FACULTY NOTES

      The jigsaw is a type of cooperative groupwork in which students teach each other and then put together pieces of a puzzle. Done well, it is a very effective method, but it does take a fair amount of time. In this jigsaw there are 3 subsets of information. Using a class of 30 as an example, divide the class into 6 subgroups of 5 students. Give 2 groups Figure 5A plus accompanying information (below), 2 groups 5B, and 2 groups 5C. Allow these students enough time to look at their figures and background information individually and then with their team members. The goal is for each student to understand their topic clearly enough so that they can teach it to another student. Then, rearrange the groups so that there are 10 groups with an A, B, and C student in each one. Again, give the second grouping time so that students can explain their figure and questions they may have without feeling rushed. The final question for this group is to use their combined knowledge to explain the phenomena. That's what makes it a "jigsaw" - the pieces are reassembled to solve the puzzle.

      This will be a challenging but fun puzzle for ecology students. You will need to decide how much time they will need for the first and second grouping of the jigsaw. The first groups will need a good amount of time just to read through all the information. You can of course use the figures in class discussion and skip the jigsaw.

      Jones et al. conclude that their data “… provide strong support for the idea that a chain of events links acorns to gypsy moth outbreaks and Lyme disease risk. The experiments demonstrate first that acorns determine overwinter survival, reproduction, and the resulting density of mice. Second, that high or low mouse density, at low gypsy moth population density, can respectively suppress or release moth populations through altered pupae predation. Third, that acorns determine larval tick densities by affecting the use of oak forests by deer, resulting in high densities of both host-seeking uninfected ticks and ticks parasitizing mice at the time when spirochaete-infected mice are most abundant…. Our studies clearly demonstrate that both gypsy moth dynamics and Lyme disease risk have contingent outcomes arising from a complex chain of strong pairwise interactions among taxonomically diverse species that are all interconnected within an ecosystem.” Said more simply 1) more acorns results in more mice (Figure 5A), 2) more mice results in fewer gypsy moths (Figure 5B), and 3) more acorns lead to higher tick densities (as a result of higher numbers of mice and deer). Therefore lower numbers of gypsy moths may be a predictor of greater Lyme disease risk. Quite a set of interactions for an introduced species!



Student Assessment: Diagram Quiz

      Make a clear drawing or sketch of the interactions between gypsy moths, acorns, mice, deer, deer ticks, and Lyme disease. Label each component. Between components write a phrase or sentence that clearly describes the interaction.



EVALUATING AN ISSUE: How do you know whether it is working?

      On-going (also called formative) evaluation of the approaches your are using is critical to the success of student-active teaching. Why try out new ideas if you don't know whether or not they are working? This is a brief overview of formative evaluation. For more information, go to the Formative Evaluation essay in the Teaching Section.

Course Goals:

      Formative evaluation only works if you have clearly described your course goals - because the purpose of the evaluation is to assess whether a particular technique is helping students reach these goals. For instance, most of us have "learn important ecological concepts and information" as a course goal. If I reviewed the nitrogen cycle in a class, for evaluation I might ask students to sketch out a nitrogen cycle for a particular habitat or system. Each student could work alone in class. Alternatively, I might ask students to work in groups of 3 and give each group a different situation (e.g. a pond receiving nitrate from septic systems, an organic agricultural field, an agricultural field receiving synthetic fertilizer). The students could draw their flows on a large sheet of paper (or an overhead transparency) and present this to the rest of the class.

The Minute Paper:

      Minute papers are very useful evaluative tools. If done well they give you good feedback quickly. Minute papers are done at the end of a class. The students are asked to respond anonymously to a short question that you ask. They take a minute or so to write their response in a 3x5 card or a piece of paper. You collect these and learn from common themes. In the next class it is important that you refer to one or two of these points so that students recognize that their input matters to you. The UW - FLAG site (www.wcer.wisc.edu/nise/cl1/flag/) gives a good deal of information about using minute papers including their limitations, how to phrase your question, step-by-step instructions, modifications, and the theory and research behind their use.