{"id":1018,"date":"2013-05-16T14:43:20","date_gmt":"2013-05-16T19:43:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nd.edu\/sciencespf\/?p=1018"},"modified":"2013-05-16T14:43:20","modified_gmt":"2013-05-16T19:43:20","slug":"are-we-doing-it-all-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sciencespf\/2013\/05\/16\/are-we-doing-it-all-wrong\/","title":{"rendered":"Are we doing it all wrong?"},"content":{"rendered":"

At one point during the semester, we had a very unsettling discussion with our graduate TAs. We were reflecting on a new experiment we had implemented working with Schenoplectus americanus<\/em>, a marsh sedge studied by Jason McLachlan’s lab. \u00a0In talking about the ups and downs of the projects, our TAs pointed out that in some ways the whole course seemed backwards.<\/p>\n

For context, in the first semester we do some pretty intensive molecular experiments. \u00a0 These are pretty cool and introduce students to important techniques, but there isn’t much that students can do to think up experiments on their own. \u00a0 In some cases, like our project with Patty Champion on mycobacterium, students are doing REAL novel work. \u00a0Cool to be working on real research, right?<\/p>\n

But in the second semester, we step back and ask students to design their own experiments. \u00a0One of these is in cardiovascular physiology and they tend to be pretty simple (or not, as I discussed here\u00a0http:\/\/blogs.nd.edu\/sciencespf\/2013\/02\/08\/blog-post-1-experiments-are-rarely-simple\/). \u00a0It seemed to many of our TAs, that the simpler experiments where students could design their own experiments would be most appropriate to come FIRST in a lab course. \u00a0 This started to make a lot of sense. \u00a0The fact that we start with molecular experiments is primarily driven by the order of topics in the lecture – small to big.<\/p>\n

This discussion got me thinking about the role of lab course in general. \u00a0 To learn the basic path of the scientific process? To learn lab techniques? \u00a0To develop your own ideas? \u00a0To contribute to novel research? \u00a0 Based on which of these goals you choose, you might wind up with very different courses.<\/p>\n

Thus, my new summer goal. \u00a0To really reflect on the specific learning goals for the course overall. \u00a0I have these worked out to some extent from the ASM Biology Scholars workshop in 2011, but I want to work on these in more detail.<\/p>\n

In terms of implementation, I hope to also include some of the ideas of Daniel Pink in “Drive”. \u00a0The keys to motivation: \u00a0independence, mastery, and purpose. \u00a0But that is for another post.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At one point during the semester, we had a very unsettling discussion with our graduate TAs. We were reflecting on a new experiment we had implemented working with Schenoplectus americanus, a marsh sedge studied by Jason McLachlan’s lab. \u00a0In talking … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1142,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sciencespf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sciencespf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sciencespf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sciencespf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sciencespf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1018"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sciencespf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1020,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sciencespf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1018\/revisions\/1020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sciencespf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sciencespf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sciencespf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}