SoTL Project Presentation

Didem Vardar-Ulu

07/18/2008

What prompted the research idea?THE PROBLEM

• Current discipline based prerequisites (intro chem, organic chemistry, intro bio, cell physiology) didn’t seem to be predictive of student success in the Introductory Biochemistry Course.

• The students who had trouble building interdisciplinary connections between content seem to lack basic reasoning or informal logic skills.

• Student interest and confidence in subject matter also seem to play a role in how they performed in the course.

The ultimate question I want to ask:

What is the relative importance of - prior disciplinary knowledge- competence in informal logic- interest and/or confidence

in facilitating student understanding in an introductory level interdisciplinary course?

My current SoTL Question:

What is the relative importance of - prior biology and chemistry knowledge

- competence in solving puzzles - interest and/or confidence in

biochemistry in facilitating student’s understanding

of the structure-function relationships in biochemistry?

MethodologyAssessment: For the first stage of this

project, I will focus on “cognitive learning”Come up with a learning taxonomy using

biochemistry specific learning goals.

Exemplary Competent Developing

Factual knowledge

Analysis/ explanation/ interpretation

Synthesis/ application

Assessment of “understanding”Factual knowledge:

- weekly content quizzes (multiple choice, fill in the blanks, True/ false, circle)

- weekly in-lab questions (short answer questions)- HMW- Problem Sets

Analysis/ explanation/ interpretation:- miterm/ final- weekly lab work analysis - assignments

Synthesis/ application:- weekly post-lab question (design a follow up

experiment)- projects- in-class activities that relates biochemisty knowledge to

real life phenomenon

Assessment of “prior” factors

Disciplinary Background:Collect data on the grades students received in the prereq. CoursesAdminister a content assessment pre-test that is 50% biology, 50% chemistry in composition

Informal Logic Skills: Administer a pre-test composed of three logic puzzles

- Data comparison- Use of graphs and charts- Use of fractions and trial and error

Interest and Confidence:Administer an in class questionnaire followed by a personal meeting