A University of Buffalo professor who wants to revolutionize the teaching of science has been awarded an $800,000 grant to do just that.
Clyde F. Herreid, Ph.D., SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor in UB’s Department of Biological Sciences, advocates the case-study approach—with storytelling, protagonists and ambiguity—in teaching science to undergraduates.
Although such teaching methods are more common to "college lit classes than to chemistry or biology," the university noted in a news release that reaction from UB students has been wholly positive.
"Students who appeared tired and disinterested during lectures are suddenly animated and involved," said Dr. Herreid, who was awarded the $800,000 grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts.
He and professors at UB and other schools who have incorporated case studies into their science courses have seen class attendance jump from 50–65 percent to 95 percent, UB reported in a Feb. 28 news release.
Dr. Herreid sees undergraduates who are nonscience majors as "a tremendous missed opportunity" for most science professors. "As a professor," he said, "your greatest impact is on the nonmajors. Nationally, we have serious concerns about how to engage students in science, and there is a lot of pressure now coming to bear on how to teach science more effectively. These collaborative strategies will make a huge difference. This revolution is about to happen."
The Pew grant will establish at UB the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science, dedicated to exploring what educators call "active-learning technique," a blanket term for teaching methods that depart from the standard lecture format.
Among the new center’s goals: publish 100 new cases each year on the center’s referred Web site, "eventually developing a collection of science cases comparable to that developed by Harvard University for business and international policy."
The center also will publish books on case teaching in each of the natural sciences and mathematics, produce a series of videos that instruct faculty in the approach and publish an electronic newsletter. In addition, the grant provides for an annual conference on teaching science with case studies.
The case approach uses role playing, debates and group presentations that allow students to become "directly involved in a controversial, unresolved topic that has a solid, scientific core and deals with important social and policy issues," said Dr. Herreid.
