sconklin@ric.edu

Public four-year institution, primarily undergraduate

15-30

This is an optional upper-level course for biology majors and general science majors.

• Students will be able to synthesize primary scientific and secondary biographical and historical sources in order to explain how historically significant experiments and observations advance the field of biology.
• Students will be able to analyze the design of an experiment in order to identify the features that enable it provide interpretable results.

Students will work with primary scientific literature with increasing independence to analyze experimental design and the features of good/interpretable experiments. Students will study historical accounts to learn about the context in which significant advancements in biology were made. A sizable portion of this course will be taught online, where thoughtful discussion will be required. A culminating term project will give students an opportunity to synthesize information from various sources and demonstrate that they have met the stated goals.

• Accessing professional literature.
• Reading, interpreting primary scientific literature.
• Written communication, including editing of peer writing.

Students will be assessed on various writing assignments that will build in complexity as the course progresses using writing rubrics. They will be required to demonstrate their mastery of biological concepts through visual and written communication.

• improving student confidence at reading primary scientific literature
• improving students depth of understanding of basic biological concepts

Students will reflect on their own learning to assess changes in attitudinal goals.

Writing rubrics, concept sketch rubrics, discussion forum checks, quizzes.

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