Abstract:

Large introductory biology classes and public science events, such as small science cafés have the same goal: bridging the gap between the presenter and the audience to convey the information while being engaging. This poster compares old school (clicker) and new school (digital) audience engagement technologies in a large biology course at Cornell University and in a public science event (Science Cabaret). The Investigative Biology course was designed for biology majors to provide lab experience with emphasis on the processes of scientific investigation and to promote collaboration, communication, and literacy in science. Science Cabaret is an Ithaca, New York-based science café with the overarching goal to enhance the public’s understanding of scientific discoveries and to increase science literacy in the community. In the past decade students purchased “clickers” for their courses to be able answer multiple choice questions, clicking on the correct letter on their hand-held device. These clickers became the cornerstone of flipped and engaged learning by turning lectures into dialogues, allowing the presenter to become a facilitator rather than a “sage on the stage”. In Investigative Biology at Cornell University we used this system for multiple years and faced many challenges, as students did not know if the instructor registered their answers, they forgot to bring the clickers, or gave the clickers to their classmates who answered instead of them. Rapid technological developments, especially the increase of computing power opened up new opportunities, moving these systems from a clicker device onto cellphones and laptops, starting the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) movement in pedagogy. These web-based real-time audience engagement systems allow presenters to have dialogues with the audiences, assess their knowledge, ask multiple-choice questions, create word-clouds and have them write clarifying comments to identify challenges. The opportunities are endless, as participants can click on a map or biological pathway, brainstorm about an idea, rank concepts, or ask questions. The flexibility and mobility of these systems gave the opportunity for audience engagement outside of the classroom. Public science events using BYOD could step away from the lecture format and involve the audience in a more effective way. The online access makes these response systems scalable, bringing the strength of formative assessments and surveys to public science communication events, journal clubs or distance learning. In addition to the new opportunities, online polling systems create new challenges for the presenters, as allowing students to use mobile devices in the classroom can be distracting. The authors of this poster compare a web-based real-time response system called Poll Everywhere to iClickers, highlighting the benefits and the challenges of both systems, and discussing user habits in large classrooms and in a small science café. In conclusion, the authors observe that the benefits of web-based response systems outweigh the challenges, and this form of digital pedagogy is becoming indispensable in the classroom and other learning environments. During the poster presentation EduLearn17 attendees will be able to try the web-based response system on their own devices.

Keywords:

Audience engagement, science communication, science café, large classroom, formative assessment, engaged learning, public science events.