Tawde, Mangala

Focus of my investigation: Basic Info on Research-

Courses - Human Anatomy-Physiology – I and II and General Microbiology

-Semester(s):   Fall 2008 onwards and previous

-Student population:    Allied Health (pre-nursing) majors

-Number of students:  35-40 / class- 100-120 per semester

-Level of students:  Sophomore

I teach above 3 courses to mostly pre-nursing majors- . The enrollment for these classes is pretty heavy; however the students at Queens borough are highly diverse not only in their ethnic and educational backgrounds but also in their ages, stage of life and family commitments. Many students lack the formal training in Science, especially in Biology at High school level; while many are the returning students, who haven’t been to school for a long time. These students are overwhelmed by the depth and immensity of the material presented in any of the above courses. This leads to High attrition rate of the student population enrolled in these classes. To improve retention of these classes--

                My research Question is whether online supplementary instruction via BlackBoard can help pre-Nursing students to succed academically. 

 Scholar Implementation Plan 

I had filed IRB for my above research proposal, however I was informed recently that it was not approved. So I am going to re-write the proposal and file again by September 2008

-Data collection will start at the end of the semester (due to IRB restrictions)

-Preliminary data analysis

Some areas where students could use some help are for example- the Cell structure & Function, Metabolism, Enzyme kinetics etc. So the students will be presented with basic concepts of Biology, Biochemistry, cell biology and/or genetics. The concepts presented will include (but may not be limited to)-- 1) What is Science and Biology; 2) Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic Cell stucture and Function; 4) Elements and chemical reaction; chemical interactions between biomolecules; 5) Cell structure -cell membrane and organelles With the help from SoTL, I would like to build an online resource center/course which the non-majors or the pre-nursing students can use to better-prepare them for their respective courses. I believe that team-based learning is an effective technique but would like to know various aspects of these pedagogical techniques.