storytelling in stem poster lily conference 2014 karobi moitra
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Story telling in STEM posterTRANSCRIPT
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TEACHING STRATEGIES IN THE SCIENCES: THE ANCIENT ART OF STORY TELLING
Karobi Moitra, PhD Department of Biology, Trinity Washington University, College Of Arts And Sciences, 125 Michigan Avenue NE, Washington DC 20017. Email: [email protected]
THE ANCIENT ART OF STORY TELLING
RESEARCH METHODS
1. Students were administered pre course and post course tests
consisting of 10 questions, the results were graphed in MS excel
and 2-tailed paired t-tests were carried out to assess if students
improved their results on the test post course.
2. A survey was administered to the students post-course
to determine the influence of the story-telling pedagogy
employed in the course.
3. Student surveys were conducted using the standard Trinity
course evaluation online survey - specifically student
comments about the course were pooled.
4. Research papers were consulted to research background
information.
STORY TELLING IN AN INTRODUCTORY GENETICS
CLASSROOM
THE RECIPE FOR AN EFFECTIVE STORY
RESULTS ASSESSMENT DATA
CONCLUSIONS & DISCUSSION
LECTURES MODIFIED FOR
STORY-TELLING!
RESULTS
.
Stories are effective educational tools because listeners become engaged and remember the story
Find a good story to tell
Build the framework for your
story
Add the educational content
Finally put it all together
Storytelling predates writing. The earliest forms of storytelling were primarily oral combined with
gestures and expressions. The Australian aboriginal people painted symbols from stories on cave walls to help the story-teller remember the story. With the advent of writing and the arrival of portable media, stories were transcribed and shared all over the world. Homer the great Greek poet was a storyteller who lived around 850 BC. The Iliad of Homer is the oldest work of western literature.
�I �This class was definitely worth taking.�
�I like how she kept the class an interesting learning experience overall.�
�This class was a class worth-taking she is an awesome teacher.�
�Really enjoyed the class this semester.�
STUDENT COMMENTS
Graph 1. Pre and Post-Course Assessment Data for Introductory Genetics, BIOL 241 [Fall 2012/2013 compiled] The students were given 2 assessments, one at the start of the course and the same one at the end of the course. The assessment contained 10 questions and the time given to complete the assessment was 20 minutes. Graph 1 shown was plotted in MS-Excel and shows the percentage of correct answers per question, before and after the course was taken [n1= 20, n 2=17]. [BIOL 241-Fall 2012 & Fall 2013 data compiled].
! Story-telling engages students and as a result they are able to learn better
! The story-telling technique lends itself very well to the unique Trinity demographic ! Students enjoy this technique of teaching ! Student evaluation data shows significant gains in knowledge over the semester I have demonstrated in this pilot study that story telling in the Genetics classroom engaged at-risk students and motivated them to do well on subsequent tests. This
method of teaching can be introduced into science pedagogy to motivate and engage students. In the future, I will conduct more in-depth surveys to address
more specific questions to improve this kind of pedagogy.
References: 1. Cajete, G, Eder D, and Holyan R. Life Lessons through Storytelling: Children's Exploration of Ethics. Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 2010. 2. Wells, S. The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey. Princeton University Press, 2002.
INTRODUCTION
THE TRINITY STORY
Story telling is an ancient art which originated long before the written word. Stories can be leveraged as effective educational
tools because they engage the students and enable them to easily recall facts from the story. The course Genetics 241
(Introductory Genetics) was designed keeping this in mind. The student learning assessments show that this choice of pedagogy proved to be an effective teaching method.
! To determine if story-telling is an effective tool in teaching an undergraduate Genetics course
! To assess student learning outcomes pre and post course
! To evaluate if this mode of pedagogy is suited to the unique Trinity demographic and if the students were engaged during the course and enjoyed this type of pedagogy
AIMS & OBJECTIVES
ABSTRACT
Trinity students are usually the first generation in their family to go to college. The Trinity mission - teaching women who have limited access to education has allowed us to remain a traditional women�s college. Accordingly we have created a science curriculum to maintain rigor and high expectations while delivering courses to students that are under represented and under prepared.
We have focused on pedagogy rather than
distilling course content
Graph 3. Post-Course (Story Telling) Survey Data for Introductory Genetics, BIOL 241, Fall 2013. The students took the survey before final exams. Graph 2 was plotted in MS-Excel and shows the number of students responding to each statement [n= 9].
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Pre-Test Post-Test
Ass
ignm
ent S
core
s (p
erce
nt
corr
ect)
Graph 2. Box ad Whisker Plot of pre and post test scores demonstrating gain in knowledge. The distribution of scores are plotted above. The black boxes make up the middle half of all scores (the second and third quartiles) with the median score dividing the two middle quartiles. The whiskers represent the range of the upper and lower 25% of all scores. The average scores are indicated with red circles. Change in ability observed: The difference between the pre-test and post-test scores (47.6%) was statistically significant using a two-tailed paired t-test: t(16), p < 0.001. The magnitude of this difference has a very large effect size (Cohen's d = 3.36). The class did much better on the post-test than they did on the pre-test. There has been a tremendous gain in knowledge over the semester.
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Q1#STATE#MENDEL’S#LAW#OF#SEGREGATION.#
Q2##NAME#THE#4#BASES#FOUND#IN#
DNA.#
Q3#NAME#THE#TYPE#OF#BOND#
THAT#HOLDS#THE#2#STRANDS#OF#DNA#
TOGETHER.#
Q4#WHAT#IS#THE#‘BACKBONE’#OF#DNA#COMPOSED#
OF?#
Q5#WRITE#DOWN#THE#
COMPLEMENTARY#STRAND#
Q6#WHAT#IS#THE#CENTRAL#DOGMA#OF#MOL#BIOL#
Q7#WHAT#IS#MEANT#BY#
TRANSCRIPTION?##
Q8#WHAT#IS#AN#ALLELE?#
Q9##WHAT#IS#MEANT#BY#A#KARYOTYPE?#
Q10#DEFINE#THE#TERM#MUTATION.#
Percentage#of#Correct#Responses#
Assessment#QuesSons#
Compiled#GeneScs#Assessment#Data#Fall#2012,#Fall#2013##
Pre/Course"Assessment"%"
Post/Course"Assessment"%"