High- and Low- Tech Approaches to Teaching Statistical Skills in Introductory Biology
Tested Studies in Laboratory Teaching, 2011, Volume 32
Gillian Gass
Abstract
Students from a wide range of academic programs (science, arts, engineering, nursing, kinesiology, and so on) take Introductory Biology at Dalhousie University. We want to make sure that all of our students can benefit from the class, while also making sure that they are properly prepared for upper-year biology classes. Introducing students to basic statistical techniques important in biology, such as the chi-square test and comparing means using 95% confidence intervals, presents a challenge: how can we teach these skills to students from a broad range of backgrounds, while keeping the focus on biological (rather than purely statistical) concepts during class time? During this workshop, I'll share some hi-tech and low-tech solutions to this issue. Making use of technologies such as Camtasia Studio software and tablet PCs, I produced short pre-lab videos that students could watch on the course website to help them prepare for using statistical techniques in their lab exercises; during the lab, students could also consult a short stats-skills document included in the lab manual (please see the Supplemental Materials section for links to videos and to the Stats Primer document). We'll also look at how these videos, documents and exercises can be adapted for use in online courses. Workshop participants will have the opportunity to try out some of the tools used for making the videos, and to share their perspectives and ideas for successful integration of statistical techniques in biology labs and classrooms.
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