EXAMPLES OF PROBLEM-BASED PROBLEMS

EXAMPLES OF GE 101 PROBLEM-BASED PROBLEMS

Tamara is 25, a single mother of a 6 year old son. She works 15 hours a week in a department store, and has decided that she wants to become a nurse. Presently she does not know much about college. She does not know what steps to take first, what she will have to do in order to get an associates degree in nursing, or how she can make it over the next two years if she decides to go after a degree. She has decided to draw up a two year plan of everything she will need to do in order to get a nursing degree. Step 1: Problem-Solving- Tamara Wants to Become a Nurse 1.Determine what your group knows that Tamara will need to know in order to create a plan for going to college and get an associates degree in nursing. 2.Identify what your group needs to know that they do not presently know. 3. Where can you get the information Tamara would need?

Step 2: Tamara Wants to Become a Nurse Once your group has worked with the problem as far as possible and identified what they need to learn, and have identified where to begin searching for the information, your group will need to begin researching the information needed.

Step 2: Tamara Wants to Become a Nurse Continued The group will be using the BIG 6 Strategy for researching information: see next slide of Big 6 steps.

Step 3: Tamara Wants to Become a Nurse Your group will then return to the problem and apply what they learned to their work with the problem in order to more fully understand and resolve the problem. The group will complete a two year plan for getting an associates degree in nursing.

Step 4: Tamara Wants to Become a Nurse After your group has finished their problem, the group assess themselves and each other to develop skills in self-assessment and the constructive assessment of peers. Self-assessment is a skill essential to effective independent learning.

Tamara is now 26, a single mother of a 7 year old son. She still works 15 hours a week in a department store, and is in the nursing program. She is having a difficult time managing and juggling her time between her daughter, work and school. She knows she is going to have to manage her time better, but just doesn’t see how she can squeeze another minute out of her schedule. Step 1: Problem-Solving- Tamara Has a Time Problem 1.Determine what your group knows that Tamara about time management and creating a time management plan for Tamara. 2.Identify what your group needs to know that they do not presently know. 3. Where can you get the information Tamara would need?

Test Anxiety: State the Problem: Jennifer studies and knows her material, yet when she gets ready to take a test, she gets butterflies in her stomach, feels nervous and just forgets what she knows. Jennifer has been searching the internet on the topic of text anxiety. There are a number of strategies she can do to reduce anxiety and many of those strategies involve relaxing first. The two most common relaxing/anxiety reducing strategies are Deep Muscle Relaxation and the other is the Relaxation Response breathing exercise. She needs to make a decision about the one she will use.

Reading Charts and Graphs: State the Problem: Laquita will be expected to be able to read and understand bar graphs, column graphs, line graphs, tables, circle/pie graphs in her texts and other reading material.

EXAMPLES OF Computer Leteracy PROBLEM-BASED PROBLEMS

Computer Literacy/Internet Search: State the Problem: Tamara has been using the GOOGLE search engine ( on the internet. She has heard that there is a web page explaining a basic search and a web page which would allow her to get advanced search results “with all of the words”, “with the exact phrase”, “with at least one of the words” and “without the words”. Everyone in Tamera’s group will need to know how to do basic and advanced searches using the GOOGLE search engine.

EXAMPLES OF RDG 030 PROBLEM-BASED PROBLEMS

Creating a Text Study Strategy: Problem: Shalonda has been researching what is known about how to read/study textbooks. Her research shows that there are five things she can do which will improve her reading of a textbook. She wants to take these five pieces of information and put them in some order which she would follow when reading texts and be able to explain to herself a rationale for the order she put the research results in when she is studying. Continued on next slide:

The five pieces of information are: Research shows that if a student takes the time to understand what they have just read well enough to say it in their own words – out loud before they move on with their reading, they remember four times more than when they do not take the time to do this step. Research shows that if one goes over (review) the questions they made up while reading after completing a chapter or large section on a text will save 90% in review time. Research shows that if one gets an overview of the chapter in a text before beginning to read the chapter that they read 24% faster and remember more than students who do not get an overview first. Research shows that if one stops ant each heading or subheading or the beginning sentence of each paragraph and changes them into a question before continuing to read, and read to answer the question they made up, then the student will not only answer the questions they ask better than students who do not do this step, but they also remember the detail and facts better on tests. Research shows that reading to answer the question they have made up from heading results in students who also show remarkably better concentration.

Organizing Information: State the Problem: Randy has been successful in the past just reading and memorizing text information and definitions, but he has done poorly on his first Introduction to Nursing test. When the instructor went over the test, it became obvious that many of the questions were application questions, that is they asked the student to not only know the information they had studied, but to also be able to see how information is tied together organizationally, so that they could apply the information to a problem. For example, an emergency patient comes in and is bleeding profusely and is also unconscious; what should the nurse do first? (a) consult the doctor, (b) stop the bleeding, (c) try to revive the patient, (d)look for nearest relative to fill out Patient Intake Form. It has become apparent to Randy that he needs to see how all the information he is learning is tied together (organized) and to quit just memorizing information.

Concepts/Outside Sources: State the Problem: Randy’s major compliant is related to all the new medical terms he runs across in his text. He often does not do well on his test when the test questions refer to new medical terminology. Bob has still another suggestion, search for the medical word in a medical dictionary or on the internet.

P.L.A.N./Text Study Strategy & Concept Development: State the Problem: Randy’s major compliant is related to all the new medical terms he runs across in his text. He often does not do well on his test when the test questions refer to new medical terminology. His friend Bob says that he should start with the information provided in the text, such as definitions, and examples in the reading. Bob uses the reading-study strategy P.L.A.N. to identify new terminology and marks the new terminology with a question mark (?) on his semantic map. If the reading passages don’t help him understand the word, Bob goes to the test glossary and/or index. When he understands the new word, he puts a few key words about the meaning in his semantic map for later referral.

P.L.A.N./Text Study Strategy: State the Problem: Randy is taking Fundamentals of Nursing. The text has a lot of information and Randy is having trouble remembering so many details. His friend Bob, an upper classman, told him that he should learn how to use the P.L.A.N. reading-study strategy, which uses concept maps to help organize information, and then gave him two handouts he had saved from his class (one a list of internet links on mapping and the other, the steps of P.L.A.N.) Bob claimed that P.L.A.N. has helped him to see how information in chapters are related and also helped him to remember the information. More important, according to Bob, it helped him answer the application questions that are always asked on nursing tests. (Note: problem can be used for modeling or for student problem-solving.)

Word Parts: State the Problem: Randy’s major compliant is related to all the new medical terms he runs across in his text. He often does not do well on his test when the test questions refer to new medical terminology. Bob has another suggestion, carry around a list of commonly used prefixes, roots and suffixes used in medical terminology. These word parts can be easily found on the internet. Randy wants to know how he can use prefixes, roots and suffixes.