Cover Story

The EVOLUTION of Biology Education

Curriculum task force members share ideas on how to teach an ever-changing subject.

Biology has advanced more in the last 20 years than in the previous 200, and the next 20 years promise to be just as fast-paced.

Given this rapid rate of progress, how can educators keep up and prepare their students for jobs that may not even exist yet?

Publishers help by updating textbooks with the latest discoveries. Yet the issue goes deeper than facts: biology itself is evolving. The volume of data generated by genomics and other areas is making biology a more quantitative science. And at the molecular level, boundaries between biology, chemistry, and physics are blurring.

The National Research Council launched a discussion on the subject with the January, 2003 publication of "BIO 2010: Transforming Undergraduate Education for Future Research Biologists," which was sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and Howard Hughes Medical Institute. In essence, "BIO 2010" says that biology education should emphasize math, physics, chemistry, and information sciences and integrate them into biology courses, train students in interdisciplinary groups, and get all students into research labs early on.

Last fall, Robin Wright, associate dean for faculty and academic affairs, convened a faculty task force to review CBS? curriculum. The group reviewed curricula at peer colleges, consulted with leaders in biology education, referred to scholarly analyses, and sought input from CBS students and faculty as well as people from other colleges and departments and University administrators. Agendas and minutes are posted at http://cbs.umn.edu/main/ctf/. They agreed that their top priority is to consider creating different general biology courses for different groups of students: CBS undergraduates, students majoring in engineering, agriculture or health sciences, and those in non-science majors, such as liberal arts, education, and business. Currently, most students choose from the same general biology courses.

By the end of the school year, a subgroup drafted a proposal for a new yearlong core biology course for CBS students to be offered during the sophomore rather than freshman year, after students have taken calculus, some chemistry, physics, and possibly some biochemistry. Currently, most students take a year of inorganic chemistry and a year of organic chemistry before taking biochemistry. But since biochemistry permeates much of biology, the task force hopes to offer it before the core biology course. The new core course, which would integrate lectures and labs, would require students to use facts to solve problems rather than simply memorize facts.

This year, the task force is continuing its work. While the group as a whole continues to develop the core course for biology majors, sub-groups will consider courses for other science students and for nonscience majors.

Following are some perspectives on curriculum reform from task force members and others.

Wright says she first saw problems with biology curriculum when surveys at the University of Washington, where she was a faculty member, showed that graduates weren?t using what they learned in her classes, either professionally or personally.

It was a wake-up call that led her to question the way she and most of her colleagues teach biology through lectures, textbooks, and tests, she says. "Like most teachers, I invest an enormous amount of time preparing for classes, and I want it to have a long-term value for students."

After some research, Wright concluded that critical thinking skills rather than facts would better prepare students to use biology. Her teaching changed dramatically, from lectures and tests to asking students to use facts to solve problems.

"It's much more fun, but much harder' for teachers and students," she says. "I knew I didn't have a choice if I wanted to make a difference in their lives. In biology, the facts will change. That's why it's important to teach students to think like scientists, so they can delve into the rich amount of information that's available, evaluate it, and make decisions."

As Wright further explored the issue, she discovered she was not alone. There was a growing wave of concern among biologists nationwide from federal agencies to small liberal arts colleges that undergraduate biology education needed reform.

Wright came to CBS in January, 2003 to seize an opportunity to advance that reform and perhaps even create a model curriculum. CBS is one of few schools in the U.S. devoted to biological sciences and the University of Minnesota is one of few large public universities that require all undergraduates to take biology. As associate dean for faculty and academic affairs, Wright is responsible for undergraduate education and the University’s General Biology Program.

The process is taking longer than she had hoped, but she believes that her goal of creating an integrated, inquiry-based core curriculum is gaining support among faculty. "The cake is definitely not in the oven yet," Wright says. "We're still adding ingredients to the batter. But I think we have all the ingredients to be truly outstanding, talented students and faculty, committed leadership. I think we can make a multi-layer chocolate torte with raspberry filling, not just an ordinary cake. I hope I'm helping people to realize that."

David Bernlohr

Although Dave Bernlohr helped develop the proposal for a new biology curriculum, he is quick to point out that it?s a first draft and suggestions are welcome.

"There are different opinions among faculty about how much change is needed," he says. "Do we really need to overhaul the curriculum or just tweak it? If it's not broken, should we fix it?"

"Everyone agrees magic happens when you create interdisciplinary teams," Bernlohr says. "But there are different schools of thought about how to generate that magic." Some people think the integrated approach advocated in BIO 2010 may go too far."

Proponents of another approach, called "Ways of Knowing," contend that interdisciplinary research produces results because scientists from different disciplines learn differently and approach problems differently. If you train everyone together, you may risk losing this advantage.

"BIO 2010 launched a national discussion on how to educate the next generation of biologists. We're now looking at integrated education versus ways of knowing. It's really not clear at this point how to reconcile the two," Bernlohr says. He adds that there appears to be consensus on some aspects of the proposal, such as increasing math rigor and getting students involved in research earlier.

In the 1970s, Bernlohr was looking at the CBS curriculum from a student's point of view. He earned a B.S. degree in biochemistry at CBS in 1978. Even then, faculty and students recognized the value of laboratory-based learning. Bernlohr worked in the lab of Finn Wold, who was head of biochemistry.

"The best educational experiences I had occurred in his lab," Bernlohr recalls. "He provided students with outstanding opportunities to learn and think critically. As we think about curriculum reform today, experience-based education is still the key."

Claudia Neuhauser

Claudia Neuhauser took an unusual road to ecology, evolution, and behavior. After earning a Ph.D. in math at Cornell University, she spent a year at Princeton studying ecology. Then she served on faculties of math and biology departments at several universities, including USC, UW Madison, and UC Davis, before settling on the ecology, evolution, and behavior department at CBS.

An applied mathematician, Neuhauser uses "spatial stochastic processes" (an area of probability) to create models that address questions in biodiversity and population genetics. As a mathematician and biologist, she brings an extremely valuable vantage point to CBS. Not surprisingly, she strongly supports integrating math into biology courses. She also thinks biology majors need to take a statistics course in addition to a year of calculus, currently the only math requirement for most CBS majors.

Neuhauser understands that biology students tend to think of math as something you have to swallow because it's good for you. With this in mind, she created a class called "Calculus for Biology and Medicine" and wrote a textbook with the same name to show students how to apply calculus in the life sciences. She says the highest compliment a student can pay her at the end of a term is, "You know, that really wasn't so bad."

Since she got her Ph.D. in math in 1990 and began dabbling in biology, Neuhauser has witnessed a sharp increase in the use of quantitative skills in life sciences. All areas of biology, not just genomics and proteomics, are generating streams of numerical data, she says. More and more biologists will use this data to construct models on computers.

"We need to prepare them for the opportunities this will create for them," she says. "A curriculum that lacks quantitative elements doesn't serve the students well. Required math classes aren?t enough. We need to show them how to use math in biology.

"The proposed class is an experiment, but that's okay," she adds. "If it works, good. If not, we go back to the drawing board, just like research."

Mark Decker

Mark Decker is on the front lines of general biology education. As one of three full-time instructors in the University?s General Biology Program, he helps teach the subject to approximately 4,000 majors and non-majors every year.

Currently, the General Biology Program offers a one-semester survey course and a two-semester sequence for majors. Both cover the gamut of biology from molecules to ecosystems and include lab sessions. CBS majors are required to take a full year of introductory biology. Those who enter with a qualifying score on the AP biology exam get credit for the onesemester survey course and take another semester of organismal biology. Others take the two-semester sequence. Non-majors may take the one-semester course or the first semester of the year-long course.

Decker supports creating separate classes for majors and non-majors, but hopes that both will continue to cover all of general biology. "All students, even biology majors, need to be exposed to the full spectrum of biology," he says, adding that lectures are the most efficient way to cover lots of material. "Inquiry-based modules are more effective but slower."

Decker also has some concern that "BIO 2010" is geared for research biologists, particularly in biomedical sciences. While this may work for many CBS students, many others will work in environmental sciences, health care, the biotechnology industry, education, and other areas.

And, Decker says that while he sees the wisdom of planning the new biology course for majors for the sophomore year he wonders what students will think. "It may be a grind for freshmen to spend a year on prerequisites," he says. "I don?t know if the "Nature of Life" and "Breadth of Biology" courses would be enough to keep their interest."

He also sees an important opportunity to create a very different course for nonmajors. It would focus on showing them the role of biology in their lives, from global warming to renewable energy to health care, and preparing them to be informed consumers and citizens.

Ultimately, Decker says, creating separate biology courses for majors and nonmajors is best.

"But it?s going to be messy," he says. "It will require lots of time, money, and trade-offs. Tension between the teaching model and breadth of content is inevitable."

Chuck Hernick

A 2003 graduate with a B.S. degree in ecology, evolution, and behavior, Chuck Hernick worked as a junior scientist in a CBS plant genomics research lab in 2003-2004. He recently began a graduate program in international relations and environmental policy at Boston University.

Hernick says he's very happy with the education he got at CBS and thinks most students feel the same way. "I feel that I am better prepared for the future than friends who went to other schools says Hernick, who went to high school at the School of Environmental Studies in Apple Valley. But he does think it's important to use the lecture format judiciously, in combination with other ways of teaching biology.

"Science is a dynamic field. What you get from lectures and textbooks is history. This gives you the language to be a scientist, but science is problem solving. The only way you can really learn how to be a scientist is by doing independent research in a lab. I think most students share this feeling."

Hernick says the instructional labs that accompany lecture classes are helpful, but not nearly as valuable as solving real problems in a real research lab. "When you just duplicate an experiment in an instructional lab, you miss the critical thinking component," he says. "Most of what I know about biology I learned from working in a research lab."

He adds that while students will always need lectures, they're just not the best way to teach students how to be scientists. "It's very motivating to do research yourself," he says. "It makes the calculus, physics, and chemistry classes worthwhile."

Hernick agrees with the plan to offer the core biology course during the sophomore year, after students take calculus and chemistry. He also agrees with Neuhauser that biology students could use a course in statistics designed for them. "It?s a practical skill that most biology students will need," he says.

John Jungck

Robin Wright first learned about John Jungck while exploring undergraduate biology curriculum at the national level. Jungck is co-founder of BioQUEST, a national consortium dedicated to reforming biology curriculum and a contributor to "BIO 2010."

Then she met him at a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) gathering for undergraduate education directors in Maryland and discovered that he was a CBS alumnus.

"When I told him I was moving to the College of Biological Sciences at the University of Minnesota, he told me he was a double alumnus. It made me feel very good about my decision because I knew a place that trained John Jungck simply had to be terrific," Wright says.

Jungck earned a B.S. degree in biochemistry from CBS in 1966 and an M.S. degree in genetics and microbiology in 1968. He became interested in undergraduate biology education at CBS when he shared an office with Donald Dean, a visiting professor who was involved with national science education organizations. Jungck helped Dean write a book on science education and talked to graduate students nationwide about teaching careers. After earning a doctorate at the University of Miami, Florida he joined the faculty of Beloit College in Wisconsin, where he is now Mead Chair of Sciences.

Jungck uses computer simulations, databases, and other tools (as well as toys) to create learning environments that give students a sense of what it's like to be a scientist working in a lab. Through BioQUEST he shares these materials and helps educators create their own. An expert in mathematical molecular evolution, he emphasizes the importance of math as a tool for future biologists.

This spring, Jungck returned to the University of Minnesota to receive an honorary doctorate for his contributions to undergraduate biology education. He says he was deeply honored and very proud to be an ambassador for his alma mater.

"While all the new facilities are remarkable, I was even more impressed with the leadership, the commitment to undergraduate biology education, and the friendliness of the academic community," he says.

Jungck is also impressed that CBS encourages undergraduates to do independent research in faculty labs. He supports extending that opportunity to all students and faculty. The University's fundamental challenge, he says, is how to convert large lecture classes into interactive, collaborative, and investigative learning experiences.

"If the University of Minnesota can provide large numbers of students with these opportunities it could become a major national presence in undergraduate biology education.

—Peggy Rinard