Date of Award

Spring 5-3-2024

Level of Access Assigned by Author

Open-Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master's of Science in Teaching (MST)

Department

Science Education

Advisor

Sara Lindsay

Second Committee Member

Heather Falconer

Third Committee Member

Franziska Peterson

Abstract

Biology education research has identified needs and new approaches that have informed several reform movements to enrich learning, prepare students to be biologically literate citizens, and give them the skills to pursue a career in science if they choose. The Vision and Change report published in 2011 identified a need for change in undergraduate biology education due to the fast paced nature of the field of biology and outdated traditional methods of biology education that cannot keep up with societal needs. The Vision and Change report outlines five core concepts and competencies that educators should include in their undergraduate biology course in order to take the first steps in changing the field of undergraduate biology education as a whole (American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), 2011).

While educators should include the core concepts and competencies in their learning materials, they should also ensure they are teaching with tools that are evidence based and built on a foundation of learning and teaching scholarship. The writing-to-learn movement emphasizes the benefits of writing informally across disciplines. Writing-to-learn allows students to organize their thinking and construct new knowledge using the physical medium of writing(Balgopal & Wallace, 2013). The integration of arts and humanities into STEM has led students to improved science literacy, deeper learning, and more enjoyment in the classroom (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), 2018). Along with metacognition, constructivist learning, and Bloom’s revised taxonomy, these frameworks within education research have been shown to instill creative thinking in students and improve learning outcomes (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001; Balgopal & Wallace, 2013; Bodner, 1986; NASEM, 2018). This study combines these major learning frameworks with the principles of Vision and Change (AAAS, 2011) to create the Structure and Function Haiku Assignment, a creative writing assignment centered around the relationship between structure and function, one of the core concepts from the Vision and Change report (AAAS, 2011).

Student affect has been shown to affect motivation and learning outcomes (Quillin & Thomas, 2015; Tokan & Imakulata, 2019). The purpose of this study was to investigate how students in an undergraduate Human Anatomy class reported their experience completing the Structure and Function Haiku Assignment, in order to gain insight into student affect and attitudes toward completing a Vison and Change informed, creative, writing-to-learn assignment in a STEM course.

This was a case study performed in the Spring 2023 semester at the University of Maine. Students enrolled in BIO 335: Human Anatomy completed the Structure and Function Haiku Assignment three times over the course of the semester. The assignment asked students to write a haiku to represent a structure and function relationship in the human body. Students then answered questions about their thought process, emotions, enjoyment, and judgements of usefulness surrounding the assignment.

Results indicated that the majority of students enjoyed the assignment and found it to be a useful learning and review tool. Student reported emotions indicate a generally positive affect surrounding the assignment, which could correlate to improved motivation and learning outcomes. Students reported using a balance of creative and course content related thinking to complete this assignment. Based on student responses, it was concluded that The Structure and Function Haiku Assignment is a learning and review tool that can be utilized by educators looking to build an evidence-based curriculum aligned with current standards of biology education as defined by Vision and Change (AAAS, 2011). Future research could further investigate the scientific accuracy of student work in relation to their reported experience. Quantitative student learning outcomes after completing the Structure and Function Haiku Assignment could also be explored to learn more about the assignment’s effectiveness as a learning and review tool.

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