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Background Context
Intro to majors biology, cell and molecular
500 students a year
I teach one semester in fall
Pre-professional, secondary ed
Challenge
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STEM retention
Students do not see why biology class relates to
their lives –> no motivation until too late to recover
Research Question
Does providing popular media of biological concepts
improve student outcomes in introductory majors biology?
Outcomes
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Retention
Content knowledge
Grades
Attitudes
Interest
Why is it Interesting?
(to anyone other than me)
STEM Retention
Method anecdotally works, but little hard research in
biology
Contemporary format/media to engage students
where science meets their lives (me meeting
them where they are, not the other way around)
Eating, Cooking (Alton Brown), CSI mystery, Science
career, Human Interest/Justice,
Agriculture/Plant, Animal
Research Design
6 units of material
Unit 2 - Introduce pop. media to whole class (no assn.)
Units 3, 4 - Random ½ gets intervention, other ½ normal,
switch
Quantitative
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Pre, Post, Embed MC (factual knowledge, comprehension, concept
familiarity)
Grades, decreased dropping of class
Qualitative
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Interview random 7 (?) of each half
1 page, open-ended, self-reporting paper