Supporting Studies
We believe it is important to support what we are doing in the classroom with evidence that it is exceedingly effective. These are a few of the studies that have been conducted that support the methodologies used in Biology Rocks!. We also believe in sharing research and ideas, so if you have a study you think disagrees with anything posted here, please share it with us. If you have a new study that further supports these methods, share that too! We will update this page with more papers as we become aware of them.
+ Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. - Dr. Carl Sagan
+ Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing. - Werner von Braun
Journal of Research in Science Teaching (2007) - Effects of Active Learning on High School Biology
Chemical Education Research (2008) - Effect of Collaborative Groups on Problem-Solving
Science Education (2003) - The Laboratory in Science Education
Wiley InterScience (2005) - Problem-Based Learning in Biology
Our Results
Here we have posted some of the data we have gathered from participating classrooms within our own program. Everything in this section comes from actual Biology Rocks! students and teachers.
This video clip contains an informal interview with two students that consented to talk with us on camera about their experience during the semester. This video was unscripted and a single take.
Students were given the chance to fill out a written feedback form (with optional anonymity) on the last day of Fall 2009. Below is a PowerPoint containing excerpts from their responses. You can email a request for the entire set of responses. Click the image to open the document.
A building principle sat down with two classes using these methods during one of their meeting times to discuss the course changes. Without their teacher in the room, the students were eager to share with the principle their opinions of the class. Students discussed elevated engagement with the material and a more clear understanding of the larger framework into which their daily work fits. The principle reported some surprise in hearing the students talk about taking responsibility for their own learning and feeling they were working toward higher expectations than they had experienced in the past. The principle reported later that the increase in the students’ expectations, “justified the process as much as the assessment scores.” For more complete notes click here.
Class Discussions
Pilot Results
The results from the pilot study are in hand. The program is continuing to expand, and plans are currently being made to conduct a full research study on the effectiveness of the Biology Rocks! teaching methods. The results from the pilot study are documented in the manuscript below. We encourage you to contact us with any questions or comments regarding the results thus far.
