Mary Pat Wenderoth's BLC presentation

1. Bloomin’ Biology
Mary Pat Wenderoth
Department of Biology
University of Washington

2. National Research Council 1999
Three major findings:
1. Address student’s preconceptions.
2. Build BOTH a deep foundation of factual knowledge
& strong conceptual framework.
3. Enhance student’s ability to monitor their learning.
(metacognition)

3. How Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning
& Blooming Biology Tool can
1- Take the mystery out of learning for students
2- Enhance student metacognition
3- Help YOU align your teaching and testing

4. Evaluation- critique
Synthesis - create
Analysis- compare and contrast
Application-- solve
Comprehension-- define
Knowledge-- facts
Bloom, B.S., Krathwohl, D.R., and Masia, B.B. (1956)

5. Higher Order
Analysis Synthesis Evaluation
Application
Comprehension
Knowledge
Lower Order
Bloom, B.S., Krathwohl, D.R., and Masia, B.B. (1956)

6. Evaluation Fr.—So.—Jr.—Sr.--Graduate
---------------------Graduate
Synthesis Fr.—So.—Jr.—Sr.--Graduate
--------------------Graduate
Analysis Fr.—So.—Jr.—Sr.--Graduate
--------------Sr
Application Fr.—So.—Jr.—Sr.--Graduate
-----------Jr.
Comprehension Fr.—So.—Jr.—Sr.--Graduate
------So.
Knowledge Fr.—So.—Jr.—Sr.--Graduate
Fr.
Bloom, B.S., Krathwohl, D.R., and Masia, B.B. (1956)

7. How the Blooming Biology Tool was created
Colleague’s (Scott Freeman) query
Does the MCAT hinder efforts to introduce
critical thinking into Introductory Biology courses?
•Team of 3 faculty
(Alison Crowe, Clarissa Dirks, MP Wenderoth)
•Design a rubric based on Bloom’s Taxonomy
•Rank 700 exam questions

8. 1st year Medical School
MCAT
GRE Biology
Undergraduate Introductory Biology courses
High school AP Biology courses

9. Scored 50 questions
Need a more Biology specific Tool!

10. Physiology: Cardiac Output (MP Wenderoth)
Cell Biology: Nuclear transport (Alison Crowe)
Immunology: Virology (Clarissa Dirks)

11. Physiology: cardiac output
Knowledge
Which two variables determine cardiac output for an animal?
Comprehension
Define cardiac output and why it is significant.
Application
Lance Armstrong has a normal resting cardiac output 6L/min yet his
resting heart rate is only 40 beats/min. What is his stroke volume?
Analysis
Compared to a normal resting male of the same height and weight, Lance
Armstrong’s stroke volume is greatly increased. Provide a physiological
explanation for a large stroke volume.

12. Synthesis
Create a summary sheet that is a pictorial depiction/ flow
diagram of how changes in cardiac output influence mean
arterial blood pressure.
Evaluation
If an enlarged heart was observed on a CT scan of patient,
how would you determine if this enlarged heart was
pathological or not?

13. •Calculations
•Concept maps
•Diagnoses
•Graphing
•Hardy-Weinberg analysis
•Molecular techniques
(reading gels, microarrays)
•Phylogenetic trees
•Punnett Squares/ Pedigree Analysis

14. Bloom’s level GRAPHING
Knowledge Identify the parts of graphs and recognize different types
of graphs (e.g., identify the X axis, identify a histogram)
Comprehension Describe the data represented in a simple graph
Application Draw a graph based on a given set of data; predict
outcomes based on data presented in graph
Analysis Read and interpret a complex graph having multiple
variables or treatments and explain biological
implications of data
Synthesis Create a graphical representation of a given biological
process or concept
Evaluation Assess the relative effectiveness of different graphical
representations of the same data or biological concept

15. Crowe, Dirks & Wenderoth 2008. CBE- Life Science Education 7:368.

17. How we “Bloom” a question.
Find HIGHEST Bloom level
Compared to a normal resting male of the same height and weight, Lance
Armstrong’s stroke volume is greatly increased. Provide a physiological
explanation for a large stroke volume.
Evaluation
Synthesis
✔ Analysis
✔ Application
✔ Comprehension
✔ Knowledge

18. Interesting side-effect of developing these rubrics!
We each started changing the way we taught.

19. 10 min of class
Homework:
Bloom’s mnemonic
Purpose: All questions are not created equal!
Help students monitor their learning.

20. Discuss mnemonic
“Bloom the question”
In all subsequent classes

21. C
AN
K-C
C
AP

22. Bloom’s distribution of exam questions
knowledge
10% 16%
comprehension
16%
52% application
8%
analysis
synthesis
Help students set appropriate expectations of test
Helps me align my teaching & testing

23. Lack of Alignment
Learning Goals Class Activities Assessment
Student frustration

24. Misalignment
Learning Goals Class Activities Assessment
Students

25. Make Alignment
EXPLICIT
Learning Goals Class Activities Assessment
10% 10% 10%
16% 16% 16%
16% 16% 16%
52% 8% 52% 8% 52% 8%

27. Avg= 70
Grade
Distribution
Bloom’s
Distribution

28. Students access their Bloom scores via on-
line grade reporting tool (Dave Hurley)

29. Bloom’s-based Learning Activities for Students
“BLASt”

30. Crowe, Dirks & Wenderoth 2008. CBE- Life Science Education 7:368.

32. PRE- Bloom’s “But I studied so hard!”
POST- Bloom’s “I need help with analysis level questions”

33. “I remember initially thinking, “Why are we wasting
valuable class time on Bloom's taxonomy?” I felt that
Bloom's taxonomy was a burden, but I now use Bloom's
taxonomy unconsciously to attack many problems. It is a
method used to help organize my thoughts before I act.”

34. Recap
1 - Introduce Bloom’s FIRST day of class
2 - “Bloom” in-class questions ( for practice)
3 - “Bloom” old exam ( to set expectations)
4 -”Bloom” new exams ( to check my alignment)
5 - Show “Bloom” distribution of exam performance
6 - Provide individual “Bloom”exam performance scores
7 - Give students BlAST- learning guide

35. CAUTIONS
1.Do not have students “Bloom” exam during
exam– takes too much time
2.Best to work as a team when Blooming
questions ( for you and your students)
3.Don’t worry about “splitting hairs” on
application vs analysis level questions.

36. CBE-Life Sciences Education 7:368-381, 2008

37. MCAT
2.57
K C Ap An S E
•1st yr Medical School Undergrad
2.43
•MCAT
•GRE Biology AP Bio
•Intro Biology courses 2.35
•AP Biology courses
GRE
2.32
Zheng et al. (2008). Science 319
Med
1.93

38. National Research Council 1999
Three major findings:
1. Address student’s preconceptions
2. Build BOTH a deep foundation of factual knowledge
AND strong conceptual framework.
3. Enhance student’s ability to monitor their learning
(metacognition)

39. Thank you Pearson
for
The sun
The sand
The food & drink
The opportunity to “talk teaching”

43. “To achieve these ambitious
goals, we will need much more
emphasis on both science education
and the “science of education”.
Science Jan 2, 2009