Using the CLASS‐Bio Survey to Assess Engagement through Forensic Science in General Biology

Abstract

Lane College is a historically black college committed to educating underserved minority students. My objective was to give students different pedagogical strategies to meet students where they are and moving away from the lecture based format to improve student success. In General Biology I chose to engage students through forensic sciences. I implemented forensic science in the laboratory in one of my two sections of General Biology I in the Fall 2018 semester. Students determined the items that needed to be analyzed from a mock crime scene after being presented with some basic forensic science techniques in the first week of laboratory. Each additional week the students participated in analysis of hair, fiber, soil, synthetic blood tests, chromatography, and DNA fingerprinting. To assess the intervention, I used the CLASS‐Bio Survey which measures student attitudes and beliefs about learning science (n=32) that was given pre and post to both sections as a way to compare the effect of the intervention. In the section that I gave the Forensic Science intervention the CLASS‐Bio Survey perceptions were higher in all categories Enjoyment, Real World, Problem Solving Synthesis and Application, Problem Solving Effort, Conceptual, Problem Solving Strategies, and Reasoning in the pre survey. The class that received the forensic science intervention had a 19.1% increase in Enjoyment, 18.4 % increase in Problem Solving Strategies and a 15.9 % increase in Problem Solving Effort than compared with the class that did not receive the intervention in the post survey.Support or Funding InformationNational Science Foundation Award HRD # 1623340 to MVS