Creating and Using “Choose‐your‐own‐experiment” Case Studies in Large Lecture Courses

Abstract

“Choose‐your‐own‐experiment” cases make use of an in‐class iterative cycle in which students choose from a set of experimental options, followed by the immediate acquisition of data, and subsequent discussion before repeating the cycle with another decision. Cases involving iterative decision‐making and evidence gathering are common in medical education and games, but uncommon in undergraduate science education. Notably this game‐like experience is implementable in regular large‐lecture courses. An additional layer of complexity can be added by limiting the ability of students or groups to gather all the data, creating a “jig‐saw” type activity and an opportunity for genuine collaboration toward a common goal. I will present an example of one such case study which is currently published and freely available for immediate use. This original case was created to increase retention and deepen learning by teaching “scientific inquiry” in life science courses. I will also discuss how this method can be easily implemented in other courses and contexts and suggest methods for other practitioners to write their own cases, drawing on my own experiences writing six cases of this type for biology and biochemistry courses. Thus the goal of this session is to aid others in the creation and implementation of content‐specific inquiry‐driven activities in the health sciences to foster increased student retention in these programs.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.