2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Increasing Student Motivation and Learning by Adopting the Experiment-Centric Pedagogy: A Case of Undergraduates in Biology

Presented at Experimentation and Laboratory-Oriented Studies Division (DELOS) Technical Session 5: Lab Design

This research is focused on the adoption of an experiment-centric teaching approach to enhance student’s learning, develop their critical thinking skills, and help students better understand the underlying concepts in biology, thereby giving them a better comprehension of how these concepts may be applied in practice as well as facilitating their academic success.
Traditional and experiment-centric teaching methods are used to instruct students in four biology courses (BIO 101-W09 Introductory Biology for Non-Major, Bio 103 Introductory Biology for Nursing Major, BIO 109-001 Foundations in Biology, Diversity, and Organismal Systems and Bio 201. Anatomy and Physiology I) taken by first and second-year students. The sensor from a heart rate app is used to conduct and monitor several common experiments in Biology. On phone screens, the data gathered from these experiments can be visualized in real-time.
In order to measure the key constructs associated with students’ success (motivation, epistemic and perceptual curiosity, and self-efficacy), data collection was done pre-and post-implementation of the experiments using the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) developed by Pintrich, Smith, García, and McKeachie, in 1991. Also, the Classroom Observation Protocol for Undergraduate STEM (COPUS) was employed to characterize the simultaneous activities of instructors and learners during class sessions. More so, students’ understanding of the course and how they process instructions were evaluated using signature assignments.
Data analysis would be conducted using Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS 25.0). This research would carefully investigate the association between students’ motivation and their gender at 95% confidence level.

Authors

Ms. Blessing Isoyiza ADEIKA http://orcid.org/https://0009-0007-5600-8051 Morgan State University [biography]

Blessing ADEIKA is a graduate student at Morgan State University currently studying Advanced Computing. She has interest in teaching student basic concepts by adopting an Experiment-centric approach to it. She also is currently working towards being a Data Scientist - AI/ML Expert and hope to use her skills to prefer solutions in the Medical, Financial, Technology and any other Sector she sees a need to be filled/catered for.
Dr. Adedayo Ariyibi http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1812-5843 Morgan State University [biography]

Dr. Adedayo Ariyibi is a faculty in the Department of Biology, Morgan State University in Baltimore Maryland. Prior to joining the department in 2010, the Department of Veterinary Biochemistry, Physiology and Pharmacology of the Veterinary School, Univers
Dr. Akinyele Oni Morgan State University [biography]

Lecturer of Biology; Interdisciplinary and Environmental Research
Dr. Oludare Adegbola Owolabi P.E. Morgan State University [biography]

Dr. Oludare Owolabi, a professional engineer in Maryland, joined the Morgan State University faculty in 2010. He is the director of the Sustainable Infrastructure Development, Smart Innovation and Resilient Engineering Research Lab at Morgan State University.
Adebayo Iyanuoluwa Olude http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4973-9589 Morgan State University [biography]

Adebayo Olude is a doctoral student and research assistant at Morgan State University’s Department of Civil Engineering in Baltimore, Maryland. Adebayo formerly worked as a Graduate Research Assistant at Eastern Mediterranean University in North Cyprus, where he earned his master’s degree in civil engineering. He also worked as a project Analyst with AgileP3 after graduating with a Bachelor of Engineering (B.Eng) in civil engineering from Covenant University, Nigeria. Adebayo has taught courses in Transportation and Chemistry at Morgan State University as part of his commitment to the STEM profession. He has attended conferences across the Transportation engineering field.
Saroj K. Pramanik Morgan State University
Mr. Pelumi Olaitan Abiodun http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4969-9591 Morgan State University [biography]

Pelumi Abiodun is a current doctoral student and research assistant at the Department of Civil Engineering, Morgan State University, Baltimore, Maryland. Pelumi got his BSc and MSc degree in Physics from Obafemi Awolowo University, where he also served as a research assistant at the Environmental Pollution Research unit, in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. As part of his contribution to science and engineering, Pelumi has taught as a teaching assistant both at Morgan State University and Obafemi Awolowo University. With a passion to communicate research findings gleaned from experts in the field as he advances his career, Olaitan has attended several in-person and virtual conferences and workshops, and at some of them, made presentations on findings on air pollution, wastewater reuse, heavy metal contamination, and use of experiment-centric pedagogy in STEM fields.
Frank Efe http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5833-9862 Morgan State University
Hannah Abedoh Morgan State University [biography]

Hannah Abedoh is a highly motivated doctoral student in Business Management, specializing in Information Science and Systems. She is actively engaged in advanced research, focusing on the impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence on learning.
Dr. Krishna Bista [biography]

Krishna Bista is an Associate Professor at Morgan State University, Maryland (USA).

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