Toxicology modules help high school students practice collaboration, experimental method

During the spring semester, students of science teacher Adam Serfass at Conrad Weiser High School in Robesonia piloted the first in a series of "Environmental Toxicology Inquiry Curriculum" learning modules developed by a team from Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences and Teaching and Learning with Technology. The project is funded through a stimulus grant from the National Institute for Environmental Health and Safety.

Each lesson in the modules, delivered in a hybrid online and face-to-face format, is designed on the "flipped classroom" model. In that model, students read text or watch multimedia clips containing the lecture material outside of class online, then complete what would typically be homework activities during face-to-face class time. The students also accessed course-related videos and posted their own work in a Facebook group created for the class.

As the students worked through the lessons covering such topics as the effect of salt on crop plants and calculating caffeine dosage in humans, they were able to bring together skills from several different fields of study including chemistry, biology, and quantitative skills, according to instructor James Endres Howell, who is overseeing the module development.

Some key goals for the modules are an interdisciplinary approach, collaborative learning, a focus on the scientific method and hands-on experimental skills, and a renewal of interest in science among high school students, according to Howell.

"Real research science is, certainly in the 21st century, always interdisciplinary," said Howell, adding that it is also collaborative. He said that in most laboratories, "People are talking in the halls and in conference rooms. They're jumping up and drawing on the whiteboard. They're asking peers how to troubleshoot a certain technique." In the Environmental Toxicology modules, he said, "We really wanted students to get a flavor of that kind of creative collaboration and that's why the laboratory activities are rich."

A hybrid approach rather than a completely online approach was chosen by Howell, because, he said, "I'm a firm believer that there's no substitute for face-to-face, in particular for laboratory experiments; you can’t substitute that with a simulation. You have to have a bench and petri dishes." A central goal of the modules was to expose students to real laboratory practices, said Howell. "Not just the techniques," he said, "but the cognitive skills of making rigorous observations and testable hypotheses and interpreting the results."

Explaining the choice of toxicology as the subject matter for the lessons, Howell said, "There's really a lack of environmental education in K-12 schools. I think not only is the approach on how we were designing these modules unique, but I also think the content of the material is unique." He also said that research shows that while many young children are interested in science, that interest dwindles as they reach higher grade levels. Howell said, "My hunch is that students have a harder time seeing how science topics are relevant to their lives. We really strove to demonstrate how these topics are important to human health and the medicine that people take and the environmental contaminants that they face."

Serfass, whose advanced placement class took part in the pilot, said, "I think toxicology is something that is poorly understood by most high school teachers." Howell and his team, which included instructional designers Matt Meyer and Angela Dick and multimedia specialist Mike Tribone, anticipated this unfamiliarity, so that along with creating student materials and teacher lesson plans, "we wanted to provide multimedia that was very strong with efficient explanations of the content, to do the heavy lifting for the teachers," said Howell.

A student taking part in the pilot said, "I love the videos and like the fact that I can watch them as many times as I want and pause it to take notes."

Serfass reported favorably on the classroom pilot, noting, "The main thing I see is the advantage of the lesson continuing after formal class time is over. There were several days where I was unable to cover all the material, but because of Facebook and the ability to post video and links online, the students were able to continue that lesson while we weren't actually in school." He said that although he had not previously considering integrating Facebook for online collaboration into his class, "the online collaborative tool and the flipped classroom really allows for a thought-provoking discussion at the start of class the next day." Several students said they liked the fact that they could use Facebook because they were already familiar with it.

As he reflected on the success of the classroom pilot, Howell said, "To watch these kids have the 'aha' moments and to become engaged and ask really insightful, penetrating questions about the content, to have very creative ideas but then realize as creative as those ideas were that they could be refined and improved: you don’t have to evaluate that." He added, "None of this is something that a student could fake; that enthusiasm and the look of insight they have on their face is something that you know is real."

Howell said he felt the Environmental Toxicology lessons were at the right level for the students. However, he said, "We're making revisions based on the pilot outcomes. We're also developing some extra material such as teacher instructional support videos."

Development of a second module is now in the works, with completion slated for spring 2012. Once the modules are complete, they will be made freely available to high school teachers across Pennsylvania.