TEACHING ALL VOLUMES SUBMIT WORK SEARCH TIEE
VOLUME 1: Table of Contents TEACHING ISSUES AND EXPERIMENTS IN ECOLOGY
Experiments


Challenges to Anticipate and Solve:

       We have identified 5 challenges that commonly arise:

  1. correlation and causation: Many students do not understand the fundamental difference between correlation and causation. In this lab, stomata density variation likely results from interacting environmental factors (e.g. CO2, temperature, water, etc.); therefore, higher stomata density might be consistent with a student's hypothesis about causation, but students need to understand that this does not allow one to say anything like "the data prove our hypothesis." We suggest that instructors discuss inductive/ deductive reasoning and hypothesis testing in science.


  2. falling behind in the first 15 minutes: Many students seem to stumble into class without much of a clue about what is happening in lab on the day the stomata lab begins. The instructor must engage these people immediately - which is why we begin the lab with a "call and response" activity (see below).


  3. little sense of direction: Many students do not really understand what an environmental difference is from a plant's perspective - also, they have very little conception of which way is "NORTH" and the degree to which a particular shrub on campus is "sunny" or "shaded" over the extended daylight hours other than the instant of their observation. In other words, few students really understand the path of the sun in the sky across their campus. Instruction about this should be done outdoors - not in class.


  4. statistics literacy: Most students have not seen the basic concepts of statistics we expect them to use in this experiment. The instructor must attend to these needs. For some non-majors or pre-college settings, it might be better to have students assess their differences in stomatal averages visually, perhaps using a more simplified short-cut, such as the two standard deviation rule.


  5. presentation effects: Most students have never made a scientific presentation before. The instructor must attend to these needs, and in particular encourage supportive behavior by the peer learning community.
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Comments On the Lab Description:

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Comments On Questions for Further Thought:


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Comments On the Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes:

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Comments On the Evaluation of the Lab Activity:

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Comments On Translating the Activity to Other Institutional Scales:

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