Cohort April 2024: Faculty of Science – Brett Couch, Alayne Mariano, Erica Jeffery
Course context and goals
Labs are a vital part of undergraduate biology education where students develop technical skills and gain experience with science through hands-on experience. BIOL 203, Eukaryotic Microbiology, is a lecture and lab course on the diversity of eukaryotic microorganisms. Students have little or no knowledge of these organisms, so the main goals of the lab are: 1) to excite students about microbial diversity and 2) to develop skills in making and recording observations. A major challenge in this course is the need to build microscopy skills while students are using microscopes to view specimens and make observations. Proficiency with microscopes is essential for enjoyment of the lab experience and student success in the course. In previous terms, students who found microscopy challenging seemed to have reduced engagement with the lab material which negatively impacted their learning about organismal diversity.
What we plan to change
Considerable effort and time are spent teaching, practicing and evaluating microscope skills in this course; however, students continue to struggle with microscope use through the term. BIOL203 uses multiple approaches to teach microscopy: written instructions, demonstrations in labs, demonstration videos, quizzes, student-produced setup guides, self-evaluation rubrics and a graded microscope setup quiz. Although students perform well on the microscope setup quiz, the learning gains appear to be temporary, and instructors need to continually review basic procedures through the term. In 2023W1, students used self-evaluation activities designed to clarify expectations for skills, to promote self-regulated learning and reflective practice. Data from the self-evaluations and microscope setup quiz were analyzed by Alayne. She determined that the response categories were too broad and didn’t easily align with the microscope setup quiz. As well, the use of the self-evaluations didn’t appear to address the central challenges of skill development and retention.
We want to revise how microscopy skills are taught in BIOL203 (and related courses that share materials and approaches like BIOL209 and BIOL320) by:
- Exploring why students struggle with microscopy skills
- Investigating student motivation to develop and use skills in the lab
- Use our findings to modify existing instructional approaches and/or develop new approaches, and
- Evaluate the success of those approaches on students’ skill development
Project outcomes
We will review the current approaches to teaching microscopy in the BIOL203 labs. This review will serve as the basis for development of survey and focus group questions for former BIOL203 students and students in related courses (e.g. BIOL209 and BIOL 320). Surveys and focus groups will be used to identify why students struggle with microscopy skills and what motivates students to develop and use skills.
The results of student responses will be used to inform revision of the approaches to teaching microscopy skills in BIOL203. We envision continuing to use some form of self-assessment in the course but with significant revision based on preliminary data, student feedback and the need for better alignment with assessment. Student’s perceptions of the redeveloped approach and their actual skill development with then be evaluated in the 2024W1 term.
Testimonials

It’s been great getting to know my project team members better over the summer! We are each bringing different sets of strengths, skills, and perspectives to the project, and seeing how those things can work together and compliment one another has been really cool.
— Erica Jeffery