Scientific Inquiry in the Classroom: Novel Approaches to Teaching Molecular Biology

Abstract

The current state of science education in the United States is evolving to building a skills-based, rather than content-based, knowledge in its students, grades K-12. To this end, I have integrated my experience and understanding of molecular biology and educational pedagogy to develop (in collaboration with teachers from the West Windsor-Plainsboro School District in New Jersey) a high school molecular biology curriculum that reflects these new national science standards. My hypothesis is that novel approaches to science education, such as problem-based learning and inquiry-based learning, are effective methods for teaching molecular biology and will ensure that high school students meet the innovative science standards of our century. To analyze the designed curriculum’s effectiveness, surveys were anonymously completed by students from West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North to gather feedback on attitudes and reflections on scientific skills and content gained from these methods for learning molecular biology. The results of this investigation will yield a greater understanding of the effectiveness of the different methods for teaching science and provide a molecular biology curriculum ready for use in the high school science classroom. Not only will the West Windsor-Plainsboro community benefit from this work, but every school community could gain from the created curriculum and analysis presented by this thesis.