Message-Id: <v01540b03b0ab65faf53a@[192.174.2.182]>
Date: Wed, 3 Dec 1997 12:20:20 -0800
To: pinhole@exploratorium.edu
From: karenk@exploratorium.edu (Karen Kalumuck)
Subject: Re: AP Science courses
Dear pinholers -
Regarding AP science courses - and particularly biology - I'd like
to submit my opinions for discussion....For those of you who don't know me,
I conducted research in genetics and molecular biology for 8 years as a
doctoral student and postdoctoral fellow, and was a college professor in
Biology for 7 years where I taught a variety of Bio courses, had close
advisory relationships with students through their entire college career,
and managed an active research program involving students focusing on the
physiology of fertilization. I've been the Biologist in the Teacher
Institue for four years, so have a good familiarity with high school
biology courses/requirements and the limitations of the classroom. So, I
do have some experience in this issues at hand.
The largest deficiency I've seen in college students at the
introductory level is their lack of experience in critical
thinking/inquiry. They need experience in designing experiments (inquiry)
including the use of literature searches which leads to an hypothesis, the
use of positive and negative controls, setting up the experiments, how to
gather/record data, statistical analysis, interpreting data, etc. Writing
skills are very good in some of them, highly lacking in others. They need
to learn to communicate their results (obviously good communication skills
serve everyone well, not just science majors!) The use of "state of the
art" equipment in and of itself (ex. PCR, DNA sequencing, etc.) does
nothing to address these issues. If a student has a firm foundation in
the scientific process, how to THINK, then they have no problem using state
of the art equipment. If a student has no idea how to set up an
experiment, what a control is, or how to interpret data, all the fancy
equipment in the world won't help them.
I agree with Steve Eiger's statement:
"Meanwhile students entering college are often deficient in problem solving
>skills, reading graphs, using math; the things that physics strengthens in
>spades."
Absolutely - physics will strengthen those skills. However, I vehemently
disagree with his following statement:
"Bio is too descriptive at that level and does little towards
>getting analytical thinking in gear"
Designed properly and keeping analytical thinking in mind, there are
countless numbers of projects/experiments which could be tackled in an AP
Biology lab, in fact, even in an introductory HS bio lab, which would
address my concerns as well as incorporate math and high level analytical
skills. (for example, I've been doing workshops for HS teachers on
nature's patterns, exploring them; to find out why hexagons are so
prominent in natural forms requires both trigonometry and calculus). I am
more than happy to share the multitude of activities I have in my stock
with anyone who is interested. There is a common misperception that Bio is
only descriptive - and indeed it is often taught that way in HS and even
college - however with a little thought and creativity it becomes highly
quantitative - having students design projects,etc. also allows them
ownership of the project which sparks their interest and enthusiasm.
As far as the statement:
" AP Bio is a rehash of intro bio, and then students
>often need to repeat the same course in college,and then most people go
>into bio fields which are not well covered in that intro course anyway, eg.
>molecular biolgy or medicine. "
No intro college course is going to be able to go in depth in
EVERYTHING, not just biology, and I can certainly say it depends on the
college, department and instructor as to what will be emphasized. I
ALWAYS had my college students in labs, even with 100 students, have some
latitude in designing and conducting their own experiments as part of the
course - probably the most valuable experience they had in the course. So
again, we are back to the need for Critical Thinking and experimental
design!
I agree with Steve that a human physiology course could be a good
choice to develop analytical skills in HS students. To be really
revolutionary, if students have taken Bio, Chem and Physics, why not offer
an "advanced science" course which incorporates ALL of these - indeed,
these are not separate fields, as is reflected in much of what we do here
in TI. The major focus could be students learning the scientific method,
searching the literature, forming an hypothesis, designing and conducting
the experiment, gathering/recording data, interpreting results,
COMMUNICATING their results, doing the next experiment. I'll bet it could
be done for less than $15,000!!!
Actually, I'd be interested in helping to design such a high school
course - any takers?
----Karen Kalumuck
Karen E. Kalumuck, Ph.D.
Exploratorium Teacher Institute
3601 Lyon St.
San Francisco, CA 94123
415-561-0313
karenk@exploratorium.edu