Using a Mini-Symposium to Display the Results of Team-Designed Experiments to Encourage Freshman Pride & Teamwork

 

Denise Ratterman

Tested Studies in Laboratory Teaching, 2000, Volume 21

Abstract

First semester freshmen tend to view themselves as students only, not as new members of the scientific community. To encourage the students to work together and take pride in their own work, I have established a yearly mini-symposium in which the first semester biology students present an abstract (with up to two figures and tables) reporting the results of a team-designed experiment. What has made a difference in the spirit of this lab is the mini-symposium, which is held with the formality and look of an actual scientific symposium. This paper presents how to implement a mini-symposium to make a semester-end experience for beginning biology students within the community of a biology department.

Keywords:  symposium, poster

University of Nebraska, Lincoln (1999)