Curriculum Changing for Biology Students at CSS

DULUTH, Minn. —

Things are changing in the biology program at the College of Saint Scholastica.

At this Environmental Showcase event, freshman students discuss science posters from research projects they’ve been working on this semester.

Most of the projects on display are on various topics around climate change and sustainability.

But the curriculum this year has changed.

Rather than big classrooms focused on lectures, the freshmen learned big lessons in critical thinking and group work.

“If we can first teach them how to critically think and analyze things, then when they walk into that big fact-based area (which they’re going to do!), they have a better way of hanging those facts onto some kind of structure,” said Associate Professor of Biology Anne Kruchten.  “They can tell a story with them and they actually understand them rather than just memorizing them.”

Dr. Kruchten says this is the first time the biology department implemented these changes to the curriculum.

Some faculty members are working on a study looking into how well the first-year students take to this change of pace.