Forum Higher Ed & Training Forum: Re: Using LAMS in Science

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	7: Re: Using LAMS in Science By: Robyn Philip	In response to 1	10/17/05 10:14 PM	[ Reply \| Forward ]
I'd be interested to hear from scientists in the LAMS community re - how you use discussion in science with your students? Sometimes when we are demonstrating or talking about LAMS, staff from the sciences say that they can see the usefulness of LAMS for Humanities and the Social Sciences - but acknowledge that they do things differently in the sciences. This debate usally centres around the value or use of discussions. When I think about how students learn, I know that discussing,describing, explaining, sharing, defending a point of view, listening to the way others descibe or approach the topic, analysing and evaluating ideas helps the learning process.LAMS is really good for facilitating this process. I'm sure this dialogue, debate etc - all happens in science. So is the issue about where it happens in the curriculum? Should discussion happen outside of class? in the class? what sort of discussion? what are the best prompts for scientific discussion? Is question and answer - socratic method - appropriate? Robyn Posted by Robyn Philip

	8: Re: Re: Using LAMS in Science By: Peter Miller	In response to 7	10/21/05 02:27 PM	[ Reply \| Forward ]
Today I tried using an analogy to stimulate discussion on the evolution of proteins. The analogy was one of those word puzzles where one word changes into another by altering one letter at a time, each intermediate also being a word. I then asked the students how similar this might be to the evolution of the amino acid sequence of proteins. I suspect they had more fun trying to dream up "inappropriate" intermediates but, not pressed too far, I think analogies can sometimes be useful starting points for discussion. Of course, scientific papers also serve as a good starting point, especially if the students are challenged with the unexpected. The recent discovery of "giant" viruses such as Mimivirus formed the basis for a discussion of whether we needed to reexamine our definition of such entities. I think the tricky aspect is finding a suitable subject. I think it fair to say that I probably under-utilise discussion (I have strong instructivist genes) but LAMS has encouraged me to be a little more adventurous. Posted by Peter Miller

	10: Re: Using LAMS in Science By: Robyn Philip	In response to 8	03/15/06 04:02 PM	[ Reply \| Forward ]
For the scientists out there - would using LAMS for the process of hypothesising be useful? Is this something that students do well or badly? What skills in hypothesising do first year students lack? What about honours students - are there areas in the development of generic skills where LAMS could be used to good effect? Robyn Posted by Robyn Philip

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