Pitt establishes research center to streamline STEM instruction

For Alex Lawall, tackling the complex concept of hard sciences comes easier through conversational explanations.

Lawall, a sophomore majoring in psychology, has taken courses in biology and chemistry, but prefers examples over fact-based lecture slides.

“It’s better when they give examples about what they’re discussing instead of just laying out facts,” Lawall said. 

Through a new program, Pitt seeks to bolster the effectiveness of instruction in the natural sciences.

Chandralekha Singh, a professor of physics and astronomy, has worked over the last year with input from John Cooper, dean of the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, and Provost Patricia Beeson to create the Discipline Based Science Education Research Center, also known as dB-SERC. Nobel Prize laureate Carl Wieman from Stanford University provided the inaugural keynote address at the University Club on Jan. 30 for the program, which aims to encourage active and effective teaching practices based on cognitive research.

Singh has studied techniques to improve teaching and learning physics for nearly two decades.

“DB-SERC will foster innovative active engagement techniques based upon cognitive research and discipline-based education research in the natural sciences for both majors and non-majors,” Singh said in an email.

Among other topics, she has researched faculty professional development, graduate-level teaching and learning and formative and summative assessment, which concerns forming and summarizing arguments. With this knowledge, the dB-SERC aims to provide resources for both enacting and evaluating effective techniques of instruction.

Sam Donovan, a biology professor at Pitt, said he thinks the program is a worthy endeavor.

“I think it’s a great sign that the University is making an investment directly in undergraduate education that acknowledges that there is now a research base for what effective teaching techniques are,” Donovan said.

Donovan said he tries to incorporate modeling and simulation into his curriculum.

“I work hard to get students to solve problems and to engage with the material beyond the textbook,” Donovan said. “Introductory biology covers a lot of material very quickly, and students need some practice in building and exercising the material in active ways.”

He said one of the most important functions of the dB-SERC will be to help faculty transition from a purely lecture style of teaching to allow students to engage with the class material through discussion or problem solving. 

“The biology faculty, in general, are very good teachers, but like everyone else, we can always learn more from research that others are doing on effective teaching,” he said.

Singh said she plans to contact the chairs in the nine different natural science departments at Pitt to ensure faculty are aware of the resources the dB-SERC offers.

“It is up to the faculty members teaching various courses to take advantage of this center,” she said in an email. “We are here to help.”

The dB-SERC will hold weekly meetings of natural science faculty in existing conference rooms to discuss evidence-based instruction and learning. Singh said the program will not need its own physical space in the near future.

Singh said she is also working to create a dB-SERC website for faculty to utilize.

Several students agree that applying science concepts trumps reading pages in a textbook.

Lee Harkless, a sophomore majoring in neuroscience, has taken several courses in biology and chemistry in previous semesters and is currently taking two neuroscience courses and “Organic Chemistry.”

Harkless said she can understand concepts more easily after seeing a process in chemistry or biology lab.

“That idea of active learning is much better than sitting back and reading,” Harkless said.

He also said that he has gotten more out of his upper-level courses than his more general classes.

“I think the reason that they’re better and the lectures are better is because the professors are more interested,” he said.

Harkless said he has found different professors in lower-level natural science courses prepare the curriculum differently, making the transition between general biology and chemistry courses a challenge.

“One kid or the other might be better off depending what the previous teacher’s curriculum was,” Harkless said. 

Heather Tellez, a pre-med psychology major, has also taken the general courses in biology and chemistry and is currently enrolled in “Organic Chemistry II.”

She said she’s been pleased with the instruction, but she doesn’t like that grades in the courses result solely from test scores.

She added that the dB-SERC’s goal to pinpoint more effective teaching methods will benefit students.

“I think it’s a good thing because not everyone succeeds in the sciences,” Tellez said. “They’re pretty hard, so if you can come up with another idea that helps people who are struggling with the teaching right now, I think that could definitely help students.”