From Expensive Books to Engaged Students: A Student-Led Approach to Creating a Better Microbiology Laboratory Manual

Presenter

Jan Ashlley Gumpal Masse

Campus

Holyoke Community College

Sponsor

Emily Rabinsky, Department of Biology, Holyoke Community College

Schedule

Session 5, 3:30 PM - 4:15 PM [Schedule by Time][Poster Grid for Time/Location]

Location

Poster Board A21, Campus Center Auditorium, Row 2 (A21-A40) [Poster Location Map]

Abstract

The increase in the price of college textbooks, especially in the STEM field, has been shown to hinder students from pursuing a course they are interested in. An additional problem for laboratory manuals is that they may need more detail and clarity to meet student needs adequately. This project addresses the problems in two parts: creating a framework for a low-cost laboratory manual in Microbiology and allowing students to contribute to the manual as it evolves to suit their needs. By creating a student-made laboratory manual aligned to the college curriculum, it aims to fill in the gaps and optimize content delivery. It also eliminates the purchase of a costly lab manual while giving students a sense of ownership as they have a hand in creating it.

This project created a framework for a laboratory manual that includes entries for lab experiments and initial contributions from students who took the course. This approach enables students to have a manual that is readily accessible and tailored to their needs to use at just the cost of printing. The project also included conducting surveys to measure the effect that student involvement in creating the entries had on their engagement and self-identification within STEM. The feedback received will drive ongoing refinement, enhancing both the manual and the overall course structure and fostering increased engagement and connection with the course materials. The manual will also be a dynamic document, allowing modifications and adaptations to accommodate evolving experiments and protocols.

Keywords

Microbiology, Student engagement, STEM Education, Equity

Research Area

Education & Educational Research

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