CLICK: Michelle Smith leads charge for active learning in science education
UMaine Today – Spring/Summer 2015
Written by Beth Staples
Teaching science clicks for Michelle Smith.
The assistant professor in the School of Biology and Ecology is a national leader in a charge to improve science education. And clickers — wireless personal response systems (think of a television remote control) — are part of the equation.
For students in Smith’s spring 2015 genetics course, learning about sister chromatids and homologous chromosomes involved pointing and clicking.
And for Smith, understanding how undergraduates grasp genetic concepts is a rewarding aspect of teaching.
In a heralded study with Scott Freeman of the University of Washington, Seattle, and others, Smith found undergraduates in college science classes that actively engage them in learning are more apt to pass and are more likely to earn better grades than peers in lecture-format classes.