Workshop Biology: Demonstrating the Effectiveness of Active Learning in an Introductory Biology Course

The University of Oregon's Workshop Biology curriculum is one of many experimental approaches to teaching introductory college-level science that emerged during the last decade (Lawson et al. 1990, Ebert-May et al. 1997, Laws 1997, McNeal and D'Avanzo 1997, Wyckoff 2001). Our motivation for developing Workshop Biology came partly from a concern that, despite generally favorable student course evaluations, our traditional approaches (for example, teacher-directed, “cookbook” activities and demonstrations) did not provide students with valuable skills or even with a body of knowledge that lasted much beyond the end of the term. The Workshop Biology project aimed at improving science literacy among nonscience majors in the context of a major research university. The curriculum was developed, implemented, and evaluated during the period 1991–1994. The project included both the development of the Workshop Biology course (a three-term, lab-based introductory sequence for nonscience majors) and a thorough evaluation of its effectiveness as compared with a traditional lecture-based course.