Udovic, D.: Rethinking Introductory Biology: The Workshop Biology Project as a Case Study in Curricular Reform

Workshop Biology is one of many experimental approaches to teaching introductory college-level science that emerged during the 1990’s. The goal of this non-majors’ course is to engage students in open-ended, interactive activities and projects designed to develop (1) students’ understanding of essential biological concepts, (2) their understanding of the process of scientific discovery, and (3) their critical thinking skills. Overall, our desire is to improve students’ abilities to make good decisions about important personal and societal issues by fostering their ability to bring scientific knowledge and ways of thinking to bear on problems whenever relevant. In this talk I will describe the Workshop Biology philosophy, illustrate our approach, and discuss current evidence that this approach and others like it are effective in achieving their goals.