Once again this fall, I ran an open house for the intro biology labs. I went out to my usual spot to try to find some copepods, but the little basin was empty. I grabbed some leaf litter and filled the rest of the container with water to see what we could find. I also grabbed some mosses, lichens and liverworts to use to look for tardigrades. I found lots of nematodes and rotifers and a few tardigrades.
There seemed to be more people this year than in year's past -- at one point the room was packed with people asking questions: How many lecture courses do students have to take? When can students start taking "interesting" classes? How can students work in research labs? How can students do "hands-on" stuff?
The main message I try to transmit is that, although Intro Biology is a large class, we make heroic efforts to give students a "small-class experience", by using small-group techniques in lab and by having a "lecture" that is not really lecture at all, but small-group problem-solving in an auditorium. I believe that our Intro Biology experience is one of the best in the world and that students, even those who scored a "5" on the AP exam and think they "know" biology, come out of the class with a much better understanding of how biology works.
- Steven D. Brewer's blog
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