Biological Sciences (61). "Creating a Bean Beetle Curriculum Development Network" is a collaborative project between Emory University and Morehouse College. The goal of the project is to expand the use of inquiry-based laboratory exercises with the bean beetle model system, Callosobruchus maculatus. There are four primary objectives. The first objective is to use faculty workshops, along with the handbook and website created as part of an earlier project, to develop faculty expertise in the use of bean beetles in inquiry-based laboratory courses. The faculty recruited for these workshops will be from biology disciplines, such as animal physiology, neurobiology, molecular biology, genetics, and developmental biology that were not addressed in the previous project. The second objective is to provide faculty in the workshops the opportunity to adapt the inquiry-based laboratory exercises developed in the previous project to fit their curricula and institutions. Fulfilling this objective is allowing the implementation of these educational innovations in a greater diversity of educational institutions. The third objective is for faculty in the workshops to develop and implement new inquiry-based laboratory studies (i.e., new learning materials) using bean beetles in the areas of animal physiology, neurobiology, molecular biology, genetics, and developmental biology. Finally, the fourth objective is for network participants to develop or adapt assessment tools to evaluate their new laboratory exercises and to implement those assessments.
The intellectual merit of the project lies in the development, testing and implementation of inquiry-based laboratory experiments, which have been shown to increase student understanding of scientific content, experimental design, and the nature of science. By creating a curriculum development network, the project is broadening significantly the disciplines within biology that will be able to use bean beetles as a model system for inquiry-based laboratory courses. New laboratory materials are being produced for courses in animal physiology, neurobiology, molecular biology, genetics, and developmental biology. Finally, the project is assessing the effectiveness of inquiry-based learning in laboratory courses across a diversity of institutions and disciplines in biology.
The broader impacts of the project emerge from the recruitment of faculty for workshops from a diverse array of institutions. As a result, the curriculum development network established at the proposed workshops is promoting better teaching and learning in diverse settings. In addition, the workshops are establishing partnerships that will continue to improve laboratory education in biology. Furthermore, to increase involvement of under-represented minorities in inquiry-based research, some workshop slots are being set aside for faculty from community colleges and minority-serving institutions. Finally, the materials developed by participants in the curriculum development network are being disseminated through a devoted website, workshops and presentations at annual meetings of the undergraduate STEM education community, and publication in journals related to undergraduate STEM education.
One of the great challenges to biology educators is identifying animal model systems that are simple, flexible, humane, and easily manipulated by students while providing a wide range of opportunities for genuine inquiry that links to published research. In a previous project (NSF DUE-0535903), we established that the bean beetle, Callosobruchus maculatus, is an insect that meets the requirements for such a model system in laboratory education. Furthermore, we developed and disseminated eight new laboratory activities in the fields of ecology, evolution and behavior using bean beetles. The purpose of the current project was to train undergraduate faculty how to work with bean beetles and have them use that knowledge to develop new laboratory materials in the fields of physiology, neurobiology, developmental biology, genetics and molecular biology. In addition to developing new materials, faculty were to class-test laboratory activities by implementing them using guided-inquiry methods so we could assess the effectiveness of this inquiry-based, student centered, learning-teaching process. Four intensive two-day workshops were conducted (2009-2012) for a total of 81 participants who worked in 41 teams. Participants were recruited from 17 states across the United States and were selected to represent a diversity of institution types including community colleges (16 participants) and minority-serving institutions (24 participants). A new laboratory activity was developed and class-tested by each of 28 teams. These new materials are freely disseminated at a dedicated website: www.beanbeetles.org. This website will be maintained for at least 10-years after the end of the project to ensure broad dissemination. For each laboratory study, there is a student handout, instructor’s notes, and sample data. All materials may be viewed on the website and are downloadable (MS word and pdf formats). Additional downloadable materials include sample data (MS Excel format), graphs of sample data (PowerPoint slides), and images (PowerPoint slides). The majority of faculty workshop participants (83% of anonymous responses for all four workshops) reported that the workshops were outstanding (the highest rating choice). Anonymous end-of-workshop surveys indicated that all workshop learning objectives were accomplished. Another survey of the participants from all four faculty development workshops, conducted by our external evaluator, found 75% of respondents developed new materials and were either implementing them currently or preparing to implement them in laboratory courses. Furthermore, more than 80% of respondents stated that they had increased confidence to use student-centered, inquiry-based learning-teaching methods. We also collected assessment data on students who were taught with new bean beetle laboratory activities. Students were assessed prior to and after being taught with guided-inquiry methods so we could measure changes in student opinions of their confidence to conduct scientific research, knowledge of the scientific process, and problem solving skills. The assessment scores prior to being taught in a guided-inquiry laboratory were used to sort students in four groups to tabulate changes that may have occurred after experiencing guided-inquiry. Students whose assessment scores prior to being taught were among the lowest 25% showed the greatest improvements in all three assessments. These strong positive effects would have been masked in two of the assessments (knowledge of the scientific process and problem solving skills) by looking at all students regardless of their prior to being taught scores. These learning gains were most strongly influenced by faculty teaching practices that provided students with regular feedback on their learning and fostered student understanding of what they know and don’t know. These findings suggest that guided-inquiry laboratories can have a very positive effect on those students whose needs are the greatest and that learning gains are related to specific instructional practices. As a part of this project, the first partial genome sequence of the entire bean beetle genome was prepared. Bean beetle genome sequence data were not available in the past, and such data are particularly helpful for teaching and research in genetics and molecular biology. Both the raw DNA sequence data and partially assembled sequences are freely available for downloading from the www.beanbeetles.org website. An on-line BLAST search tool, also available at the bean beetle website, permits users to compare known DNA sequences to the entire bean beetle genome.
