Integration Project: Malinda McMurry

Project Overview

The primary objective of this project is to incorporate learning activities that utilize the Internet into two existing Biology courses (BIOL 105 -- Introduction to Biological Sciences, for non-majors -- and BIOL 231 -- Human Anatomy). For BIOL 105, I propose to give students assignments in which research Biology related issues in the news. They will be asked to look up recent biologically related news items and answer a series of questions about each item. Assignments will be sent to me via e-mail, with the Website address included so that I can check their sources for accuracy.

In BIOL 231, I propose to have students go to three medical information Websites to research information regarding a disease or disorder that they are interested in and write a report that includes a description of the disease, symptoms and treatments, and they will include one other item that they found to be interesting or surprising about the disease. I will also ask them to determine which Website was the most objective and credible, and least commercial, based on an evaluative rubric. The objectives of this exercise are to show students that they can obtain valuable medical information through the Internet and to show them how to critically analyze Websites that they visit.

Project Details

Over the course of the Fall semester, 2002, I gave students Web-based written assignments in Biol. 105 (Introduction to Biological Sciences, for non-majors) and Biol. 231 (Human Anatomy).

In Biol. 105, students were given two Web-based assignments, and I have attached these documents with this report. In the first assignment, students were to go to an online television news, newspaper or news magazine site to research the topic. I gave students examples of sites to look for. They were to find a story about a 12-year old boy who died of meningeal encephalitis last summer after swimming in a lake in Florida. They were to determine from that site how the boy contracted the infection and what caused the infection. Then they were to answer some questions from the textbook. The report was e-mailed to me with the Website address, which I could click on to check.

The second assignment asked students to perform an Internet search for the blue people of Troublesome Creek, Kentucky. The students were to write a short report about the "Blue Fugates", an extended family who had some members that carried a recessive allele for a non-functional enzyme that prevented dark purplish red hemoglobin from being converted to bright red hemoglobin in the blood. The dark purplish red hemoglobin gives the blood the same color, so that the individual's skin appears blue. Students were to look for answers to various questions presented to them about this inherited condition. Students were to e-mail the Website addresses that they used so that I could check their sources.

The objective of these assignments was to help students learn how to look on the Internet for reliable sources of information, in which they can find information for personal interest or research. Most students did a pretty good of finding reliable sources of information on the Internet. 29 students participated in the first assignment, and made an 89% average on the assignment. 29 students also participated in the second assignment and made an 88% average. Since non-science students traditionally do not do well on Biology exams, the two assignments offered an alternative assessment for the course and certainly helped students bring up their grade. Many of the students seemed to enjoy the second assignment the most, and commented to me on what they had learned. One student in particular came to my office and discussed what she had learned with me, and was intrigued by the story. Since it dealt with an unusual inherited condition in their own state, it seemed to peak more interest than the first assignment.

For Biol. 231 (Human Anatomy), at the beginning of the semester I traditionally have students look for my online notes and e-mail me information about them. This semester, I have posted my Website, which features a link to my online notes and links to interesting educational sites for human anatomy. My Website address is:
http://people.morehead-st.edu/fs/m.mcmurr/main.html

In my first assignment, I had students go to my Website and go to the index of my online notes. From there, they were to go to a specific set of notes and e-mail me the Website address and lecture title for those notes. They were also to go to an educational human anatomy link from my Website and e-mail me the title of the site and its address. The objective of this assignment was to familiarize the students with my Website and online notes, as well as links to sites they could use to supplement their studies of human anatomy. These sites often feature animation and interactive quizzes.

The second assignment, which is attached to this report, asked students to go to three scientific or medical Websites to research a medical disease or disorder. The objective was to show students that they can access information from the Internet to find reliable information regarding diseases they or a family member may suffer from. Students were to write a report, discussing the topics that were given to them (describe the disease, symptoms, treatments, etc.). They were also to evaluate the Websites by filling out a rubric for each site (also in an attachment to this report) and discussing their results. Which Websites were the most informative, objective, and easy to navigate? Which Website was their favorite and why? My objective here was to make students mindful of the reliability of the Websites that they use.

A total of 51 students from two class sections did the assignment. Most students did quite well; one class section made an 87.4% average and the other class section made a 91% average. Many students commented that they learned a lot about the disease or disorder they researched; most students research a disease that they have a personal interest in. Students also commented that they were going to "bookmark" the Websites that they used, for future reference. For example, here are the comments from one student's paper: "I have saved the addresses for the (diabetes) sites and am glad to have been assigned this project, (sic) I may have never have taken the time to get online to find this information on my own."

My hope is that students in both classes found information they previously did not know, and also found reliable sources of information on the Internet. In the future, I will probably have my Biol. 105 students fill out rubrics for the sites they use. I think it is important for students are able to determine which Websites are reliable sources of information and which are not. In the future, I want to emphasize this aspect more.