http://www.biology.arizona.edu/bpoutreach/default.html
The worldwide web is the ultimate form of outreach, and the primary domain of The Biology Project. Thus, the outreach component of The Biology Project is a little different. In short, BP Outreach seeks to:
Outreach for The Biology Project will consist of in-house workshops, conference presentations, CD-ROM versions of the web site, and traditional forums such as paper bookmarks for distribution, notices in newsletters, and educational and scientific magazines.
The Biology Project team welcomes inquiries from educators interested in contributing interactive projects for publication by the Biology Project. Submissions will be peer-reviewed and publications are citable academic work.
Inquiries from content authors in any area of the undergraduate biology curriculum,
especially developmental biology, are welcome. Current activities can serve as a
model for content of an interactive nature. The Biology Project staff would be
responsible for HTML-coding, testing, and integration of the content into the
Biology Project. Authors retain copyright of their original material.
Contact Richard B. Hallick, hallick@u.arizona.edu, for more information.
The emphasis of this 6-day intensive web design workshop will be on creating high-quality, student-friendly instructional materials in biology on the WWW.
The Biology Project Web Design Workshop is project-based. Participants will come with biology content, and will learn how to craft that content into an interactive learning experience for students.
During the workshop, we will cover such topics as:
Participants: This workshop is open to biology teaching faculty and instructional support staff at colleges and universities. Because the workshop is project-based, we encourage participants to come in pairs (ie, two professors, or a professor and a web designer).
The workshop is designed to accommodate many levels of expertise. Basic computer skills are required.
Although the internet is an excellent means of delivering curriculum to students and educators, real barriers still exist when it comes to integrating online materials into courses. Modem access to the www can be slow and cumbersome, computer availablity on campus is often scarce, and network resources may be limited. In addition, public schools often do not have the funding or support to go online.
Fortunately, the materials comprising The Biology Project web site can also be used on a local computer or server. This eliminates the need for an internet connection and can make The Biology Project curriculum available to anyone with a CD-ROM drive and www browser software.
On the worldwide web, making others aware of The Biology Project web site was easy. However, increasing awareness in our own backyard has proven to be a challenge. Although a professor across the ocean may be using the Biology Project materials in his introductory biology course, many at the home institution of The Biology Project did not know that these resources exist.
To increase awareness of The Biology Project at a local level, we have created a bookmark detailing the three Biology Project sites: The Biology Learning Center, The Biology Project itself, and Student Biology Web.
We hope that increasing awareness of these sites will encourage 1) faculty to incorporate these web-based learning materials into their curriculum 2) college students to use these web sites to learn biology 3) UA biology students to contribute academic publications to the Student Biology Web 4) high school teachers to direct their student to this web space 5) area high school students interested in biology to visit the sites and decide to come to UA.
At The University of Arizona, bookmarks have been distributed to undergraduate advising offices in biology (Biochemistry, Molecular & Cellular Biology, and Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, as well as Pre-Med), members of the Undergraduate Biology Research Program, incoming freshman at the Biology Orientation, the Office of Minority Affair's Science and Math Learning Center, the Honor's Center, the Science Library, SALT Tutoring, UA summer orientation, and all faculty in the biological sciences.
Bookmarks will also be distributed to students enrolled in Biology 181 at The University of Arizona and Pima Community College. Many Arizona high school teachers who teach AP and Honors Biology are distributing these bookmarks to their students, and high school students attending Med Camp and Med-Start also received bookmarks to take home with them.
These bookmarks have also proved to be handy tools for distributing our URLs
and information about our web sites at conferences and presentations. Bookmarks
have been distributed at The Slice of LIfe '97 and Interop conferences, in addition
to several local workshops and presentations.
Please contact Denice Warren at denicew@u.arizona.edu for more information on
distributing BP bookmarks.
Madeleine Lapointe
Senior Instructional Specialist
Department of Biochemistry
June 7, 1999
Creating skilled learners
Why is there no word in English for the art of learning? Webster says that the
word pedagogy means the art of teaching. What is missing is the parallel word for
learning. In schools of education, courses on the art of teaching are often listed
simply as "methods." Everyone understands that the methods of importance in
education are those of teaching these courses supply what is thought to be
needed to become a skilled teacher. But what about methods of learning? What
courses are offered for those who want to become skilled learners?
Seymour Papert,
Constructionism in Practice, Yasmin Kafai & Mitchel Resnick editors
Helping Students Becoming Skilled Learners
Students need to know
Teachers need to know
Memory
To Help Students Learn
Expert / Novice
Expert
Novice
Different Forms of Knowledge
We refer to different forms of knowledge when developing critical thinking:
How did we apply these ideas to The Biology Project?
Problem sets