How to teach science in practice

In the last blog, I outlined goals I feel should be targets to teach aspiring scientists. In this blog, I will address my methods for teaching each topic and goal. These are methods I have used with constant modification to teach quality data collection, procedures, basic experimental design, and the scientific process. The order roughly follows the order I teach interns helping me with my research, but they could also apply to a laboratory or field course. As before, I would appreciate any feedback, especially ideas to improve.

The first thing I tell students after an introduction to the experiment and hypotheses and before the student begins data collection is that they should understand the procedures and ask questions if they do not. I would rather explain a procedure or concept a dozen times than have a student guess. I feel this honesty is important, not only for the quality of the data, but also for the student’s ability to collect data and conduct research.

Procedures specific to the field can be taught by example. When showing a student a new procedure, I give the student a copy of the protocol. I then demonstrate, while explaining the rationale, each step. After completing the procedure, I ask the student to try and ask questions while I watch. If the procedure is a long one, I will allow the student to work and check their work when they finish. Once the student is comfortable with the procedure, I will allow the student to continue unsupervised, but let them know that I will be working nearby if they have questions or difficulties. My attempt here is to provide instruction and insure quality data collection without making the student uncomfortable by constantly looking over his/her shoulder.

In working through a procedure, the student should, as appropriate to repeat the procedure to collect several data points. In doing this, the student should have the opportunity to plot data to see that multiple data points are needed to show a relationship or difference between treatments. Students should also observe that two data points from an identical treatment will be different and think about what could cause differences. These observations will demonstrate, at a basic level, the need for replication and experimental and sampling error. Likewise, in the field, students often observe spatial heterogeneity (“this area is different from that area”). An observation on spatial heterogeneity is an ideal time to teach the lesson of replication and randomly assigning treatments- otherwise, how do we know differences are from treatments and not previous differences?

A deep understanding of the scientific process and the ability to think critically are much more difficult. I try to explain the rationale of a procedure and the question the results can answer. When discussing my (or others’) research objectives and hypothesis, I try to explain the history of the project: where did the idea come from, how were the methods developed, and what larger questions the research will answer. While these explanations may help, I feel that a true understanding will come in time and through discovery by the student. My goal is thus to provide opportunities and guide students on their path to discovery.

My role as instructor is not to provide easy answers. This philosophy is not out of laziness- I am happy to quickly answer some questions, but feel students should also understand how to answer their own questions. Often directing a student to help her find an answer is more challenging than giving the student the answer. Students should be able to consult primary literature. Also, as a student develops, he should begin to be able to think about how to design an experiment to answer the question and perhaps even conduct that research!

While students are conducting research, I try to ask questions that require some thought. I start simple, asking what the student thinks about the subject or sample they are looking at. As the student is able to make more observations, I will ask if they observe differences between treatments. I attempt to build these questions into a discussion about the research. In some students, these conversations can be enlightening for me as a student suggests new ideas or approaches.

In the next blog, I will discuss several specific difficult situations I have encountered with students. I will describe how I responded to the student and the result. I will ask for comments on how others would handle similar situations.