| In this dissertation, I detail my development of instructional materials (IMs) using resources of a model organism, Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans), as well as a subsequent study assessing student learning of early embryonic development using these materials. This work was inspired by the current undergraduate education reform movement that has called for utilizing research resources in education. I initially investigated how C. elegans resources might be best utilized and organized for educational use and developed an approach to evaluating the materials in order to improve them. The resource utilization was addressed by developing IMs based on research topics, such as cell division, and making them available via the World Wide Web. During the IM development, the pedagogical approach, problem-posing, problem solving and peer persuasion (3P's), along with the concept of researchers and educators working together, were adopted. The materials development then was expanded to include a C. elegans community education web portal---WormClassroom.org. With the IMs in hand and WormClassroom.org established, an empirical study was conducted in order to assess student learning of early embryonic development using these C. elegans materials. The study on student learning was designed to gain insight on: (1) student views of early embryonic development; (2) student grasp of cell lineage trees and body plan axes; and (3) student reasoning about how development occurs in both space and time. The key findings were that: most students believe that, in early development, the embryo increases constantly in size as cell number doubles: didn't seem to understand the biological significance of the lineage of cells and the cells in the lineage tree: didn't seem to view an embryo as a three-dimensional entity. These findings suggest that the utilization of research resources in education is valuable not only to student learning but to the scientific research field as well. My hope is that professionals in the research and education fields will find the endeavors reported on here useful and, as a result, be willing to join efforts to the mutual benefit of both fields. |
