The Biocore program is killing many birds with one stone.

The teaching staff of the Organismal Biology honors lab course Biocore 324 has developed Writing-Intensive assignments that incorporate many good pedagogical techniques for written and oral communication. At the same time, these assignments meet many of the course’s Writing-Intensive requirements.

Before their final papers are due, students are asked to use PowerPoint software as a tool for communicating their research to the class. This enables them to receive oral and written feedback on their work, better anticipate audience expectations, and revise their writing before they turn in their final papers. And, the students comment that they learn more by being expected to present their ideas in both oral and written form before they turn in a final paper.

As members of semester-long research teams in Biocore 324, students are asked to work together to develop and present their findings from each of three independent research projects throughout the semester. During students’ development of a 15-minute presentation, each research team is essentially putting together an exceptionally detailed outline of its final paper the week before it is due. The slide version also allows the instructional staff and peer reviewers to give the teams feedback on their analyses and conclusions before they have written their final papers.

Guidelines for the presentations stress that each group must use the slides in order to convey a research question, a biological rationale for the hypothesis, the hypothesis itself, research methods, and results and discussion. During the presentations, students in the audience are asked to provide written feedback for each research team. I meet with the TA after class to discuss our impressions of each presentation and to assign final grades. TAs then prepare written critiques for each research team.

While the PowerPoint assignment meets many of the requirements of a Writing-Intensive course, it also demonstrates to instructors how well students understand the biological systems being tested. Furthermore, we evaluate students’ ability to:

1. Convey their understanding of research topics.
2. Organize their thoughts and make conceptual connections to course content.
3. Analyze their data efficiently and come to some initial conclusions about their hypotheses.

Students are especially grateful when the instructional staff catch incorrect use of statistical tests and/or inappropriate conclusions, but this formal peer-review also gives students a window into what they will be experiencing in their professional lives. They come to see the PowerPoint assignment as a collaborative process in which they are using their writing to think about and revise their communication of research findings while they practice their presentation skills.

Happily, students provide the Biocore staff with excellent reviews of these assignments. As one student said, “Once the PowerPoints were finished, it was much easier to finish our final papers.” Another remarked, “After gaining feedback from class, we understood our results and conclusions better.” Because students are forced to consider their team’s results and analyze them immediately, their final papers are just more eloquent versions of what they already know. I would argue that this prepares them well for successful futures as medical professionals and educators, and for the many other life science-related careers.¨

For more on the Biocore program, visit http://www.biocore.wisc.edu/biocore.