To Flip or Not to Flip

To Flip or Not to Flip: Two Examples of Flipped Undergraduate Science Classes

Dr. Adele Denison and Dr. Kathy Hoag

Wednesday, January 20, 2016 11:30 - 1:30

1425 Biomedical Physical Sciences Building

Lunch Provided

Abstract The flipped classroom is an instructional strategy that reverses the traditional approach to teaching. Students prepare for class by watching recorded lectures while class time is spent on problem-solving exercises, projects, cases, or discussions. This approach uses educational technology to facilitate active and cooperative learning. Dr. Adele Denison and Dr. Kathy Hoag will discuss the structure and implementation of flipped pedagogy they use in two separate upper level undergraduate science courses at MSU. Dr. Denison flipped PSL 310: Physiology for Pre-Health Professionals (~500 students/semester) and Dr. Hoag flipped BLD 434: Clinical Immunology (~140 students/semester). Adele and Kathy will describe their rationales for using the flipped classroom approach. They will also describe enrollment, group or team structure, online recorded lecture format, and other logistics involved in flipping their high enrollment undergraduate science courses.

Adele Denison is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physiology. Adele became passionate about teaching as a Teaching Assistant during her Master’s Program in Community College Teaching at Eastern Michigan University. Adele taught (and loved teaching) many small enrollment biology courses at the community college level. She received a PhD in Physiology from MSU, taught first year medical students in the College of Human Medicine at MSU, and currently teaches undergraduate students in large enrollment courses. Adele has developed two online courses with enrollments above 100 and more recently created a hybrid course using a “flipped classroom” model as a way to create small class interactions, cooperative learning, and peer instruction within a course of about 500 students.

Kathy Hoag is an Associate Professor in the Biomedical Laboratory Diagnostics Program. She is a native of the upper peninsula of Michigan and received her BS degree in Medical Technology from Michigan Technological University. She received her PhD in Immunology from the Graduate Program in Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. Her postdoctoral work at the University of Wisconsin- Madison focused on Nutritional Immunology, specifically the function of vitamin A in adaptive immune responses. While at UW, Dr. Hoag had the distinct pleasure of taking a graduate course in science teaching with Dr. Jo Handelsman, a preeminent science teaching mentor and scholar. Dr. Hoag joined the MSU faculty in 2001and was a Lilly Teaching Fellow in ’03-’04. Her Lilly project focused on developing and implementing group-based case studies for BLD 434, Clinical Immunology. This initiation into group work in the classroom eventually led to implementation of entirely flipped classroom format for BLD 434. Dr. Hoag was awarded the Teacher-Scholar Award from MSU in 2005. In addition to teaching, Dr. Hoag is the Undergraduate Director for the BLD Program. She is married and spends her free time watching her young son play sports.

Videos of the workshop

To Flip or Not to Flip: from Evans Media Group-Michigan on Vimeo.

To Flip or Not to Flip: from Evans Media Group-Michigan on Vimeo.