Artifact #1: Exploring Biology Syllabus
The Exploring Biology course was designed to guide freshmen through the field of biology in a way that encourages them to think critically and make decisions as informed citizens of the world. I was excited about applying this approach because I find that many college students struggle to see the relatedness of topics across disciplines due to focusing on memorizing facts. The earlier this intervention is, the better students will fair in their following scientific courses.
The syllabus is the first document the student will encounter in your course. Therefore, it is important to make the syllabus a transparent document to outline your goals and expectations clearly. If your expectations are aligned with the students and they understand the purpose of their activities and assignments, this motivates students and leads to an overall better outcome. Students will not feel that the work they are doing is "meaningless", but see the value of it because they understand the overall purpose of the course. They will also struggle less because they know your expectations for them and how to approach issues if they arise. This is critical for underprepared students/first generation college students. These students may have trouble making inferences about your goals or expectations if they are merely implied and need to have these things explicitly outlined. While this requires a lot of work up front, it is beneficial to everyone in the course.
I created the syllabus to provide the students with information that can answer any questions they may have about the course. To accompany this, we had our students complete a modified scavenger hunt worksheet, which forced students to read the entire syllabus and analyze how they would respond to different scenarios. I've attached that file below as well to see the example.
The syllabus is the first document the student will encounter in your course. Therefore, it is important to make the syllabus a transparent document to outline your goals and expectations clearly. If your expectations are aligned with the students and they understand the purpose of their activities and assignments, this motivates students and leads to an overall better outcome. Students will not feel that the work they are doing is "meaningless", but see the value of it because they understand the overall purpose of the course. They will also struggle less because they know your expectations for them and how to approach issues if they arise. This is critical for underprepared students/first generation college students. These students may have trouble making inferences about your goals or expectations if they are merely implied and need to have these things explicitly outlined. While this requires a lot of work up front, it is beneficial to everyone in the course.
I created the syllabus to provide the students with information that can answer any questions they may have about the course. To accompany this, we had our students complete a modified scavenger hunt worksheet, which forced students to read the entire syllabus and analyze how they would respond to different scenarios. I've attached that file below as well to see the example.
Reflection
As mentioned by the first sentence in the syllabus check scavenger hunt document, many students overlook the syllabus even though it contains very important information for the course. Students tend to think that it is something to reference when a situation arises, but not before. This can be very problematic for students, especially freshmen. For students that are not as familiar with what a syllabus entails, they may not know that information about grading or assignments may be in there but not explicitly discussed in a course. We wanted to avoid that scenario, and make students read the document on the first day of class. As a way to force students to look through the syllabus and answer any questions they may have, we modified a previous activity we had found. This activity provided different scenarios or mini case studies that required students to respond to the individual addressing this scenario based on the syllabus provided to them. This made students look at all the parts of the syllabus to answer the questions. It reduced the amount of questions we would have gotten about classroom policies. I also have seen another approach, where educators make students sign a sheet and return it to the instructor saying they've read over the syllabus and adhere to what is outlined in it. While I think that could be an effective strategy, I think this seems a little more friendly since it has similar requirements but it isn't presented as a "binding document". This, or some other activity requiring students to look over the syllabus, whether it is as a worksheet or a quiz will definitely become a part of my future classes I will teach.
Overall, my goal was to make our syllabus something that was engaging while including relevant information (what happens if you turn in an assignment late? can't make it to a class?), the learning goals for the semester and how students can succeed in this course. I was inspired by some creative syllabi I had found on pinterest and other teaching resources, and proud of how it turned out. I feel that I did succeed in creating a successful syllabus, but there are some things I would add if I were to do it all over again. I would have an area discussing the different roles in the course since we had a teaching staff. This was very different than their other courses, and would have been good to clarify the expectations of each of these roles. Instead of just an instructor and TAs, we had a course director, four teaching fellows and four peer leaders. Under each section, I believe a brief sentence or two about their role in the course would have been beneficial for all. I also think that when reviewing the syllabus, we should discuss plagiarism more. Over the course of the semester, we were shocked to find how many students don't understand the idea of plagiarism, and felt that was a topic we needed to review more with the entire course. However, the syllabus and its partnered assignment accomplished its purpose and I would re-create a similar assignment in future courses I teach.
Overall, my goal was to make our syllabus something that was engaging while including relevant information (what happens if you turn in an assignment late? can't make it to a class?), the learning goals for the semester and how students can succeed in this course. I was inspired by some creative syllabi I had found on pinterest and other teaching resources, and proud of how it turned out. I feel that I did succeed in creating a successful syllabus, but there are some things I would add if I were to do it all over again. I would have an area discussing the different roles in the course since we had a teaching staff. This was very different than their other courses, and would have been good to clarify the expectations of each of these roles. Instead of just an instructor and TAs, we had a course director, four teaching fellows and four peer leaders. Under each section, I believe a brief sentence or two about their role in the course would have been beneficial for all. I also think that when reviewing the syllabus, we should discuss plagiarism more. Over the course of the semester, we were shocked to find how many students don't understand the idea of plagiarism, and felt that was a topic we needed to review more with the entire course. However, the syllabus and its partnered assignment accomplished its purpose and I would re-create a similar assignment in future courses I teach.