on how to pick team members… There should be a strict attendance policy for freshman students. They should be answering the question, "What do you do when you’re there?" They have to attend for us to help them.

One participant felt that direct teaching on presentation helped:

• There was some direct teaching on things that helped us as we worked through the experiences, like time management and presentation.

A student felt that the experience itself helped develop presentation skills:

• The experience of presentation helps develop those skills. Each team tries to outdo the other one as soon as they see something cool that one team does, like a QT movie or something. And we learn from the questions the faculty asks us in our presentations as to what we need to work on. It’s more than just the information.

A faculty member commented on the high quality of students’ presentation and communication skills:

• Speaking as one who has seen students’ work before EBE and now in EBE, the presentations and written organization skills are really at a remarkable level. In fact, some of the evaluation teams who have made site visits have told us that the students’ communication and presentation skills are really a very high level -- similar to that of graduate students.

The Humanities’ professor said that the "drafting process is very important and we give lots of feedback to students on how to improve."

She then asked, "Is that carried out after the freshman year? Are the response sheets helpful?"

Two students responded positively:

• We do value those evaluations. It helps us to learn as we go.
• It helps us to get different perspectives, too.

One student brought out that part of her problem was "how much can the TA or faculty person tell us during our experiment? How much hinting or direction should we get? Sometimes it’s very confusing and frustrating."

Two faculty members and one TA responded to this issue:

• The TA is not supposed to tell the student too much; students are supposed to figure it out on their own. It shouldn’t take too long though.
• I have to agree. By EBE 5, students should be able to brainstorm and generate a hypothesis and I would say that 95% of the students can do that.
• They should have been able to figure that out on their own. But there’s no place in the curriculum where there should be some direct teaching on certain aspects of doing science. Because at the end, some students still aren’t able. They just don’t know how. It’s like learning to use the computer, then not knowing how to use a ruler. It’s stuff like that that students need to learn. Sometimes, even though you give the big examples and hope the students get the little stuff, they still don’t. So there must be a way to balance the big picture with the details so that they do get it.

Finally, the discussion turned to some of the problems that the group members have struggled with:

• There’s the uneven sizes of classes.
• Equipment is sometimes a problem.
• Lab resources are not what they should be.
• We had to restrict availability of labs. It happened often. It’s a matter of space; there’s only two labs. We need a TA in the room. Someone present not to supervise but to be there to help out.
• We need a technical person to help us out with the major problems with computers. We might train some of the TA’s.
• Kids need to learn MATLAB and have to come up to speed awfully fast. Some students are using ClarisWorks instead.

Journal Assignment

Students were required to keep a journal as part of their EBE courses, both in Humanities and as part of the portfolio. Journal writing is practiced by many scientists in several ways: as lab and field notes, as a record and documentation of fact, and as a way to generate ideas for further research. From the writing and learning research of the last decade we know that journal writing helps to facilitate the powers of observation, perception and concept development. In practice, it expands and develops thought on many levels.

Portfolio Assignment

Students were asked to develop a portfolio as part of their assigned work to demonstrate what they were learning and to show evidence of their work. They could illustrate their portfolios to reflect their own learning styles and include pieces of change as well as accomplishment. Portfolios were reviewed several times during the year. Two specific journal entries were assigned as part of students’ for this evaluator's analysis:

• the first asked students to reflect on their portfolio experiences;
• the second focused on the students' ideas about their careers in bioscience and their future plans.

The analysis of artifacts in qualitative research provides a detailed view of how the documents and materials reflect the program features and experiences in the language and voices of its members. Listening to students’ voices is becoming an increasingly critical component in educational evaluation and reform. Sonia Nieto writes that "student perspectives are for the most part missing in discussions concerning strategies for confronting educational problems. … and the perspectives of students from disempowered and dominated communities are even more invisible."

For this evaluation, several analyses of student writing are provided with students’ excerpts incorporated intact so as to preserve their individual voices and feelings.

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Portfolio Experience Reflective

Some of the portfolio titles:

• Intellectual growth and Trial and Error
• What College Has to Offer
• Gathering the Pieces
• A New Path Taken: Portfolio of Past and Present Works
• Learning: Gaining Knowledge and Learning About Myself
• The Changing Seasons Throughout the Years
• My Freshman Year Experience
• Believe in Your Wildest Dreams
• Oh the Places We Will Go: The Freshman Year Experience.
• The Making of a College Student
• Academic and Intellectual Growth over the First Year of College.
• The Simple Life of …
• A Year in Review
• My Drexel Experience
• Career Path to Medicine
• A Look into the Course Work of an EBE student
• A Year of Critical thinking in Biology and Humanities
• Nine Months at a Glance

Students wrote a reflective entry about what the portfolio experience meant to them. Their responses were analyzed thematically to discover how the students interpreted their experiences.

One student’s description encapsulated the key goals of the program:

• This portfolio has given me a chance to reflect on this year. I see how much I learned, not just the book knowledge that I gained, but also knowledge about the computers in the lab, how to present an experiment to an audience, and especially how to interact with other people.

Two others felt the portfolio showed them what they could accomplish:

• When I look at this portfolio and see all that I have accomplished, it makes me feel proud and confident. I plan to keep this portfolio as a reminder that I do have the ability to succeed in the field of Biology and it will give me confidence. I actually enjoyed putting it together.
• Creating this portfolio has enabled me to look over all this year’s work to show myself what I can do. It shows the mistakes I have made and how I have improved a majority of my skills. I shows you how, like a seed, I have sprouted into a plant and will continue to do so throughout my education in EBE and at Drexel University.

Several wrote about their own personal growth and development:

• Through putting together this portfolio, I realized that I have learned a lot about time management. I learned how to cope with the stress of due dates and how to organize my time in order to complete assignments to my best ability…
• Based on the items I have included in my portfolio, I feel that I have gathered several important pieces of my personality. Unlike last term, I have decided to include many more items from my personal life. Although I have learned a great deal more about chemistry and biology, I think I have grown much more as a person.
• As I look through my papers, I find myself looking at the high and low points of each subject. I definitely have taken something away from this experience and my freshman year together: time management, dedication, and a genuine interest in your major will make you successful.

However, one student did not value the portfolio experience:

• While I understand that the portfolio is useful to professors or students looking for a job, I feel that at this point in my career and life, it is useless. I found constructing this portfolio a waste of time, especially since it was introduced in EBE2 with a lot thrown at us, especially in the last two weeks … The essay on any topic in science took time researching the material and writing it up, time that would have been better spent doing something else. Surely portfolios would never have anything so broad and unnecessary in them, definitely not a professional one.

One student used this experience to think about her career:

• As I tried to think of a theme and a purpose, I realized one way that the portfolio could help me. So far I have been unsure of what I want to do in the future, so having this portfolio allowed me to analyze what I have done, if I have really enjoyed it, and if I could see myself doing this as a career. I found it for the most part helpful in keeping track of different projects and thoughts I had about what I was doing. In addition, I know that in whatever I do in the future, I will need to be able to keep records like this, so it helped me in that aspect also.

Finally, this student traced the learning, expansion and hard work throughout the year:

• Through the course of constructing my portfolio, I have discovered just how much work that I have done over the course of the last nine months. I started out with a very minimal amount of knowledge about my major, Biology. However, right now, that is a very different case. I have explored the tiny worlds of bacteria and have probed the course of a shark’s digestive system. Even now, I can anticipate my Coop experience, another change to expand my knowledge and understanding of the world around me. I am glad that we had this portfolio assignment; it allowed me to stand back and say to myself, "Wow, I really have been working hard." To me this is a very gratifying feeling.

Journal Reflection on Careers

Students wrote a response to the following journal prompt:

In this course, we have been studying many ways that Bioscience contributes to how we understand and work in our world. Please write about where you might see yourself in a Bioscience career and why you find that interesting or challenging.

Several students were very definite and sure about where they would be going in the future:

• After college I will be entering the Navy and hopefully I will be come a Navy Seal. This is one of my goals in life which means more to me than anything (second to the possibility of dinosaur cloning).
• After I graduate from Drexel, I plan on attending medical school. Johns Hopkins in Baltimore is my first choice and my second is Thomas Jefferson. Currently, I plan on going to neurological or genetics research … I’m also considering attaining a Ph.D. in one of the two fields.
• My dreams and goals include graduating from Drexel University with a bachelors degree in Biology and following up with a graduate program at the UnivP and a Ph.D. in Virology. My ultimate goal is to work for the Center for Disease Control or the World Health Organization. These organization track infectious diseases and outbreaks of epidemics everywhere in the world.

One of these students wrote about his experiences in Alaska and why he will return:

• When we arrived in Alaska I was awe struck by endless ranges of gigantic mountains everywhere, pristine river valleys carved by rivers of ice and millions and millions of acres of untamed natural beauty. It was the time I spent last summer hiking the mountains of Alaska, however, that made me decide to major in biology and have a goal of becoming a state biologist after graduation. … Hiked the foothills of Mt. McKinley, hiked the Talkeetna Range, the Chugach Range, the Brooks Range, and the Wrangell mountains. During our adventures, we saw tens of thousands of animals. Two distinct caribou herds that we saw, in fact, average about 80,000 animals each. You can’t imagine the feeling of camping up on the tundra of a 10,000 foot tall mountain, looking down at dusk into a glacier carved river valley and seeing a herd of thousands and thousands of animals. Or looking over the alpenglow to see a herd of snow-white doll sheep or stopping dead in your tracks on a trail to wait for a 1200 pound brown bear sow and cub to move out of your way. It’s simply amazing. The natural beauty of Alaska is simply unparalleled and I believe must be preserved and protected.

Others are not so sure, and need more time to explore their options:

• I can see this being one of the hardest questions I’m going to have to face in this lifetime … I really think I’m going to go for it and go to graduate school. To do this I’m really going to have to buckle down and pull up my G.P.A. up. … I could really see myself in a few different areas of bioscience. That is what makes this question so difficult to answer.
• I have always been unsure of what kind of career I would have when "I grew up." All I knew was that I didn’t want to be behind a desk and I wanted to do something in the sciences. … One of my strengths in Biology has been physiology; even when I took Biology in high school, my highest scores would be when we studied the human anatomy or did dissections. I get so interest in what I am studying it doesn’t seem like I am doing that much work. I have thought about being a doctor … or a veterinarian, but that would be too hard and is unrealistic for me, but I am not totally giving up on that idea. What was recently brought to my attention was being a nurse. I think it would be great to work with people; right now this seems to be in my goal range.
• My mind has changed over the past couple of years. This year I feel more focused on what I want to be … My dream occupation would be being a marine biologist or a rainforest biologist, but I think I wouldn’t be happy doing that because my work wouldn’t have that great an impact on society.
• My future in biology at this point in my life is unclear to me. I enjoy the topics of biology and understanding genetics and reproduction. But … I do not particularly enjoy the type of work that accompanies the profession. I am not sure if working in a lab is the best place for me to be in ten years … So much remains a mystery about the creation of a human. I think it would be both challenging and interesting to find out exactly how this works. My dream is to find a type of career that has the type of work I can enjoy … so with time I will find out what is right for me.

Other students are motivated by a commitment to improve the environment and the quality of life:

• In the future I would love to be doing something that would be improving the current state of the environment. I could be doing research in a laboratory that is finding a new means of recycling old garbage. I could be a public speaker changing the way people view their current surroundings. I could even be a lawyer and be enforcing current environmental regulations. Any of those careers would interest me and challenge me at the same time.
• One of my extraordinary dreams is to win the Nobel Peace Prize for discovering the cure for AIDS and other diseases. Although this dream might be a little far from my reach, I believe being a physician would help me further study and understand the internal structures of human beings.
• I see myself working in an environmental or ecological field where I would be devoted to making the waters clean to swim in, the air pure enough to take deep breaths without choking and a landscape as beautiful as it was before the cities took over … Most of all I want to make a difference in everybody’s life by making earth a better place to live in.

These students plan a future that includes further study and research:

• Studying all of the organisms and their interactions with each other told me things about myself. It brought out my interest in ecology and in all of the organisms in the pond. I could see myself as some type of field worker doing research on organisms or the environment or collecting specimens. This could be very challenging in that being out in the field, things are experienced, discovered and observed firsthand. Being that I am physically fit, perhaps I can go places in the world to study things that were never discovered before.
• I want to be the one that everyone comes to with a question about that field and I won’t stop until I am a Ph.D. in one of those fields. Whether I work for a government agency or what I want to be the best. If you saw "Species" I want to be the microbiologist that they call when there is an alien to examine.

Two students are planning future careers in medicine:

• I see myself in a medical career as a pediatrician or general practitioner. I chose this career because I would like to help others … my interest in biology and in particular medicine has just peaked recently. My current job as a CNA has made me even more curious about causes and cures for a variety of illnesses and complications. Each time one of my residents becomes ill or something, I want to know exactly what it is they have and how they contracted it. … My other interest involves either research or forensics.
• My thought of actually being a veterinarian is exhilarating beyond belief. My childhood dreams would actually come true … In school, every time I had a chance to shadow a professional, I try to shadow a veterinarian. I did so in Missouri, and I also worked for a veterinarian when I was in ninth grade. I learned a lot from these experiences and really go to like what I saw of the work, even the dirty parts of it. I found that was what I really wanted to do and have been aiming my goals to that narrow pedestal ever since.

Journal Reflective on the EBE Experience

Several students felt that EBE provided them with very specific skills and learning outcomes:

• I have found EBE to be more than innovative. I sincerely feel that the EBE program is an excellent preparation for any biology related career and a very rewarding experience so far.
• We learned so much in my first year in the EBE program. This was because lab was very independent; we students developed our own experiments and we had to carry them out … We were in the lab five hours a week which was more than I had thought we would be. I felt EBE 1 helped all of us get used to the program and become familiar with it.
• With all that I have received through the EBE program, I will be able to go into a job and tackle it with no worries. I will not be afraid of not know how to carry out experiments in a sophisticated laboratory or to speak intelligently in front of others … I owe this confidence and strength to the EBE program.
• In EBE1 we learned how to use the computer for a lab book and had our first slide show presentation. I think that the slide-shows were one of the most important things that we did in all the EBE coursework. By doing the slide shows it helped with communication skills. The poster presentations were useful also. EBE 2 was my favorite because we got to do dissections and study animals. EBE3 was a bit different because we had lab groups.

Students wrote about the program aspects that they valued:

Supportive Environment and Faculty Interactions

• The definite best part of EBE was all the support provided to us. I always had the resources for aid when I needed it. My TA’s were extremely helpful throughout the terms. The one person who my group could not have gotten through EBE 3 without was Bob. He did so much for the entire EBE 3 program with review sessions, lab help, extra lab help, and personal tutoring if need be … I would like to give a special thanks to Bob, my lecture teachers, and Dr. Duwel for all their support. Dr. Duwel provided a very comfortable and informative lab environment that made lab enjoyable as well as informative. I consider EBE in my freshman year to be very successful.
• I started here in Sept. as lost as anyone could be. I didn’t know if I would fit in or could handle the sudden change of surroundings … I have grown up [now] and moved on from that point of my life. I owe it all to the EBE program. … It has taught me many lessons. It has let me feel that I am a person , not a number, due to the closeness of the faculty and their commitment to me.
• The friendly atmosphere from the professors and TA’s was great. Their enthusiasm combined with their knowledge of the material just made me want to learn.
• EBE has been an experience I will never forget. I feel it gives you a chance to really interact with both the faculty and the other students. It makes you believe you are on a job site and you have to do your best to get the job done. … At first coming to Drexel, I wasn’t exactly thrilled being a commuter, but as time went on, I felt as if Drexel was my home as much as the residents.

Lab Experiences

• My expectations of what I thought majoring in Biology meant were not even close. I would have never thought I would be making poster presentations, writing twenty page lab reports, conducting my own experiments, and having lab five hours a week -- and then spending an extra two to three hours to finish an experiment. People might complain about how much time is spent on EBE work, but when I look at everything I have done this year, it was worth it.
• In high school, I basically learned the terminologies of biological terms and facts and sometimes conduct experiments on related topics. However, I never had to develop a hypothesis and questions and plan out my own laboratory projects to answer them. Not only did I learned to design a project to conduct, but I also gained writing, computer, and presentation skills.
• I came to Drexel knowing very little about life or science compared to what I know now. I also feel I know more about lab procedures than my friends at other colleges who are majoring in Biology. At the time I didn’t realize it, but I now see that we have been gradually working up to performing experiments at the level of "real" scientists. … In our Humanities’ class, we read several lab reports that have been published by "real" scientists and I realize that they write them the same way that we do. Of course theirs had a lot more impact on the scientific community, but I think that we’ll build up to that too. … I definitely see the change in my thinking patterns and I feel that I almost am thinking like a scientist! … All in all, I feel that my freshman EBE experience has been positive and I think it is a great program for developing scientific thinkers.
• At first I was overwhelmed when I heard that we would have to design our own experiments. … But when I actually got in the lab, it wasn’t hard at all. … The coaches were really helpful. I think it’s a good idea to have coaches in addition to the TA’s especially in helping the freshman.

The Tinicum Field Trip

• The EBE program has been the greatest teaching experience I have ever had. … The EBE program totally caught my interest right from the beginning with the trip to Lake Tinicum. I think that was the best and most interesting time because that is something that I would want to do for a living.

People

• Through EBE I have met some amazing and diverse people. Most of them I know I’ll be seeing for the next four years and that makes me happy knowing I can count on them when and if I need help. That’s what EBE is all about: people working together to learn to educate. EBE is like a family, unlike the other majors who don’t have people who care like we do.
• I’ve learned a lot from the people I cam in contact with and hope to learn more in the next years here at Drexel. I can’t imagine myself in another program at Drexel and feeling the way I do now about learning.

Finally, one student describe EBE as a valuable, broad and rich experience:

• This EBE program played an essential part in my transition into Drexel. Academically, I was impressed how biology, chemistry and mathematics were integrated together, giving a sense of interdependence. Designing my own biology lab was something new and challenging. The TA’s and Lab Instructor were wonderful to work with. The Heuristic Diagnostic Coaches deserve a large amount of credit of helping me not only learn the material, but learn to become a better thinker and student. The BRC became my second home, providing a better study environment and place to be with friends than the Creese Student Center. … I have learned not only how science works, but how people and life work and how they are always ready to turn me upside down. I have grown not only as a student and biologist, but as a person and a young man looking out towards the new horizons awaiting him.

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Results Summary

1. The EBE students’ immersion into an integrated curriculum, authentic scientific tasks, experimental labs, team projects, field trips and presentations resulted in complex learning experiences that far exceeded their expectations and had a positive impact on their feelings of accomplishment and confidence. Results from the observations, surveys, focus group and reflective entries demonstrated that:

• Students had a growing familiarity and use of the language of science in experimental procedures, lab activities, presentations, and publications;
• Students were active learners as seen in their requests for more student choices in projects, the popularity of field trips, their portfolio development and poster session exhibits;
• Students showed more critical and creative thinking in the presentation follow-up discussions and the range and depth of portfolios and writing assignments; and,
• Students are developing an awareness of what kinds of learning activities they like, what learning is significant, how EBE and Co-op is providing insight into future careers, and what they as Bioscience graduates will have to offer. They see themselves in many careers, including environmental protection, medicine, and research.

2. The survey data showed significant gains in communication, computers and teamwork at the end of the year compared to the beginning. The integration of teamwork, computers and Humanites throughout all the courses and activities has facilitated the development of these skills.

3. The EBE faculty teaching and support were rated outstanding and above average by almost all the students (91%). TA’s support and coaching were also positively acknowledged in the focus group, surveys and informal interviews. Students are also supported through the Center for Academic Support and teacher education students who assist as peer coaches.

4. Students have suggestions for improving EBE by coordinating the assignment due dates, align courses and labs, provide more choice in lab projects, improve communication, and arrange for more lab time, computers and field trips. Faculty and TA’s have suggested better planning, some faculty development for EBE teaching, an educational research study group and more resources in order to maintain the high level and curricular cohesion of EBE learning.

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Conclusions and Recommendations

The EBE program has clearly demonstrated its effectiveness as a model of bioscience education that develops undergraduate students into emerging scientists through problem solving, investigative tasks, integrative curriculum and collaborative teamwork. Computers and technology are woven throughout the curriculum. The presentations and poster sessions have developed strong communication skills, and the portfolios have developed reflective thinking. The DUJOUR/Biology Journal offers students a place to author and publish their work, setting a high standard for the whole group.

Recommendations

1. If EBE is to retain its high quality program and exemplary learning outcomes, it will have to develop a more visible, supportive infrastructure to deal with organizational change. Several strategies are:

• develop more distributable materials (Web-based and/or CD-ROM), including students works, such as the "A Virtual Trip to Tinicum";
• publish sholarly articles about EBE for a wider audience;
• design and produce a guidebook for EBE faculty and TA’s;
• create an ongoing study group for support and continuous improvement.

2. The learning outcomes need to be assessed more specifically within the EBE program framework at the course levels. EBE faculty can utilize current assessments and build from there.

For each course,create a performance assessment matrix that lists learning outcomes and the assessment that will document/measure it. Then create an EBE performance assessment matrix for combined data so that student learning can be mapped in all relevant areas.

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