Standing in front of more than 100 students and asking them to do things instead of talking at them was exceptionally daunting. Then, I heard the buzz and excitement of discussion and knew I was on the right path.

Course Context

Students 

HSCI 100 – Human Biology is a first-year service course that fulfills a breadth science (B-Sci) credit for students across the university. It is a large lecture course with student numbers ranging from 27 to 165 students. Typical class size is ~ 100 students. The students come from many different faculties and interests. Many are just out of high school or early in their university career.

Teaching Methods

This is the first course I have ever taught, and it started my teaching career in FHS. Since then, I have taught this course 15 times since 2010. I took on the standard lecture approach when I started to teach this course. I found students were not engaged, didn’t come to class (it was 8:30 in the morning), or would fall asleep. Teaching this course as a new instructor set me off on a path of experimentation with student engagement and evidence-based practice (Dolan & Collins, 2015). I still mostly use lectures in this class, but I break it up with discussion questions, polls, and the occasional case study. 

Tutorials: This course has tutorials that are taught by TAs. Each week, TAs are provided with a detailed plan of what they should be doing in the tutorial sections. I have included an example.

Classroom Innovation

I have implemented various experiments and innovations in teaching this course. Many of these were in collaboration with Mark Lechner, who also teaches this course regularly. 

This has included:

• Experimentation with classroom engagement technology, specifically iClicker, TopHat and Packback (2022).

• Developing new assessments, including a critical thinking presentation based on the book Bad Science by Ben Goldacre and expanding the exam formats to include short answer questions in addition to multiple-choice.

• Addition of in-class questions and activities such as the occasional case study.

• Classroom clinical trial using iClickers .

• Decolonizing the scientific method by incorporating Indigenous Science.

How I Express My Teaching Values

Mindset Transformation - In this course, I have challenged students' minds by considering unfamiliar worldviews and how they think about science. 

Connecting to our Shared Humanity - I share my stories and ask students to share theirs as part of reflection assignments.

Student Experience and Emotional Growth - I have worked to create a non-judgemental classroom environment that makes students feel welcome and engaged.

Integration of Technology: I have used many different forms of technology in this class, including iClicker, TopHat, and Packback. 

Importance of Reflection and Critical Thinking - This has come out in multiple ways. Reflection is part of the Indigenous Science component of the course. Critical thinking happens in multiple ways, for example, in the knowledge mobilization paper that looks at issues through both an Indigenous Science and Western Science lens and in the presentations from Ben Goldacres's book Bad Science (2008).

Systems Thinking - This is a strong theme of this course as we build up from basic atomic structure to a whole body. Reinforcing the body as a system is a critical concept.

References

Dolan EL, Collins JP. We must teach more effectively: here are four ways to get started. Molecular Biology of the Cell [Internet]. 2015 Jun 15;26(12):2151–5. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1091/mbc.e13-11-0675

Goldacre B. Bad science: quacks, hacks, and big pharma flacks [Internet]. 2008. Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Science_(Goldacre_book)

Course Files