Using “The Organism” as a Conceptual Focus in an Introductory Biology Course

Abstract

A key role of introductory biology in college curriculum (similar to other introductory sciences) is to provide students with a foundation of information on which they can build rest of their major. Too often, however, students (and some faculty) view introductory course as nothing more than an overview of essential facts and concepts. This baseline approach to teaching introductory biology is lamentable because it misses a unique opportunity to engage students' imagination early in their college careers and, in so doing, to teach them that biology is more than just a collection of facts. Most students who enroll in introductory biology are just beginning to explore their interests in more depth than was possible during secondary school, making introductory course an ideal venue for expanding their outlook and developing their critical thinking skills; that is, improving students' ability to ask good questions and to know how to answer them. In our renovation of introductory biology program at Duke University, we developed an integrated series of exercises focused on the that serve both as a way to nurture student imagination and individual interests and also as a way to teach students about process of asking and answering questions in biology. We chose the as a conceptual focus for this series of exercises for several reasons. First, organisms are tangible. Many students are attracted to biology initially because of an interest in organisms (fostered, perhaps, by their exposure to abundance of nature programs on television if not their own experiences in nature). Even students who are not nature-lovers bring an intuitive feel for organisms to class. Thus, organisms provide a good starting point for grounding a student's interests in biology. This point is supported by growing number of introductory biology curricula that emphasize integrative and process-oriented nature of biology, as opposed to more traditional approach of starting with chemistry and working up (Goodwin et al. 1991; Chiras 1992; Ebert-May et al. 1997; Groh et al. 1997). A second reason is that organisms represent a particularly important level in hierarchy of biological organization. While evolution occurs on level of populations, natural selection acts on organisms because, in general, this is level at which differential reproduction occurs. To extent that most of biological processes studied in introductory biology are in some sense or another adaptations resulting from natural selection, including phenomena occurring at level of molecules through level of ecosystems, these processes are best understood in context of organisms within or among which they occur. We designed this exercise to stimulate student interest in biology while helping students learn scientific methods. Recent curriculum reform recommendations emphasize importance of actively involving students as a way to engage students in biology (Project Kaleidoscope 1991; BSCS 1993; NRC 1996, 1997; NSF 1996). Especially useful activities include problem-driven exercises that require student creativity in order to achieve specified goals (Project Kaleidoscope 1991; Chiras 1992; NRC 1996). In our project, students choose an organism at beginning of semester and this organism becomes their own personal focus for a series of exercises throughout semester (as described below). One key to success of any exercise, however, is providing enough guidance to students so they do not feel lost on an assignment, while leaving them room for creativity in pursuing their goals. Therefore, instead of simply letting students loose on project, we meet with students in groups to ensure that they make adequate progress throughout semester. We do provide feedback to students, but we do not tell them exactly how to proceed through each step of project. In addition, we provide students with handouts that have suggestions and guidelines for exercise [copies of these handouts are available from corresponding author, WJH]. The project gradually builds across semester, starting first with students asking questions about their organism, then developing testable William J. Hoese is an Assistant Professor in Department of Biological Sciences at California State University-Fullerton, Fullerton, CA 92834; e-mail: bhoese@fullerton.edu. Stephen Nowicki is an Associate Professor in Department of Biology at Duke University, Durham, NC 27708.