Oct. 15, 2002
Exploring Biology in the City
Hewlett Foundation Class Emphasizes Problem-Based
Learning By Using Washington, DC, Resources
By Greg
Licamele
Terry Hufford stands on the sidelines of the classroom, like a wise
sports coach, watching his team at work. After a visit to the Smithsonian’s
Museum of Natural History, four groups of students in his “Biology
in the City” class eagerly discuss their findings about the origins
of life .
“It doesn’t have a nucleus,” one student declares to
his group in describing noncellular organisms. Other phrases emanate
such as “adaptive radiation,” “major causes of evolution,”
“niche,” and “extinction.”
Hufford, professor emeritus of botany, has asked his students to reflect
on their trip to one of Washington’s premier resources about life.
The class discussion slowly shifts to the extinction of dinosaurs and
Hufford asks why they no longer exist. He offers four hypotheses (climate
change, asteroid, pandemic disease, and sheer size). Thirteen chairs
strategically position themselves again in four small groups to debate
this question and learn — from each other — why dinosaurs
disappeared.
This class, along with seven others throughout the Columbian College
of Arts and Sciences this semester, encourages and requires students
to solve problems by discovering facts on their own, instead of sitting
in a classroom memorizing and repeating information from a textbook.
The Hewlett Foundation provided the funds to develop these classes two
years ago and today 252 students are enrolled in the problem-based learning
courses with a GW twist — using Washington-area resources.
“Problem-based learning is a student-centered approach,” Hufford
says. “It’s not instruction centered. Having taught for 40
years, it’s difficult for professors because we like to hear ourselves
talk. So just to sit there and keep your mouth shut and let the students
do the talking is another perspective.”
Hufford strolls through his classroom at the Mount Vernon Campus, almost
eavesdropping on the four groups as they debate extinction. One student
asks him a question and Hufford flashes a smile. Another questioner
receives a wink. A third gets a nod. As the students assess the plausibility
of these hypotheses and discover what they support, the debate intensifies.
“You’ve got to question it,” one student says. “You
can’t deny the asteroid,” says another, to which a third retorts,
“I’m not denying it.”
“They collaborate in trying to find out information,” Hufford
says. “If they are going to make any sense out of it, they have
to figure out what the terms mean and how the processes work. It’s
uncovering and discovering biological information.”
The Hewlett classes use Washington-area resources to enhance the learning
experience. In addition to the Natural History Museum, Hufford’s
class journeyed to Kenilworth Aquatic Park in DC to collect data including:
water temperature, conductivity, PH, phosphate and nitrate measurements,
and specific ions. They collected all of this data, but Hufford asks
the larger question, “So what?”
“If there’s so much nitrate and this much phosphate, then
why is that important,” asks Hufford, sitting in his Mount Vernon
office outside of class time. “That will, in turn, get us into
the whole topic of water pollution, what is it, and why should we be
concerned about it. The field trips are simply a way of focusing them
on a specific problem which will serve as a springboard into a larger
discussion.”
Hufford says one goal for his students revolves around the ability to
integrate information and data from various sources and realize its
relationship to real life. This process, he says, stands as a challenge
for students because they’ve never been exposed to it and higher
education has struggled to encourage it.
“We tend to teach our discipline like it’s in a silo,”
Hufford explains. “In biology, we teach them everything they want
to know about biology, but tend to forget how it’s connected to
everything else. That’s what we want students to be able to do
— to see those interconnections.”
In the class discussion on extinction, Hufford asks how quickly a pandemic
disease could kill and what evidence is available. An answer was found
during World War I when the Spanish Flu struck the world. More than
20 million people died and between September 1918 and April 1919, approximately
500,000 deaths from the flu occurred in the United States, according
to the Centers for Disease Control. As Hufford presents this example
of a pandemic disease, the students seem to give it more credibility.
This course meets the requirements of an introductory class and it focuses
on four specific areas: evolution and biodiversity; environmental biology;
energy and energy transformation; and genetics, biotechnology, and bioethics.
Hufford’s teaching philosophy for these topics is three-fold: discovery,
discussion, and reflection.
“What the students did at the Smithsonian was discovery,”
Hufford says. “What we did (in class) was discussion. Then we’ll
come back and say, ‘We discovered this, we talked about this, now
what does it mean? Why is it significant? How does it relate to you
as an individual and to society?’ ”
Hufford hopes all Hewlett class students learn they can take responsibility
for their education and understand it’s a lifelong process.
“That’s not going to happen unless people are motivated,”
Hufford says. “This class will help in that process. They will
develop an ability to utilize resources that are available.”
Holding true to this long-term goal, Hufford assigns a paper for students
to more fully develop the most plausible argument on extinction by finding
evidence in textbooks, journals, and on the Internet.
“Classes are not so much that one can attain knowledge, but that
one can take that next step, which is wisdom,” Hufford says. “Knowledge,
to me, is nothing more than a bridge to wisdom. We want to help students
develop their ability to think critically.”
Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu
