Bringing biology to life: Introducing students to the tree of life with a self-guided learning circuit

Background/Question/Methods

Most introductory biology classes in universities suffer from common problems: large class sizes, limited opportunity for active learning, and little if any outdoor learning. For our first-year biology course at the University of Toronto (enrollment: 900 students), I designed and ran a self-guided, outdoor learning circuit focused on biodiversity and the tree of life (ToL), key concepts in both ecology and evolution. The aim of the circuit was for students to (a) get out of the class room and into nature, (b) encounter common representatives of the major branches of the ToL in their natural setting, (c) learn basic information about each representative, as well as its branch in the ToL, and (d) compare the diversity of species in each branch, both globally and locally.

Results/Conclusions

The learning circuit consisted of eleven stations representing eleven main branches of the ToL. It was located in a park close to campus, and it took students a maximum of 2.5 hours to individually complete the 2 km walking distance. Students got a map indicating the stations and paths, a quiz, and an iPod shuffle with prerecorded texts for each station. At each station, students encountered a common species in its natural setting, accompanied by photos depicting the species at other stages in its life cycle, as well as a table listing the number of other species in its branch of the ToL, both globally and locally. All station texts started out with a ‘teaser’ - captivating information from the primary literature about each representative (3 min), followed by basic information (3 min) about its branch in the ToL. Students could only answer the questions if they both read the information at each station and listened to the iPod texts.

By using this self-guided approach, we were able to (1) limit the time investment of instructors and teaching assistants, (2) ensure that each student had access to the same quality of information, (3) allow students to complete the circuit individually and at their own speed, (4) set the stage for the rest of the course by running the circuit during the first week of classes, and (5) minimize subsequent time investment by designing the materials (posters, iPod texts, quiz, circuit and maps) so that they could be reused in following years. And students loved it.