Interactive classroom for biology

Transcript of video

College of Biological Sciences, University of Minnesota, Interactive Classroom

[This video shows students interacting with each other and the professor interacting with small groups of students. It is a large classroom with round tables seating eight people each. White boards with colorful notes cover the walls. The high technology is apparent with laptops and microphones on the tables, one large screen and multiple computer monitors on the walls.]

KATE BAILLON, STUDENT: My first thought was wow, this is really cool, this isn’t like any classroom I’ve ever had before.

DR. ROBIN WRIGHT, PROFESSOR: When the students first walk into this classroom it sends the message right away that this is not business as usual. You walk in and there are these beautiful round tables and you instantly become part of a team and you start to be responsible to one another in that team to bring what you’ve learned, and to teach one another. There are connections at each table that allow you to have three computers at the large table. These computers are connected to a monitor that the table owns and with just a tap of the button one of the three different computers can be displayed on it.

DAVID RITTENHOUSE, STUDENT: This is my first class of the semester and I was just blown away that this is what a college classroom could look like. The technology really enhanced it I think for me because you could see what they’re talking about up on the big screen. If you found something, you could show it to everyone else in the class.

DR. ROBIN WRIGHT: If I see something interesting on one of these screens I can send it to everybody’s screen. And so we’re able to do peer evaluation of one another’s work, right on the fly.

KATE BAILLON: There were eight of us at a table and you were with them every day and so by the end of the semester you were really close with those eight people and it was great for interacting with them.

ESTEE MIZRACHI, STUDENT: I think the coursework we covered in this class was probably a little more challenging than in most classes, but the classroom definitely facilitated a much easier way to get everything done.

DR. ROBIN WRIGHT: We call this a concept laboratory instead of a lecture and I look at it as a place where students bring what they know, what they already know, what they’ve learned from the textbook, and they learn how to use that to build new ideas, build new connections, build applications.

KATE BAILLON: One of the biggest aspects of this course was teamwork and I think I probably learned the most from my peers, just like bouncing ideas off of each other and giving each other feedback.

DAVID RITTENHOUSE: If you ever had a question it was so easy just to turn and ask the person sitting next to you. It was a lot more friendly and open in this classroom than in normal classrooms, so it was a lot easier to ask your peers for help.

ESTEE MIZRACHI: We all came into this classroom, we were mostly freshmen, didn’t really know anybody, and by the end of the semester I felt like I knew the people at my table better than I knew anyone else.

DR. ROBIN WRIGHT: That whole feeling that when you can walk into a science classroom and there’s this immediate sense of community is quite, quite special.

KATE BAILLON: The professor can walk around and get to each table and make sure that they interact with all the students.

DAVID RITTENHOUSE: In here I’d always be talking with the professor, asking questions, getting feedback right away.

DR. ROBIN WRIGHT: I would come over and interact with small groups of students rather than trying to present some information to large groups of students. It surprised me how easy that was to do and how amazingly, I mean just, how amazingly wonderful the students were. The kinds of solutions they came up with were astonishing. I mean I was inspired and really awed by the quality of the conversations they were having. So I think it helped me really understand students in a much deeper, better way.

ESTEE MIZRACHI: It was an amazing experience getting to know people, getting to use higher technology, using microphones, doing things that you’re really not used to doing in a classroom setting. It just made it a much deeper learning experience.