What makes science relevant?: Student perceptions of multimedia case learning in ecology and health

Аннотация

The perception of science as boring is a major issue for teachers at all instructional levels. Tertiary classes especially suffer from a reputation for being dry, instructor-centered, and irrelevant to the lives of students. However, previous research has shown that science can be interesting to students if it is presented in such a manner as to generate personal curiosity and interest. This study explored the efficacy of two multimedia, case-based approaches to develop interest and perceptions of relevance in an introductory biology class. One of these approaches enabled students to test hypotheses about wolf ecology using radio telemetry data, while the other enabled them to play the role of a geneticist testing for genetic and infectious disease conditions.