Penn State Intercom......April 25, 2002
Faculty member's field lessons,
Web bring biology to life
By Celena Kusch
Teaching and Learning
Consortium
Jacqueline S. McLaughlin, assistant professor of biology at Penn State Berks-Lehigh Valley College, has a
passion for life. Her enthusiasm for the diversity and complexity of biological organisms is infectious.
"Dr. McLaughlin lives and breathes such a love for her subject matter that students have majored in biology and gone on to pursue careers in medicine and other areas of science because of her," said Nichola D. Gutgold, assistant professor of communication arts and sciences at Penn State Berks-Lehigh Valley College. "She reminds me every time I see her, why I teach -- to be influential, to radiate joy of the subject matter, to be an agent of change for students."
In 2001, McLaughlin received the Four-Year College and University Outstanding Teacher Award from the National Association of Biology Teachers. This year she is being honored with a Penn State Teaching and Learning Consortium Teaching and Learning Hall of Fame Award.
Susan Speece, dean of Penn State Berks-Lehigh Valley College and campus executive officer of the Berks campus, commented, "Jacqueline McLaughlin is certainly a top-notch teacher and the kinds of things she has been recognized for demonstrate her scholarly commitment to her students and her love of biology. She is exemplary in getting students actively involved in learning."
Indeed, active learning is central to McLaughlin's teaching philosophy.
"Biology is life; it's alive," McLaughlin explained. "In order to be fully appreciated, it needs to be experienced firsthand through what John Dewey called experiential learning."
"In the biology classroom, students want to have their hands on the subjects, and if they can't have their hands on it, they want their hands on a keyboard," she added.
In 1997, McLaughlin was awarded $20,000 in funding to develop a technology-based physiology laboratory at the Lehigh Valley campus. Her current research focuses on developing and assessing Web-based, interactive learning modules to support the biology curriculum.
"Web-based learning is going to be a real breakthrough in biology," McLaughlin predicted. "It is my goal to transform the biology lecture into an interactive classroom presentation wherein students are actively engaged in the process of learning by using Web-based modules that cover key concepts. Thus, I have devoted my research to disseminating alternative approaches to teaching biology. I am so fortunate that my teaching is developing into my research."
McLaughlin has published in science and pedagogy journals and in The Biology Place interactive Web textbook. She currently is working with Neil Campbell, specialist in biology education at University of California, Riverside,
and author of the college text, Biology, under an National Science Foundation grant to develop a high school biology book and Web site.
According to McLaughlin, the new text and Web materials will allow high school teachers to cover lessons just as she does in her college classes.
"With a click of the mouse, a teacher using the Web site in the classroom has interactive visuals, lessons and activities students can do. This will help teachers get them away from notes and a textbook and give them a keyboard instead."
With a computer, McLaughlin and the teachers who use her Web modules can present virtual learning activities that are as interactive as the real thing. For example, one of her lessons recreates watershed experiments in the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in New Hampshire. Students enter a virtual Hubbard Brook facility. They click on a button to move to different sites -- a clear-cut forest or an area that has not been deforested -- and collect soil samples. Back at the virtual lab, they analyze samples on equipment, then plot and discuss their findings.
McLaughlin emphasized that students learn more with this approach.
"Traditionally, in order to help students understand this lesson on the nitrogen cycle, textbooks show a chartwith a horribly complicated diagram," she said. "Students learn to memorize from a color-coded diagram, and they have several misconceptions as a result. Instead, with the Web-based modules, they see how the whole process works together in a real ecosystem. We teach the complexities, and they make the connections themselves."
McLaughlin has seen positive results in her own classrooms, but she also is working to assess student learning outcomes in a high school environment. Together, she and Alec Bodzin, assistant professor of technology-based teacher education and educational technology at Lehigh University, are developing protocols to assess the effectiveness of integrating Web-based instruction into the biology curriculum and in professional development workshops for high school teachers.
"No textbook or lecture can fully convey the intricacies and complexities of nature," she said.
Beyond the virtual lessons, McLaughlin also has developed innovative, field-based learning experiences. In the summer of 1999, she began collaborating with Stam M. Zervanos, associate professor of biology at Berks-Lehigh Valley College, to develop a travel course for students to explore the world's major biomes, or large-scale ecosystems. Since then, McLaughlin and Zervanos have obtained funding for 60 students to complete field explorations of the Ecuadorian rainforest and the Galapagos Islands, the taiga and temperate rainforests of Alaska, and the coral reefs, costal rainforests and savannas of Australia. This summer the group will explore Costa Rica.
Gutgold noted, "For many students, travel to these places would never happen without Dr. McLaughlin. In addition to the travel, she makes the trips profoundly educational. These experiences and her instruction are, for so many of her students, life changing."
Student responses confirm this praise. One student reflected, "We experienced species diversity from all angles, among the birds, reptiles and fish. I was fascinated to read about the islands and their inhabitants before the trip, but to be here and see life interact in one ecological system is really incredible. We saw frigate birds scavenge the nests of blue-footed boobies. We watched the courtship dance of the waved albatross dancing among the saltbushes and shore petunias. We saw the marine iguanas basking on the lava rocks. Observing the animals living together helped me truly understand niche selection or the role each plays in its environment."
McLaughlin and Zervanos also are working to bring this experience to other students by creating videos that document the biodiversity and biocomplexity witnessed in the field course. With the help of Penn State Public Broadcasting, McLaughlin edits 12 hours of video from each trip into a 60-minute video resource.
"If we can't take them there physically, we will take them there visually," she said. "With the videos, the students can see their peers interacting with these amazing environments. That's where you get students brainstorming, and that happens in the field. In the first-year seminar, students also will do service learning activities with the Wetlands Conservancy so they may benefit from field experience as well."
McLaughlin's excellence in teaching has earned her recognition nationwide and allowed her to expand her role at the University. Formerly an instructor at the campus, she became an assistant professor after participating in a national search process last year.
"We are just thrilled that we are able to put her on tenure track and show our students that we value quality teaching, Speece said. "Jacqueline McLaughlin's influence casts a very wide net, well beyond the classroom. She is a quality faculty member and a role model to men, women and the institution for how to embrace life and career."
TLC HALL OF FAME Who:
Jacqueline McLaughlin, assistant professor of Began teaching at the University: 1990 Research interests: Exploring firsthand the biodiversity and biocomplexity of world biomes; developing interactive Web-based modules to teach the core concepts of biology in and out of the classroom; assessing the effectiveness of integrating Web-based instruction in the biology curriculum; and enhancing the professional development of high school teachers. Teaching philosophy:
"It is my belief that teaching Honors and awards: National Association of Biology Teachers' 2001 Four-Year College and University Outstanding Teacher Award and Penn State Berks-Lehigh Valley College's Alumni Award for Outstanding Teacher (2001) and Student Appreciation and Recognition Award (1996, 2001) Education: doctoral degree in cell and developmental biology from Rutgers University Family: Children, Erin, 12; Brigit, 9; and Patrick. 4; and husband Bryan Hobbies: Speed walking, decorating, gardening and supporting her children in soccer, cross-country swimming, dance and violin. |
Celena Kusch can be reached at cxk33@psu.edu.