Mikko,
Again I agree with a lot that you are saying, but there are also some other issues involved.
As Alex said on feedback day the first practical class will be a shock no matter what it is. The biomolecules course is not actually compact, it is too long and thin. It starts at the begining of September and runs until February, we are looking to try to compact it down if the timetable permits, perhaps to run October-December.
There are 6 practicals on the Biomolecules course, each of them nominally 1 day in length.
Two of the practicals are computer based.
1) Basic bioinformatics - always well done. Done in groups of up to 10 students (each with an individual protein to analyse in expasy). One demonstrator per group - the demonstrators often take other work along to these sessions as there is little for them to do, but they need to be there. Since it is web based half the class has often left by lunchtime to do it at home.
2) Visualization of biomolecules - always very well done. Done in groups of 10 students. One demonstrator per group. Again the demonstrators often take other work along to these session. Again since the work is given on CD half the class has often left by lunchtime.
Four of the practical classes are "one day" wet practicals.
1) Preparation of DNA from onion. For an experienced person this takes 1 hour to do. Students start finnishing 2 hours after the start (they are expected to find safety equipment where the safety equipment is as well as the other first practical chaos). Biggest delay is the nano-drop for analysis. Biggest problem year-on-year is that several of the male students do not know how to chop onions finely.
2) Preparation of ovalbumin from egg white and gel filtration. Again these are easy practicals to do physically, but they require students to work efficiently with their lab partner. There was a serious problem in the first year with the gel matrix used which was a slow flow matrix and caused delays. Students start fininishing around 4-5 hours after starting. The hardest thing for this practical is the maths in one of the write up questions. Biggest delays are lack of centifuges and students watching each other instead of doing something else. Biggest problem year-on-year is that several of the male students do not know how to break an egg so as to separate the white from the yolk.
3) Analysis of sugars in honey part 1 and paper chromatography of sugars. First practical to start making standard curves and so more difficult than 1 and 2. I plan to drop the paper chromatography next year and to bring both parts of the analysis of sugars in honey together. There was a serious problem in the second year the course ran due to one of the reagents being problematic. Students start finishing around 4-5 hours after starting.
4) Analysis of sugars part 2 and TLC of spinach extract. Similar to 3 but less problematic as this is the 2nd set of standard curves to make. Serious problem this year as the first students who finished did their analysis calculations as they went along and got them wrong and we didn't spot the error and thought the 0.1% honey solution had been made up wrong. It wasn't. Moving the 2 parts of the analysis of sugars together will avoid this in future. TLC - some write ups are beautiful works of art with perfect colour reproductions in coloured pencils (I know this is irrelevant to the discussion but I really liked them it brightens up the marking...one or two students every year do it....) Students start finishing around 4-5 hours after starting.
While some students start finishing early, some students are there 7-8 hours (we close the lab at 5pm most of the time as the demonstrators want to go home and every year this means asking one pair to leave with at least part of an experiment unfinished). Very few students are there beyond 4pm.
Apart from the problems listed above the other issues are:
1) Large class sizes - we have 50-65 students all at once in the labs. We did this because there teaching loads during the new system phase-in meant we did not have the demonstrators spare to run two separate sessions. As discussed in the feedback day we should have more demonstrators from this year (as biokemia II experiment numbers drop by half). Hopefully Jari can solve the demonstrator and timetable issues so we can split the class in two. This will make a HUGE difference both to the chaos and to the equipment issue.
2) Student participation in the pre-lab sessions. At the start of each lab session there is a one hour session with feedback from the last lab and looking forward at what will be done in that days lab. Roughly 25-30% of the class do not attend these sessions and then do not know what is happening in the lab.
3) Some students do not read the manual in advance. This manual was also supposed to be part of the English for Biochemists I course, but it did not appear in the course.
Changes for next year:
1) Change the timetable to make Biomolecules more compact (if possible)
2) Split the practical class in 2 (if possible - we should finally have enough demonstrators to be able to do this)
3) Drop the paper chromatography practical and rearrange the rest of practical 3 and 4 to make it more coherent
4) Have an extra 1 hour session before the first practical class on "equipment in English" (this was supposed to be in English for Biochemists I, but did not appear). I will also prepare a sheet on this and post it on moodle.
5) Make the pre-lab sessions compulsory attendance (there should be no timetable clashes anyway).
6) Add the missing maths test / examples to Moodle (to join the other 4 self-tests)
7) Re-jig the handouts to include a little more text and to make much more space for students to write notes on the handouts.
As you said Mikko one BIG difference between the Biomolecules practicals and the Methods I practicals is that in methods I the students have to start planning their own practical work, while in biomolecules there is only one small part of one practical which is not in the manual and the students are told they have to work out for themselves.
VBW,
Lloyd
-----Original Message----- From: Mikko Salin [mailto:mikko.salin@oulu.fi] Sent: 14. toukokuuta 2008 9:35 To: Lloyd.Ruddock@oulu.fi; Lloyd Ruddock Cc: bklist@lists.oulu.fi; histoni@paju.oulu.fi Subject: RE: [Bklist] more about feedback
- there are a lot of criticism about the order of courses
Biomolecules and Biokemian menetelmät I, which suggest that Biokemian menetelmät I should be the first, and Biomolecules after that.
As a practicals teacher, I would also like to comment on this subject.
The reason why first year students want to change the order of Biomolecules and Methodology I is simply the subjective experience of the working load in these courses. I have understood that Biomolecules practicals are a kind of shock for the first year students. The course is really compact and short, requiring really hard working and long working days. Since the laboratory is loaded with students and the amount of teachers is limited, organizing such a course is an admirable achievement. But still the students are shocked.
On the contrary, Methodology I practical course is far less compact being a 3 weeks course. The students to teachers ratio is reasonable allowing more guidance and more oral explanation on the theory behind the experiments. In this course the students also should start planning more their experiments by themselves which means that they have more time/experiment compared to Biomolecules course. Due to these things the subjective experience of the students is that the Methodology I course should be the first one.
This was only a description how students see the things. My comment is that considering the course contents the order should definitely be the one Lloyd suggested. But considering the working load and timetable, this I simply don't know because I never taught in Biomolecules course. And it's always hard to say what is best for students. They are lazy (as I a... was too) and verbally talented, and usually from Finnish culture. This means that on average they are not used to hard pressing, they can defend themselves verbally, and they maybe think short-sighted and want to make studying easy and fun. So maybe Lloyds hard pressing is simply very good for them...
With best regards, Mikko