From Cookbook to Guidebook: Remaking Traditional Biology Labs into Active Inquiry MP4 Video Consortium for Healthcare Education Online Faculty Professional Development Webinar February 6, 2014

Whether students perform a science lab through one of our NANSLO remote web-based science labs or in a face-to-face lab setting, constructing your lab using an active inquiry model provides students with an environment that complements what scientists do when they make empirical observations and develop evidence-based explanations of the natural world, and it gives students an opportunity to apply higher thinking skills. Johnson discussed how to convert a “Diffusion Through a Membrane” demonstration and confirmation lab into a guided inquiry exercise. He discussed how students are presented with a basic problem to solve and must decide what methods they will use to solve it and present their findings. Johnson, an associate teaching professor and the Core Curriculum Coordinator for biology at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC, guided participants through: (1) common questions about designing guided inquiry labs; (2) renovating a classic demo lab by setting general learning objectives, disassembling an existing lab exercise into reusable components, and scaffolding a revised exercise using an inquiry-oriented general template; and (3) choosing specific activities for the revised exercise and discussed informal methods for assessing learning outcomes. Dan Johnson delivered this professional development webinar on February 6, 2014 to Consortium for Healthcare Education Online (CHEO) faculty. About the Presenter: A. Daniel (Dan) Johnson first caught the teaching bug as an undergraduate, and has spent the last 25 years passing it along to others. Since 1998 he has been the Core Curriculum Coordinator for biology at Wake Forest University, where he holds the rank of teaching associate professor. While trained as a cardiovascular cell biologist, Johnson’s interests span the breadth of biology. He has spent nearly two decades designing, developing, and publishing inquiry-oriented biology laboratories and other active-learning instructional materials on a variety of topics. In 2008, the National Science Teachers Association published his guide to inquiry instructional development for faculty, 40 Inquiry Exercises For the Biology Laboratory. In 2010 the College Board used this book as a guide for developing the new Advanced Placement biology curriculum; subsequently Johnson served as a content advisor and reviewer for the final curriculum materials. Johnson is a senior editor (and a regular contributor) for Tested Studies for Laboratory Teaching, an international open-access journal published by the Association for Biology Laboratory Education. In 2011, Johnson founded The Adapa Project, a group of educators, students, developers, and others who create open-access resources that help more students learn science successfully. Their first resource, BioBook, is a textbook alternative built on proven best practices that costs far less than commercial products. Their second project, Teaching Genetics with Dogs, was launched in 2012. It uses our familiar pets to teach genetics principles and engage students more deeply.