PARENT SESSION
Contributed Oral Session 13: Ecology Education I
Monday, August 8, 8:00 AM - 11:30 AM, Meeting Room 520 C, Level 5, Palais des congrès de Montréal
Using Lyme disease dynamics in oak forests as a Jigsaw exercise to convey ecological complexity: Overview and student evaluation.
McEuen, Amy1, 1 Biology Department, Springfield, IL, mceuen.amy@uis.edu
ABSTRACT- Conveying the complexity of ecological systems can be challenging in general ecology courses given the breadth of material that must be covered and the frequency with which each ecological concept is presented. There is a risk that students learn each process or concept in isolation without developing a strong understanding of how factors work together to explain the dynamics of whole systems. Jigsaw exercises are a potentially powerful tool to aid students in developing stronger ecological schemas, however, implementation can be challenging given the novelty of the approach. I developed and implemented a Jigsaw exercise for my general ecology course of 44 students (junior and senior standing). This exercise was based on the Bioscience paper published in 1996 by Ostfeld et al. which examined the complex dynamics between mice, oak mast, gypsy moths, deer, ticks, and Lyme disease in eastern oak forests. Although none of the students had previous experience with such exercises, their overall ratings of the experience were high. Eighty-one percent (n = 37) of the students said they found the exercise useful and only ten percent (n = 39) suggested the exercise be dropped from subsequent classes. Positive student comments highlighted the exercises' ability to develop understanding of interactions, foster critical thinking, develop figure interpretation abilities, and stimulate interactions with other students. Negative comments focused on problems of student participation and inability of other students to explain their "piece" of the puzzle well. I will discuss the challenges of successfully using these exercises in the classroom and will present suggestions on how the Jigsaw approach might be modified to address student criticisms.
Key words: cooperative learning, oak forest dynamics, jigsaw exercise