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Addressing Vision & Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: Two Case Studies

Nagel, Steven Todd

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2016, Master of Science, Ohio State University, Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) released Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action in 2009 and Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: Chronicling Change, Inspiring the Future in 2013. Both of these reports urged educators to employ active learning and inquiry-based pedagogical methodologies, to make the subject of biology less abstract to students by demonstrating clearly connections to the real world, and to continue data driven discipline-based education research to guide and inform instructional practices at the university level. To address these recommendations of the AAAS, I conducted two distinct biology education research studies in three separate biology classes: BIO 1101: Introductory Biology for non-majors, EEOB 2210: Ohio Plants, and EEOB 3320: Organismal Diversity at The Ohio State University. In order to address the AAAS recommendation to make biology less abstract to undergraduate students and to continue to incorporate effective pedagogical strategies, I conducted a study in BIO 1101: Introductory Biology for non-majors that focused on effectively communicating the concept of biodiversity. For this study, I developed a new biodiversity exercise and a survey instrument with both objective and Likert-type questions to determine the exercise’s effect on student learning. When compared to students who completed the traditional biodiversity exercise utilized in the class (mean gain = 0.41 ± 0.62), students who completed the new biodiversity could name more ground-dwelling invertebrates (mean gain = 0.79 ± 1.24). Additionally, students who completed the new exercise had significant shifts in agreement on the biodiversity survey question cluster (questions 48 through 50) about the benefits of fieldwork and hands-on activities on their learning. The results of both the objective questions and Likert type questions together indicate that my new biodiversity exercise has a more positive impact on student learning than the traditional biodiversity exercise which lacked substantive fieldwork components and clear inquiry based pedagogical methods. With AAAS’ call to perform assessments on learning and use the results to enhance student learning, I conducted my second study on the evaluation of mobile learning technology—specifically the Apple iPad—because informative empirical studies demonstrating their efficacy lag in the education literature. I conducted this study in two courses, EEOB 2210: Ohio Plants and EEOB 3320: Organismal Diversity. I sought to determine the effect of the presence or absence of iPads on student learning outcomes by examining student products resulting from iPad usage in two contexts: as digital field notebooks and digital sharing devices in the classroom. Additionally, I sought to determine the role of familiarity (i.e., level of comfort) with iPads on student learning outcomes by administering pre- and post-technology surveys to students. All aspects of my study revealed that the use of iPads does not affect student outcomes positively or negatively. Students using iPads as field notebooks and sharing devices did not document more raw data and there was no subsequent relationship with scores on summative assessments. This result is consistent across student familiarity and student perception of benefits of iPads.
Roman Lanno (Advisor)
Karen Irving (Committee Member)
Bob Klips (Committee Member)
151 p.

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Citations

  • Nagel, S. T. (2016). Addressing Vision & Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: Two Case Studies [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1468847305

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Nagel, Steven. Addressing Vision & Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: Two Case Studies. 2016. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1468847305.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Nagel, Steven. "Addressing Vision & Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: Two Case Studies." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1468847305

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)