At the same time, research on student learning has shown that introductory students struggle to differentiate key unifying concepts from supporting details and that the greatest gains in understanding occur when students have to apply the facts and concepts they are learning to new situations.

The knowledge explosion has made it less and less viable to teach an introductory biology course that emphasizes the memorization of facts. The courses we design for our majors are changing in response to selection pressure from two sources: the knowledge explosion in biology and dramatic advances in research on how introductory students learn. Introductory biology courses and Biological Science are textbook examples. All rights reserved.:Ĭultural evolution can be defined as a change in the frequency of ideas and practices over time.

He is currently conducting research on how active learning and peer teaching techniques affect student learning. With Jon Herron, Scott is co-author of the standard-setting Evolutionary Analysis, which over 50,000 students have used to explore evolution with the same spirit of inquiry. He assisted in the groundbreaking and influential redesign of the course, which emphasizes an inquiry-based approach and the logic of experimental design. Scott teaches the majors' general biology course as a Lecturer at the University of Washington. His research publications explore a range of topics, including the behavioral ecology of nest parasitism and the molecular systematics of the blackbird family.

in Zoology from the University of Washington and was subsequently awarded an Albert Sloan Postdoctoral Fellowship in Molecular Evolution at Princeton University.

Biological science freeman coursenotes