SUBJECT: Examples to use in intro biology
DATE: 4/96
As a relative newcomer to lecturing in intro biology courses, I am excited
by the people who take a traditional introduction to cells and molecules
or
body systems and introduce each topic with something concrete, something
in
the student's world, and especially disease examples. Trained as a
geneticist, dabbler in neuroanatomy, my background isn't broad enough to
know something captivating for each - ( infertility in clover-fed sheep
and
feminization of alcoholics in Sara Hielbert's message intrigue me). Next
year I begin teaching in the cell/molecular part of the course which is
even
more abstract, as well as being the first college biology students encounter
- for those of you with the experience, please more references, more books,
more examples.
Thank you.
Laura DiCaprio
Biological Sciences
Ohio University
DICAPRIOL@mail.oucom.ohiou.edu
Laura DiCaprio asks for "more references, more books, more examples"
for intro biology. One of my favorite references for this kind of
thing is Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking". McGee is not a
biologist, but in discussing where food comes from and what it is
made of, he covers a lot of basic biology and biochemistry and
relates it all to items we find in the kitchen every day. It's tons
of fun. You can find out how starch digestion leads to light beer,
why segmentation in "primitive" vertebrates means fish have delicate
flakey meat, and all sorts of things.
John Dickerman
Northern Illinois University
DeKalb, IL 60115
T80JWD1@WPO.CSO.NIU.EDU
If you want "stuff" on biotechnology/molecular bio, I strongly
suggest THE SECRET OF LIFE by Levine & Suzuki. It's both a wonderful
book, and a PBS video series [that I use as an extra-credit evening
film series on biomedical ethics].
-Bob Moss
MOSSRE@WOFFORD.EDU
WOFFORD COLLEGE
My secret, for what it is worth, is to subscribe to "Nature".
I take it
home and read nearly all the News and Views as well as selected reports.
This way I keep reasonably up to date in topics that I specialize in
(genetics, microbiology) but also in a whole lot of other areas,
covering the whole of cell biology (which I also teach) and a lot of
medicine. I also pick up the kind of engaging info that Laura mentions
by reading occasional papers in geology and oceanography etc., for
instance on microbes and the environment. The main lesson is that you
don't have to understand the whole article in detail to spot something
interesting, and to get enough out of it to make the kind of connections
we need.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Walter Ogston ogston@hobbes.kzoo.edu
Department of Biology Phone: (616)337-7010
Kalamazoo College Fax: (616)337-7251
Kalamazoo, MI 49006-3295
Laura,
These days I pick up many examples from the web. New Scientist, The
Scientist, Discovery Online, New York Times (Science section), CNN, and
USA
Today are all bookmarked in my browser, and I check each of them at least
once a week. It's a great excuse to surf, too ;-)
Mary
mfarmer@dialnet.net (Mary Farmer)
At 10:25 4/4/96, Robert V. Blystone wrote:
>Mary: You mention your bookmarks to all these wonderful general science
>information sources on the Web. Could you please post your URL list
to this
>list and we can all go browsing...???
>
by all means...
Here's a short list. I have _many_ more bookmarks, mostly for evolution
and
environmental issues. I'd be glad to forward privately a much longer list
to anyone who wants it.
CNN = http://www.cnn.com/
CNN Env. Page = http://www.cnn.com/EARTH/
USA Today = http://web.usatoday.com/
NY Times = http://www.nytimes.com/info/contents/textpath.html
New Scientist = http://www.newscientist.com/
The Scientist = http://www.the-scientist.library.upenn.edu/
Voyage Mag. = http://www.cais.com/publish/
NASA images = http://spso.gsfc.nasa.gov/eos_edu.pack/toc.html
Smithsonian = http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/ocean_planet.html
Jason Project = http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/scripts/JASON.html
San Francisco Exploratorium =
http://www.exploratorium.edu/learning_studio
Discovery = http://www.discovery.com/DCO/doc/1012/world/world.html
Note: You have to subscribe to both the New York Times and the New
Scientist, but both are free.
Mary
mfarmer@dialnet.net (Mary Farmer)
Laura,
For all of my classes (non-majors) I always start with a relevant example
e.g. what is an acid stomach - most of the students have had one at one
time or another!!! I then ask them what they did to relieve the problem
and
they all shout MYLANTA. The next question - why? - usually brings
answers such as "my Mom told me too - not very scientific!!!. However
this
lets me investigate digestion, acid/alkaline, pH differences etc etc etc.
I
get all the info across and they can relate it to themselves. They remember
this much better that abstract ideas and my exam questions are based on
the
discussion and application of concepts - I've been doing this for years
and
the students love it and it is lots of fun for me too.
I find teaching these types of classes fun, challenging and very thought
provoking. If you have any particular problem subject give me an e-mail
buzz.
Alison
=======================
Alison Morrison
Dept. of Biology
Georgia Southern University
Statesboro GA 30460
I do something similar to what Walter Ogston does (he subscribes to
Nature). I subscribe to Science News, and a couple other general science
type magazines. This allows me to keep up on developments in biology, and
as Walter said, "a whole lot of other areas". Another thing that
I do is
enlist the students in helping me keep up on things. Several of my classes
have an assignment where they have to read and evaluate biology articles.
I specify the general topics (one article each in evolution, genetics,
health/medicine, and environment), and then they can choose specific
articles within those catigories. Without getting into what the students
do for the entire assignment, this certainly keeps me informed as they find
a variety of articles that I have not run across in my quest to stay
current. In addition, when we hit a topic in class that some student is
evaluating an article on, they will in some cases speak up and volunteer
information on what they have read.
Terry Davin
Biology and Allied Health
Penn Valley Community College
Kansas City MO 64111
davin@kcmetro.cc.mo.us
Picking up on Terry and Walter about interesting reading to stimulate a
class.
The checkout "rags" at the grocery stores have some of the most
interesting
biology ever conceived. I found talks about 1,000 pound space aliens to
be
quite useful in introducing various topics to students. Slides made of some
of
the pictures on the covers really get discussions going. Hooray for the
National Inquirer and the Globe for giving entrees to biology classes.
Blystone in Texas looking forward to the NABT meeting in October.
**********************
ROBERT V. BLYSTONE PHONE:(210)736-7243
DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY FAX:(210)736-7229
Trinity University E-Mail:RBlyston@Trinity.edu
715 Stadium Drive
San Antonio, TX, 78212
Bob, Thanks for mentioning the National Inquirer's great value in
biology classes. I am teaching Embryology this term, and I love
the discussions that result when I bring in the issue with the
headline "Girl gives birth to a chimpanzee .. in tragic sperm
bank mix-up." And what about the classic issue with Burt
Reynolds on the front page and the headline "Now women can
give birth without men"! (The article was an interview
with a legitimate embryologist studying parthenogenesis on
a cellular level.)
Becky Houck
Dept. of Biology
University of Portland
Portland, OR 97203
Yeah, but the very "BEST" of this genre is WEEKLY (Weakly?) World
News! I
don't know how much schlock I've dredged out of that beast to get my
students thinking... and now it's even on TV! Life is sometimes sweet!
Best wishes,
Bill
William A. Hayes, II, Ph.D.
Professor of Biology
P.O.Box 3234
Delta State University
Cleveland, MS 38733
ph: 601-846-4247
fax: 601-846-4016
email: bhayes@dsu.deltast.edu
I too like to select examples that students can relate to, but I find
that very difficult when working with 17-year-olds with little worldly
experience. Re Alison's example, my students never had an acid stomach
(or they didn't know that they had), never experienced reflux, and don't
know what Mylanta is. Personally, I never had these problems until I was
in my early 40's. And I personally am not familiar with Mylanta.
If I were doing the Mylanta thing, I would start with a video clip of an
ACID STOMACH commercial for Mylanta, or Tums, or some other product as a
lead in. When I do contraception, I begin with a short video clip from
one of Tom Snyder's talk shows where he inflates condoms using an air
compressor. The clip is very funny and very educational at the same
time. Then I pass various contraceptives around the room, which most
students have never seen. The boys are very interested in seeing the
birth control pills and readily open the little carry case. But they are
all very timid when it comes to condoms. I pass a small open box around
filled with an assortment of sealed condom packages and they pass the box
from from one to another AT ARMS LENGTH never even glancing inside!!
I like using the hands-on approach and little video clips to bring the
real world to those that have never been there.
Peter Petokas
I'm not sure how much value one can extract from a supermarket tabloid
containing articles like "Human Gives Birth to an Alien". There
are
enough real world (real biology) articles out there that border on the
strange and unusual to lead off discussions. For example, the Sunday New
York Times had an article that dealt with the possiblity of a man
carrying a pregnancy (It indeed may be possible). There's stuff out
there about grandmothers carrying their granddaughter's baby to term,
about women conceiving two or more children all from different fathers,
and so on. And every day there is something new. The tabloids are good
for a chuckle now and then.
Peter Petokas
I like to say thanks to all who have replied to the thread on examples.
Convincing students - not to mention some fellow faculty that science is
important to the curriculum is an ongoing job. I find spending time in our
nonmajors course on the "relevance" of this course to their lives
is worth
the cost in terms of material covered. Here is a web site I often visit
to
bring in news of biology, this proved very helpful in getting linked to
other sites during the "Mad Cow disease" discussion.
http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/index.html
From: antibusr@bluffton.edu (Antibus, Robert)
I have relied on DAvid Letterman's Stupid Human tricks a lot to show
anatomical features i.e the man blowing cigarette smoke out of his
ear, another man "drinking" milk through his nose and squirting
it out
of his eye, the girl who pushed her tongue behind her uvula and into
her nasopharynx, are all clips I have used. It really gets the class
going.
david woodman
dwoodman@unlinfo.unl.edu
Hi, labbers:
One semester, I used a set of "clips" from such magazines as the
National
Enquirer, a couple of sports magazines, a news magazine, and a
science-for-the-layperson magazine. My students and I came up with a
ranking procedure for "how do we know which one to trust", based
on such
items as (1) being given the name(s) and qualifications of the scientists;
(2) knowing their affiliation; (3) whether or not data were presented; (4)
how much background we were given on how data were gathered; (5) whether
or
not the article cited a peer-reviewed journal; etc.
Then I gave out the clippings, which I had xeroxed without the headers.
Each group of students then rated each of the clips -- and, even though
the
stories seemed superficially similar (about the same length, the same amount
of technical language, etc.), they were easily able to separate them.
It was also a lot of fun.
Cheers,
Kerry Kilburn
ODU Biological Sciences
OK. So this is outdated. But I too use "rags" in large lecture
halls
(I'm lucky...my sister-in-law buys them [and believes them:(] so I have
a
steady supply). However, I start the semester/quarter off with them.
Students read whatever they want, present a summary to the class, and
then discuss what constitutes "science." Typically, the major
defining
characteristics of science get discussed, including how and what to read
and why.
***************************************************************
Louise Baxter email: baxterl@cwu.edu
Department of Biological Sciences phone: 509-963-2745
Central Washington University fax: 509-963-2730
Ellensburg, WA 98926