Inquiry-based laboratory instruction by minijournal format materials

CHED 81

Ningfeng Zhao, zhaon@missouri.edu and Francis Schmidt, SchmidtF@missouri.edu. Department of Biochemistry, University of Missouri, Columbia, Columbia, MO 65211
Effective science education must involve active learning, i.e., inquiry. Although inquiry-based science education has been recognized for decades, many curriculum materials are still emphasizing traditional labs. In our interdisciplinary introductory science courses, we developed “mini-journal” format lab papers starting from abstract through citations. In our Little Warm Pond and Little Warm Planet courses students have opportunities to experience real science inquiry activities as well as to figure out protocols and conclusions for their own experiments. Striking data from Student Assessment of Learning Gains proved this laboratory instruction an exciting success. Also, we hosted a summer institute where faculty and future faculty members were trained to design and implement these new lab materials. Through all the professional developments, models and analysis tools of these inquiry-based lab materials and instruction strategies were created that will benefit undergraduate science education and eventually help to develop a new science course at University of Missouri.
 

General Posters
7:30 PM-9:30 PM, Sunday, August 19, 2007 BCEC -- Exhibit Hall - B2, Poster

Division of Chemical Education

The 234th ACS National Meeting, Boston, MA, August 19-23, 2007