Biological Sciences (61) Recent outcomes assessments in the Biology Department at Hofstra University indicate that many biology majors are weak in their understanding of the basic biology concepts presented in the introductory sequence in biology and have a poor grasp of the scientific process. In addition, the department has experienced a 40% decrease in total enrollment over the past five years and a 41% rate attrition of majors before graduation. The high attrition rate is attributed mainly to poor performance. This project supports recently-approved curricular changes that are designed to enhancing student learning, knowledge retention and scientific reasoning skills and to decrease attrition by the introduction of active, inquiry-driven learning into both the lecture and laboratory components of the new Biology core sequence. This project is: 1) introducing faculty to active learning strategies that can be applied to the lecture portion of courses, 2) adding active learning workshops to the new biology core sequence, 3) creating investigative laboratories that reinforce concepts and engage students in the process of scientific inquiry, 4) creating a peer teaching system and 5) creating a mechanism for continuous assessment of student learning that measures the effectiveness of the curriculum and informs continued curricular change. The broader goals of this project are 1) to improve teaching and learning in all biology courses and other STEM courses at Hofstra University by creating models and providing workshop training for the faculty who teach these courses and 2) to create a successful model that can be used at other institutions. The project is an adaptation of models employed at California State University-Fullerton, Carroll College and Murray State University.
