Active Learning Exercise

I plan to have my students drawing and modeling frequently throughout my classes. I would like my students to be able to solve problems by drawing out the solution. I feel that this strategy could be used in a variety of scenarios. Once such scenario would be an excess of calcium in a humans blood.

I would try to use the strategy that we saw in the Intro Bio class, that is, breaking the students up into small groups that they would remain in for the whole semester. The students would be instructed to sit together the way we observed as well. I would then spend about 10 minutes with a problem every Friday. I would begin with a scenario or question up on the screen. The groups would then get about 8 minutes to solve the problem with a graph, model, or picture. In the case of hypercalcemia, we could use this imbalance for cardiac action potentials or capillary exchange. I would then collect the responses and organize them for the lecture on Monday. We would spend about another 8 minutes on these questions. We would discuss the validity of each type of submission as a class and come to a consensus on the correct submissions. I could also use their group numbers to call on them if they are reluctant to speak up. I think this would be a very useful activity because I could then use questions similar to these on the exam and feel confident that they would have been given the tools to solve the problem.

This activity would target group problem solving and the ability to work though problems on paper.