Farewell

This is a sign-off. The brutal experience of trying to use new methods as a novice, whilst working with hostile faculty has finally beaten me down.  As my teaching obligations officially finished with the end of semester, I've decided to call it quits on education for good, and so there won't be any more posts. Since I have been sharing my links with a few people, I won't take them down (and will probably add to them as more tips come in from the FIRSTIV listserv).  Feel free to send me more links if you have anything you think belongs here.


Bon Voyage!

Yes, I will get to this too..

Trees vs. ladders

Thinking Like A Biologist (on a good day)

More on this soon...

Thinking Like A Biologist

Using Diagnostic Questions to Help Students Reason With Biological Principles

Step 1: Read the graph, Step 2: Interpret the graph

Sometimes students are missing the basics.  Like, for instance, don't panic when you see a complicated graph, just start by figuring out what kind of data is presented, and how, and only then try to interpret the thing.

Interpreting graphs is such an integral part of the scientific life that we are barely even aware we are doing it - but students are just starting out, and are much more likely to be spooked if they do not immediately understand.  Some advice from Teaching Issues and Experiments in Ecology formalizes the most basic processes of graph interpretation as the unimaginatively titled "Step One-Step Two" method.