Teaching Interests

BSC 495/L SME 595/L Application of Basic Concepts in Biology for Secondary School
SME 601 Science Education in Contemporary Perspective
SME 700 Science Curriculum in Public Schools
SME 701 Issues in Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education

Research Interests

The development of the programs in the Biological Sciences Learning Center brought momentum to the new generation of research activities I currently conduct. In addition to the energy and resources infused into the Freshman Center by the department, our team of faculty members (Hairston, Herron, Scheetz, and Lee) received an award from the National Science Foundation, Division of Undergraduate Education to improve the two freshman biology courses using the investigative and constructivist approach to teaching the laboratory co-requisite courses. The NSF funds provided the two laboratory courses with state-of-the-art educational technologies and equipment to promote problem solving and critical thinking in the investigative laboratory and field activities. Computers, programs with animations, simulations, CD-ROM, interactive games, and the Internet became essential learning tools for these courses. The exciting changes taking place in the teaching and learning of introductory biology using the constructivist approach as an instructional pedagogy and how learning is facilitated with technology are interesting areas of my research. My research focuses on the following questions:

• What factors affect the transformation from traditional to investigative student-active introductory college biology?
• What are the effects of using computer simulation in preservice science methods course and in the biology freshman course on students' problem-solving skills?
• What instructional methods promote conceptual change among freshman biology students?
• How students' understanding of the nature of science develops through the use of investigative laboratory activities? The graduate teaching assistants are important participants in this reform effort. I am also investigating their efficacy to teach using a constructivist model of instruction.

Another area of my research is the effectiveness of field-based approach in preparing preservice biology teachers. I use the biology methods course that I teach as a test bed for this research. Students in the course are placed in biology classrooms in public high schools and mentored by resident teachers on the realities of planning and preparing lessons, teaching, managing the students, and assessing student learning. Using authentic assessment methods, I investigate the professional growth of the preservice teachers through their performance and reflections recorded on data sources such as reflective journal, portfolio, lesson and unit plans, mentoring log, and videotape of teaching sequences.

As a partner in the national project GLOBE (Global Learning Observations to Benefit the Environment), I continue to conduct teacher workshops in environmental education using the GLOBE protocols. Six workshops for teachers in grades K-12 teachers had been conducted since 1999. Teachers came from as far as Chicago, North Carolina and Alabama in addition to teachers in Mississippi. I continue to develop instruments to assess student learning and teacher efficacy in using the protocols and doing scientific measurements of environmental parameters.

Representative Publications

Hairston, R.V. & Lee, A.T. (2003) Using the 3 Ps approach and a computer simulation to teach science process skills. BioQUEST Notes.12, 2, Spring. BioQUEST Curriculum
Consortium. WI: Beloit College.

Lee, A.T., Hairston, R.V., Thames,R., Lawrence, T., & Herron, S.S. Using a Computer Simulation to Teach Science Process Skills to College Biology and Elementary Education Majors. 2003 (In Press) Bioscene: A Journal of College Biology Teaching.

Thomas, J.A. & Hairston, R.V. Adolescent Students' Images of an Environmental Scientist: An Opportunity for Constructivist Teaching. 2003 (In Press) Electronic Journal of Science Education.

Hairston, R.V. (1999) Bringing the Reality of Science Teaching by Using a Field-Based Methods Course. In Proceedings of the Association for the Education of Teachers in Science meeting, Austin, TX. Also available electronically from ERIC Clearinghouse for Science, Mathematics, and Environmental Education.