On the basis of: a) discussion in class about PBL; b) a comparison on this version of the embryo mix up case with the Fifield et al; c) reading of Greenwald (2000; and d) any other accounts you find of the philosophy and practice of PBL:
Add to this blog post to make contributions to the revision of the chapter introducing PBL and or to an annotated collection of new readings and other resources related to PBL. (Alternatively, add to this blog post to make contributions to the revision of Peter's version of the embryo PBL case.)


Opening up the social dimensions of biology through case studies and ill-defined problems


Overview of PBL
Problem-based learning (PBL) begins best from a scenario in which the problems are not well defined.
Students brainstorm so as to identify a range of problems related to the scenario and choose which of these they want to investigate and report back on. Their problem-definitions may evolve as they investigate and exchange findings with other students.
The teacher facilitates brainstorming, coaches the students in their individual or small-group tasks, and serves as a resource person by providing contacts and reading suggestions when asked.
If the scenario is written well, most of the problems defined and investigated by the students will relate to the subject being taught, but the teacher has to accept some "curve balls" in return for a) student engagement in self-invented inquiry and b) content coverage by the class as a whole. (In this course there will be few curve balls because most questions will contributions to examining the various dimensions of biology in society.)

Homework before session 1 of PBL unit -- read scenario; clear mental space through freewriting; exploratory research (optional)

Guided (topic-based) freewriting: This exercise is designed to clear mental and/or emotional space and to allow ideas about an issue to begin to come to the surface before you push ahead. There's no expectation that you'll have a clear approach right away.

In a freewriting exercise, you should not take your pen off the paper. Keep writing even if you find yourself stating over and over again, "I don't know what I'm expected to say." What you write won't be seen by anyone else, so don't go back to tidy up sentences, grammar, spelling. You will probably diverge from the topic, at least for a time while you acknowledge other preoccupations. That's OK—it's one of the purposes of the exercise. However, if you keep writing—don't stop—for seven-ten minutes, you should expose some thoughts about the topic that had been below the surface of your attention—that's another of the aims of the exercise.
Reference: Elbow, P. 1981. Writing with Power. New York: Oxford U. P.

On the back continue for 10 minutes where this sentence leads off:
"When I entertain the challenge of identifying some aspect of this messy situation that I could be actively engaged in researching, the thoughts/ feelings/ experiences/ ideas that come to mind include..."

Note on Role of individual vs. teams. Working in teams for PBL would allow you to bounce ideas off each other and divide up the labor. At the same time, teams involve logistical problems for working, commuting UMB students. The compromise is to allow you to work individually, but 1) insist that you communicate with at least two other students whose approach to the PBL complements your own; and 2) do some in-class work in small groups.

The PBL unit
Session 1 -- read scenario again; brainstorm possible problems; decide background and exploratory research; define specific tasks you want to address; identify the people to communicate with and help needed from PT as resource person; begin tasks (if time permits)..
Between sessions -- individual work; consulting with instructor; and check-in with "your people" mid-week; check in with PT as resource person and/or PBL coach.
Session 2 -- reports in small groups on process and progress; whole-group discussion of shift from exploration to definition of briefing topics; reformulate direction and tasks; adjust the people to communicate with and check-in for the two weeks ahead; work.
Between sessions -- individual work and communication (by email/phone or face-to-face) on tasks and presentations
Session 3 -- prep for presentation of briefings (see scenario), followed by presentations to guests invited by groups and PT.


Guidance requested—Quickly![1]

Two weeks ago Devon Remus, 33, a woman of color who lives with her husband in State X waited in the clinic of IVF Inc in State Y to have embryos placed in her uterus by Dr. Lucielle Williams. The embryos were produced in the clinic three days earlier by mixing Devon's eggs with her husband's sperm, a procedure called in vitro fertilization (IVF). Ellie Foster, a white woman from State Y, was also at the clinic to have Dr. Williams place in Ellie's uterus embryos produced in vitro from her eggs and her husband's sperm. In the waiting room the husbands, Raymond Remus and Steve Foster made small talk, while down the hall a new approach to their becoming fathers proceeded without them.

One week ago Dr. Williams' laboratory technician informed her of a slip up—three of Remus' embryos has been placed in Ellie Foster's uterus along with several of the Fosters' own embryos. Dr. Williams realized that the situation was potentially serious. For example, what if the only pregnancy to result were from a Remus embryo that had been implanted into Ellie Foster? She consulted her advisors on the board of IVF Inc. who decided quickly that they needed confidential guidance—IVF Inc. were experts in the biomedical technique of IVF, but not in probability, law, ethics, counseling, public relations, intercultural mediation, and other issues that might need to be addressed.

One of the board had heard that some professors in biology education at the University of Massachusetts used ill-defined problems to teach about biology in its social context. (Note: Neither state X nor Y is Massachusetts.) After some discrete inquiries, the IVF Inc board agreed to let me, a professor at UMass, get whatever help I needed to produce a set of "briefings" for them in two weeks. These briefings need to provide well-structured information about different issues the board needs to help IVF Inc., the couples, and other parties who may come to be involved think about the issues and what they could do. Two weeks is a short time, but the board wants a minimum of two days after that to take stock before the women come to the clinic to confirm whether or not they are pregnant. To meet this deadline, I have to enlist your help. Keep in mind, your mission is not to recommend to IVF Inc how to (re)solve the problem or tell them what to do. Your mission is to think through what issues might need to be addressed by different parties, do research on them, rethink the issues and do more research, and eventually present what you learn in an understandable, digestible format.


PROBLEM DEFINITION: OPENING OUT PHASE (to be followed by a Focusing In Phase)

Brainstorming through IPF questions
Fill in ideas on your own without worrying about whether you could answer them any time soon. (If some have already emerged from the freewriting, try to find more by using IPF questions to look back at the scenario.)

I: What's Interesting or Intriguing to you about the situation presented in the scenario? What thoughts does this information provoke?
P: What's Puzzling in this scenario? What's confusing, ambiguous or unclear to you?
F: What seems important to you to Find out?









That's all for the homework before week 2, but you are welcome to begin investigating your IPF items on your own.

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START of CLASS 2
Pair-share with someone else about your brainstorming

Report back to group via index cards. Select one or two of the items above to write on an index card. Mark as I, P, F, or a combination.

Whole class go around. Instructor chooses a sample of the cards to read aloud to the class as a whole. A volunteer records these on the board or in a computer file projected onto a screen. (Later these are supplemented with other cards and distributed by email or handout.)

Initial exploration. Spend the rest of the time during the first session and at least an hour before the second session using the internet and library reference materials to get a sense of what people know and are doing about the issue and what you are interested to learn more about. You are welcome to email questions and discoveries to the class listserv or to the instructor.


Session 2
FOCUSING IN PHASE

Reports in small groups on process and progress. Go around without discussion with each person stating: One discovery/insight/highlight + one question/issue needing further investigation. In time remaining: open discussion.

Whole-group discussion. Clarifying the need to shift emphasis from exploration and gaining background understanding to definition of briefing topics.

Briefing group formation
1. Write a sentence description of one or two briefing topics you'd like to be involved in clarifying and researching.




2. Students present briefing topics to the class as a whole. A volunteer records these on the board or in a computer file projected onto a screen, labeling them A, B, C etc. (Later these are distributed by email or handout.)
3. Each person affiliates with one problem/topic (each with 1-3 persons).[2]
4. People assemble in their different groups.[3]

Task and sub-task definition (within each group)

1. Group members discuss their different interest in/understandings of the briefing topic.
2. Invent short name for group.

3. KNF (Fill this in individually; then share ideas. Teacher will circulate to stimulate your KNFing and make sure you are thinking about whY (in light of the eventual goal of preparing a briefing for the IVF board) you need to know this thing.

What do we Know? What do we Need to know? How to Find out?
(to prepare a briefing for the IVF board) (resources needed)












Division of tasks within groups
• clarify tasks, division of labor within the group, and target for reporting back, before and after individual group members record their task(s).
• use multiple sheets of carbon paper or type into a computer file so each group member and the teacher have a copy.
• work should begin in this session.

Name/focus of briefing group
Members and contact info (pass sheet around for each member to fill this in)



Task (one sentence description) ..................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................
Person responsible for task ...........................................................................................................................
Probable sources of information/explanation ..........................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................
Help that might be needed from teacher
...........................................................................................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................
Target for reporting back to group ..............................................................................................................
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Task (one sentence description) ..................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................
Person responsible for task ...........................................................................................................................
Probable sources of information/explanation ..........................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................
Help that might be needed from teacher
...........................................................................................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................................................................................
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Target for reporting back to group ..............................................................................................................


Initial Resources/References on IVF etc.

Dolgin, J. L. (1995). "The law debates the family: Reproductive transformations." Yale Journal of Law and Feminism 7: 37-86.
Pollitt, K. (1990). When is a mother not a mother? The Nation:840-6.
Rapp, R. (1995). "Risky business: Genetic counseling in a shifting world," in R. Rapp and J. Schneider (Eds.), Articulating hidden histories. Berkeley: University of California Press,175-189.
[more need to be added]

Resources/References on PBL
Greenwald, N. (2000). "Learning from Problems." The Science Teacher 67(April): 28-32.
Greenwald, N. (2000). Science in Progress: Challenges in Problem-based Learning for Secondary Schools. (book ms.; email ngreenwald@attbi.com to purchase an advance copy)
Lifelines Online. website: http://bioquest.org/lifelines/sitemap.html (viewed 21 June '02)
LLOL develops case-based teaching materials for two-year colleges that should be readily adaptable for upper level high school biology courses. In addition to 40 cases in the areas of Anatomy and Physiology, Cellular Chemistry, Ecology & Environmental, Microbiology, Molecular Biology & Evolution, Reproduction & Genetics, and Zoology, LLOL provides guidance on Planning for Case Based Learning, Generating Ideas for Cases, Writing the Case, Assessing Cases for Learning and Teaching, and Sharing Your Cases.
University of Delaware, "Problem-based learning Clearinghouse," https://www.mis4.udel.edu/Pbl/ (viewed 21 June '02)
University of Delaware, "Other Problem-Based Learning or Related Sites," http://www.udel.edu/pbl/others.html (viewed 6 Nov. '01)
Woods, D. R. (Ed.) (1980-). PS News: A Sharing of Ideas about Problem Solving. Hamilton, Ontario: McMaster University, Department of Mechanical Engineering.
Woods, D. R. (1994). Problem-based Learning: How to Gain the Most from PBL. Waterdown, Ontario: D. R. Woods.

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Notes on Discussion about Implementing PBL


[1] This case has been adapted by Peter Taylor from a real-life situation presented in "Whose embryo is it anyway?" by Deb Allen, Valerie Hans, Barbara Duch, and Steve Fifield (fifield@UDel.Edu) at the University of Delaware.

[2] Procedure: Write your initials and first preference on a card. Teacher & helper sort cards into topics, eliminate topics with no votes, accept topics with two+ votes and adds initials of members, ask for volunteers from groups with 4 or more members to shift to another topic, ask for volunteers who aren't in an accepted topic to move to one that has only 2 members (their original topic gets eliminated). Remaining group members can form singleton groups or confab to define joint topics.

[3] Procedure: Person in group whose first name is closest to start of alphabet stays put; others move to join them.