EXAMPLE OF HOW TO IMPLEMENT - INTRODUCTION
THE POWER OF STORY
“The power of story” refers to using non-fictional
accounts of science conveyed as “story” to engage students’ emotion
and imagination. Research in cognition shows that, “Storytelling
is not something we just happen to do. It is something we virtually
have to do if we want to remember anything at all.” [10]
Whether in a textbook or in a lecture course, a few stories that
are presented in detail, tying together ecological concepts and
framed clearly as examples that illustrate common themes, would
be more effective then short examples for each concept. Such stories
can better demonstrate the increasingly sophisticated understanding
that we have about ecology, for example, as outlined by Odum [11]
and Sinclair [12], but seldom apparent to students using the current
ecology textbooks. Furthermore, such stories may inspire students
to seek a career in ecology and with a better understanding of
the contributions needed. Such stories can be developed from the
wealth of research that has been conducted on particular systems.
Below are some examples. Each example has a brief synopsis of the
story, which is centered on plant-herbivore interactions and with
an emphasis on long-term, complex ecosystem-level consequences.
None of the stories are meant to be complete (i.e., include all
that is known about the system or acknowledge the many people who
contributed to the current understanding), and only some references
can be provided.
Example of how to implement
Objective: The objective is to go well beyond the simplistic presentation
in textbooks of ecosystems and food webs. College students are
fully capable of reading the textbook. Reviewing that or presenting
more examples in lecture does not move them toward the sophisticated
level of understanding that we ecologists have. Telling them about
the complexity is not sufficient. Students have to grapple with
it mentally, and this can be accomplished in classrooms by having
students themselves convert the facts to conceptual relationships.
An integral part of this is students articulating their thoughts
to others. Once the students have been through one example of this,
they understand how to attack another example, and so it proceeds
more rapidly.
Conceptual approach: The “lecture hour” structure
is based on the 5-E learning/teaching cycle [1]. 5E refers to five
phases: engage, explore, explain, elaborate and evaluate. “Cycle” refers
to the need to revisit or reinforce concepts (and re-challenge
preconceptions and misconceptions). This powerful method is particularly
useful for identifying, challenging and replacing misconceptions.
Although it is usually applied to inquiry-based and hands-on activities,
it is just as useful and appropriate for minds-on activities and,
thus, for large enrollment college courses. The primary minds-on
activities used here are concept maps and pair-and-share. The value
of these has been well demonstrated, and various suggestions for
implementing them are described elsewhere [2, 3, 4].
Mechanics of course relative to this kind of exercise: How much
time it takes for this exercise depends on the size of the class,
the background of students, reading assignments in support of the
exercise, how much of the work of the exercise is done outside
of the classroom, and interests of students (or time spent on discussions
and/or tangents).
We assign readings for three purposes: 1) as
review (usually from a textbook) to make sure everyone (in theory)
starts at the same place (e.g., this exercise is used in a sophomore
course and since as freshmen they had introductory biology with
a good foundation of evolution, the topic of “natural selection” is
considered review, meaning they are responsible for the material
in the textbook but we don’t lecture about it per se), 2)
ecological conceptual development (i.e., students are to read (usually
specific sections from a textbook) about concepts for understanding,
and so most of this reading is assigned at the Explain phase),
and 3) “engaging” articles that show how ecologists
think, what they do to answer questions, how our understanding
of the biosphere has developed, what we don’t know but need
to find out, etc.
We have students do as much of the work of the
exercise outside of class as possible. On-line course management
software (e.g., Blackboard) greatly facilitates that. We aim for
2.5 hours of focused out-of-class work and reading per credit hour
per week. We emphasize a steady “diet” of work and
reading to reinforce the mini-lecture-discussion format of the
lecture period rather than memorization (and cramming) before the
evaluation phase. We reward class attendance and participation.
We do not grade on a curve; we grade for mastery of material and
competence in application. In theory, everyone can get an “A”.
We set a high standard, and either have a “practice evaluation” (exam)
early in the course, or allow students to drop the lowest evaluation/exam
grade.
Setting the stage: Begin by setting the stage for this type of
exercise. For instance, we tell the students at the outset of our
ecology course that the goal of the course is to determine what
it takes to put together and/or sustain a healthy, functional ecosystem.
If we can understand that, then we can ask what it takes to put
together and/or sustain a healthy, functional set of ecosystems,
or a biosphere. And we keep reminding the students about this goal
throughout the course.
Examples of how to implement the power of story:
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