Research Problem The use of active learning techniques in the classroom improves student learning in biology courses, but many students don’t like active learning.

Research Question Do students exposed to active learning in their first college-level biology course have different attitudes toward active learning than students who are not exposed to active learning in a biology course until their second or subsequent semester? GroupFallSpring 1Traditional BIOActive Learning BIO 2No BIO courseActive Learning BIO 3

Research Methods My primary research methods include: Survey Keep-Quit-Start cards Focus groups How will I collect these data? Survey – end of the semester Keep-Quit-Start cards – after first week and after mid-term Focus groups – mid to end of the semester My strategy to analyze these data will be: Survey – compare mean for sets of questions (Likert scale) Keep-Quit-Start – code qualitative data (make quantitative) Focus groups – code qualitative data to determine themes

Alignment of Research Question and Methods - Each method aims to determine student attitudes toward active learning - Comparison of the data from each of the three groups should allow for the observation of any differences in their attitudes - Data regarding students prior experiences with BIO courses will be gathered as part of each instrument, so that the student data can be properly sorted and confounding variables can be minimized and discussed. - This project is focused on attitudes, so data on engagement and performance in AL will not be gathered.

Update / Progress Completed all fall semester data collection as planned I was only able to get 3 students to do a focus group, so I did a follow-up survey in class with the most important open-ended questions. At this point, it appears that the majority of students really like active learning regardless of whether or not this was their first bio class. However, this was the “control” group; only one student in the class had taken the “typical” lecture-based first semester bio course. I won’t have the data to answer my research question until the end of the spring semester, so I may need to present data from another project at ASMCUE (since the abstract deadline is in February).