0x010088F6312065A70A44B630A6848498EAD80093CFEAFE161DC94D83C7C5C9A5A748B8

Improve teaching in statisticsWe simplified and tried to improve the introduction of statistical elements in the course, with mixed success. As seen in the text responses to the survey, some students don't accept the rationale for introducing statistical concepts early in the study program, but this is in line both with course and study program learning objectives, and it is important to note that other students see substantial value in getting a head start in statistics and working with statistical software. We assign or lead statistical exercises using both Excel and R, and provide tip sheets to introduce statistical hypothesis testing, mainly in Excel. Interpretation of statistical results was included as an element on the final exam, with about 65% of students able to interpret the results of a multiple comparison test as shown in a graph similar to those introduced in lab and group work.Physical sessions used for interactive learning exercisesWe explicitly introduced a "non-attendance" option for the Monday and Tuesday sessions by making available lecture videos recorded during the pandemic autumn of 2020. After the forst week or two of the course, attendance was around 25%, as it was in 2021 when the videos were also available. The intention was to make these sessions "worth attending" by using contact time for active learning exercises rather than lecture, but both course leaders tended to fall back on lecture for substantial amounts of contatc time, using much of the time to expand on or give new examples of the concepts covered in the textbook. As in previous editions of the course, we used (non-obligatory) thought quizzes to invite students to discuss and respond to questions about concepts introduced in the textbook and lecture, usually based on interpretation of figure and tables or other results gleaned from scientific literature. Given the low attendance, these exercises reached a minority of students in the course. About 50% of the final exam was based on the same kind of data interpretation exercises.Lab reports evaluated by sectionWe implemented in response to numerous suggestions from students over the years, in order to see if it would improve student perception of consistency in report evaluation, and maybe give lab leaders an opportunity to interact more with students in their lab sections. Base on responses to the text questions, some or many students still see evaluation as inconsistent and too harsh (despite most students achieving a B or better average). A general problem here is that most PhD students in the department are non-Scandinavian, so evaluation of lab reports with limited ability to read Norwegian makes the task of evaluating reports even more demanding. Since we will be returning to the practice of having 40% of the final grade based on lab reports (see next point), we think it is also better to return to having one evaluator for each lab report to ensure consistency.100% examWe considered thus a necessary experiment because of the looming threat of stringent requirements for double evaluation of all student work. Pedagogically it is far better to have lab reports and other inputs count toward finsl grade, as we have done in previous years, and most (but not all students) prefer it that way. With the double sensor threat receding, we plan to return to the previous practice of having lab reports, reading quizzes, and group session attendance count toward the grade.

This is covered in the attached evaluation survey. Generally 80-90% of student respondents see the learning goals and objectives stated in the EpN description of the course as highly or partly relevant. Respondent's evaluation of success in achieving those goals is more mixed, but still generally positive. Students made use of the full range of learning resources, with most relying on the textbook, lecture slides, lab reports, and tipsheets. Despite skepticism among many students about the learning value of reading quizzes, as expressed in the multiple choice and text survey results, they receive strong support from other students and the reference group, and succeed in encouraging non-attending students to read pensum materials during the semester rather than postponing until exam time. The generally positive responses to the Likert scale questions, including to one concerning the reading quizzes, indicate some measure of success in the overall combination of learning methods.

If you have read this report and have any comments or would just like to let me know that you have found it worth reading, I wold love to hear from you: richard.strimbeck@ntnu.no

NTNU:TIA:REST

Institutt for biologi

Department of Biology

Ingen trykte eller håndskrevne hjelpemidler tillatt. Bestemt, enkel kalkulator tillatt.

Engelsk

Norsk

Mer om vurdering

Eksamen teller 100 % av karakteren i emnetObligatoriske aktiviteter for å bli godkjent til eksamen:<ul><li>70 % gjennomsnittlig poengsum på lesequizer</li><li>70 % gjennomsnittlig poengsum på laboratorierapporter</li><li>80 % deltakelse i gruppearbeid</li></ul>Ved stryk eller gjentak/forbedring:<ul><li>Avsluttende eksamen avholdes i eksamensperioden hvert semester. Eksamen kan avholdes muntlig utenom undervisningssemesteret.</li></ul>Ved klage på karakter:<ul><li>Skriftlig avsluttende eksamen som vurderes på nytt.</li></ul>

Anbefalte forkunnskaper

BI1001 Celle- og molekylærbiologi elle tilsværendeBI1002 Faunistikk og floristikk eller tilsværende

Forkunnskapskrav

Faglig innhold

Karplanters anatomi og fysiologi, inkludert celle-, vev- og organ-typer; primær og sekundær vekst; anatomiske tilpasninger til ulike miljøer; fotosyntese; vannrelasjoner og intern transport; mineralnæring og toksisitet; regulering av vekst og utvikling; respons på lys, gravitasjon, og andre miljøfaktorer; blomst, frø og frukt utvikling; senescens og dvale. Livssyklusen til blomstrende planter brukes som et kart over de viktigste fysiologiske prosesser involvert i overlevelse, vekst og formering. Lab-øvelser på fotosyntese, vannforhold, frøspiring og mineral ernæring, ved bruk av levende plantematerialer. Gruppearbeid, labarbeid og rapporter understreker analyse, presentasjon og tolkning av fysiologiske data.

Kursmateriell

Campbell, N.A. et al. 2018. Biology, 12th ed. Pearson/Benjamin Cummings, San Francisco.

Læringsutbytte

Kunnskaper:Studenten skal kunne:<ul><li>diagram og forklare funksjon til planteceller, vev og organer</li><li>forklare sentrale fysiologiske og metabolske prosesser i plantevekst og utvikling </li><li>sammenligne og kontrastere anatomiske og fysiologiske tilpasninger til forskjellige miljø</li><li>gjøre rede for klassiske eksperimenter og sentrale metoder i forskning i plantefysiologi</li></ul>Ferdigheter:Studenten skal kunne:<ul><li>tilegne seg informasjon omkring sentrale temaer innen plantefysiologi</li><li>bruke relevante faglige verktøy og teknikker</li><li>analysere og tolke plantefysiologiske målinger og resultater</li><li>gjennomføre en oppgave både selvstendig og sammen med andre</li><li>reflektere over egen faglig utøvelse innen plantefysiologi</li></ul>Generell kompetanse:Studenten kan:<ul><li>innsamle og analysere data ved bruk av relevante verktøy og programvare</li><li>presentere og diskutere vitenskapelige resultater på en sammenfattende måte</li><li>formidle sentralt fagstoff i skriftlig form</li><li>arbeide med planter i et laboratorium og veksthus</li></ul>

Læringsformer og aktiviteter

Forelesninger og diskusjon: 42 timerLaboratoriekurs: 15 timerEmnet er adgangsbegrensetObligatoriske aktiviteter<ul><li>Lesningsquiz</li><li>Gruppearbeidsoppgaver</li><li>Godkjent lab. kurs</li></ul>

Lesningsquiz

Labrapporter

Gruppearbeid

Plantenes struktur og funksjon

Biologi

Bioteknologi (5-årig) - masterstudium

Lektorutdanning i realfag for trinn 8 – 13

Biologi - bachelorstudium

Web/Lists(guid'8b698a2d-6ad0-4f7d-b3be-219cc1979f02')/Items(18772)/FieldValuesAsText

The new requirement for external evaluation of all student inputs that count toward the grade makes it infeasible that lab reports, quizzes, or other inputs count toward the grade. Although the government has put this requirement on hold for further study, we will go ahead with a 100% exam policy top see if we can make it work. As stated in the new course description on EpN, we will require a B quiz average, C lab report average, and 80% attendance in group work exercises in order to qualify for the exam. Respectively about 90, 100, and 100% of students in the course met these goals in 2021. This approach will be reevaluated for 2023, after the government makes up its mind about sensor requirements.

Tiltak

100% exam

To help ensure consistency in evaluation, up until now all the reports for each lab exercise has been evaluated by one person. As noted by many students over the years, this can result in some inconsistency in evaluation standards for the the different reports, but helps ensure that some students con't benefit or lose out by having all their reports evaluated by one more or less strict lab leader. Now that reports don't count toward  the we have the latitude to try it the other way.

Lab reports evaluated by section

The traditional lecture content of the course will continue to be available in recorded videos. Without these, attendance has historically been about 50 to to 60%, and with them about 25%. Numerous studies show that, no matter how lively, entertaining, or even memorable a lecture is, it is at best an inefficient teaching method, as perhaps evidenced by students reluctance to attend lectures and instead rely on reading (all too often at the end of the semester) to prepare for an exam. Consequently, rather than require attendance (for example via required live quizzes, as we tried in 2017 with mixed results), we will make two sessions a week overtly optional, and try to use them as much as possible for more meaningful learning exercises such as data interpretation or exploring relevant "beyond pensum" examples and issues. This offers students practice in applying concepts in data analysis and interpretation and some deepening or enrichment of course content. Ideally we would have a classroom with only about half capacity, as we would a priori expect attendance to be low. Because these exercises are designed to be interactive and to encourage full participation, these sessions will not be recorded. The group work sessions in the third meeting in each will remain essentially obligatory based on the 80% attendance requirement.

Physical  sessions used for interactive learning exercises

Some students object to learning or applying statistics outside of a statistics course, which doesn't happen until the 5th semester in the BBI curriculum. Other appreciate the opportunity to get a head start on applying statistics in biology, which is the intent of including statistical exercises in BI1007. some of the concepts are explained in an intuitive (rather than mathematical) way in tipsheets for lab exercises, but not all students may read or fully understand these. With more class time given over to interactive exercises, we will be able to introduce, explain, and apply basic statistical concepts and procedures more interactively. We can introduce R earlier in the course with some simple scripts, for example in running and visualizing the results of a t-test. while statistics are not a part of the formal pensum for the course, this approach is in line with the general competence learning objective concerning analysis of data with relevant tools and software.

Improve teaching in statistics

The course included a range of activities aimed at fulfilling the learning outcomes. Student evaluation of the relevance of learning outcomes and how well they were achieved was assessed via a survey that also included questions about the utility of learning resources and questions inviting text responses on the overall quality of the course (results attached in a separate document). 49 of 105 students in the course responded to the survey. Among these, about 90% indicated that the learning outcomes were quite or highly relevant to their study program or own learning goals. Generally 60 to 80% of respondents found that the learning outcomes were at least partially fulfilled, with "use of relevant tools and techniques" weakest.The textbook was the most-used learning resource, followed by lab exercises and reports, then slide pdfs.Students were divided on the value of the obligatory reading quizzes, with some accepting or appreciating an incentive to keep up with reading assignments and earn a small portion of the grade in the course, while others would prefer to work more independently, as noted in several text comments.The lectures recorded in autumn 2020 were available for students who chose not to attend physically. Perhaps as a consequence, attendance at non-obligatory meetings on Tuesdays on Thursdays was around 25%.The five group work sessions were also intended to give students some preliminary experience in data analysis including some statistical methods. These were sometimes overly ambitious and that limited their learning value for students.The thought quizzes were only offered live during these sessions and were generally focused on interpretation of research results in figures and tables; those that attended seem to have found them useful.Many students also found value in the tipsheets intended to provide technical assistance in analysis and presentation of data for the lab reports.Lab reports consisted of specific tasks aimed at understanding of methods and data analysis and interpretation, and counted toward 40% of the grade in course. As in many previous evaluations of the course, a minority of students would prefer a traditional lab format, but most accept or appreciate the learning value of more focused tasks and questions and that lab reports count toward the final grade.The text comments offer a broad spectrum of attitudes about the course, with some expressing appreciation for the structure and teaching methods and a few apparently finding little of value beyond the textbook. A more sophisticated analysis might reveal how these attitudes correlate with engagement in the learning resources. A number of students commented on the work level in the course, perhaps suggesting that they did not have or want to invest the time needed to take advantage of the various learning resources, not least physical attendance.Lab report evaluation and feedback remains and ongoing issue that is difficult to resolve. Some of the problem seems to be a mismatch between student expectation and our evaluation procedures, with some students interpreting a less than full score on any one task as points taken away rather than understanding that we need to be able to recognize and reward better than average work. But it is also that evaluation 60-75 lab reports in 7-10 days is a daunting task, and consequently evaluators cannot always provide detailed feedback. We make available "hybrid reports", consisting of good to excellent student answers to the various tasks, to try to fill this gap, but it is not clear how much these are used or how effective they are in illustrating the difference between average and excellent work -- perhaps a good question for a future survey.

Survey results attached.Reference group report attached.

Emnet har to delvurderinger:​<ul><li>Eksamen 40%</li><li>Mappe 60% <ul><li>Lesningsquizzer (10%), gruppearbeid (10%) og labrapporter (40%)</li><li>alle delene som inngår i mappa må være bestått for å få karakter på mappa</li></ul></li></ul>Det gis karakter på de enkelte delene,, som alle må bestås for å regne ut samlet totalkarakter.Ved stryk eller gjentak/forbedring:<ul><li>Avsluttende eksamen avholdes i eksamensperioden hvert semester. Eksamen kan avholdes muntlig utenom undervisningssemesteret.</li><li>Mappa (quizzer, gruppearbeid og/eller labrapport) kan forbedres ved å følge underisning på nytt og levere ny mappe.</li></ul>Ved klage på karakter:<ul><li>Skriftlig avsluttende eksamen som vurderes på nytt.</li></ul>

Karplanters anatomi og fysiologi, inkludert celle-, vev- og organ-typer; primær og sekundær vekst; anatomiske tilpasninger til ulike miljøer; fotosyntese; vannrelasjoner og intern transport; mineralnæring og toksisitet; regulering av vekst og utvikling; respons på lys, gravitasjon, og andre miljøfaktorer; blomst, frø og frukt utvikling; senescens og dvale. Livssyklusen til blomstrende planter brukes som et kart over de viktigste fysiologiske prosesser involvert i overlevelse, vekst og formering. Lab-øvelser på fotosyntese, vannforhold, frøspiring og mineral ernæring, ved bruk av levende plantematerialer. Gruppearbeid, labarbeid og rapporter understreker analyse, presentasjon og tolkning av fysiologiske data.

Campbell, N.A. et al. 2018. Biology, 12th ed. Pearson/Benjamin Cummings, San Francisco.

Forelesninger og diskusjon: 42 timerLaboratoriekurs: 15 timerEmnet er adgangsbegrensetObligatoriske aktiviteter<ul><li>Forelesningsoppgaver</li><li>Gruppearbeidsoppgaver</li><li>Godkjent lab.kurs</li></ul>

Kunnskaper:Studenten skal kunne:<ul><li>diagram og forklare funksjon til planteceller, vev og organer</li><li>forklare sentrale fysiologiske og metabolske prosesser i plantevekst og utvikling </li><li>sammenligne og kontrastere anatomiske og fysiologiske tilpasninger til forskjellige miljø</li><li>gjøre rede for klassiske eksperimenter og sentrale metoder i forskning i plantefysiologi</li></ul>Ferdigheter:Studenten skal kunne:<ul><li>tilegne seg informasjon omkring sentrale temaer innen plantefysiologi</li><li>bruke relevante faglige verktøy og teknikker</li><li>analysere og tolke plantefysiologiske målinger og resultater</li><li>gjennomføre en oppgave både selvstendig og sammen med andre</li><li>reflektere over egen faglig utøvelse innen plantefysiologi</li></ul>Generell kompetanse:Studenten kan:<ul><li>innsamle og analysere data ved bruk av relevante verktøy og programvare</li><li>presentere og diskutere vitenskapelige resultater på en sammenfattende måte</li><li>formidle sentralt fagstoff i skriftlig form - arbeide med planter i et laboratorium og veksthus</li></ul>

Lesningquizer

Lektorutdanning i realfag - masterstudium (5-årig)

Web/Lists(guid'8b698a2d-6ad0-4f7d-b3be-219cc1979f02')/Items(13214)/FieldValuesAsText

Plantenes struktur og funksjon - BI1007