STEMx Global Education Conference September 2014 Presentation

1. Project
Outbreak
CREATING AN EPISTEMIC GAME
FOR MICROBIOLOGY

2. Presenters
Dr. Farah Bennani (Microbiology Faculty)
farah.bennani@frontrange.edu
Dr. Anjali Vaidya (Microbiology Faculty)
anjali.vaidya@frontrange.edu
Kae Novak (Instructional Designer)
karen.novak@frontrange.edu
Front Range Community College
Colorado, USA

3. Introduction
Rapid changes in the last 2 decades in the field
of:
 Technological advancement
 Scientific exploration and innovation
 Increased globalization

4. Problem Trying to Solve
 Develop competency in microbiology, cell
biology and genetics.
 Adopt the role of professionals in the field.
 Conduct virtual investigations of possible
microbial outbreak scenarios.

5. Purpose
 Create a flipped classroom using augmented
reality tools .
 Access and collect information and clues
using a mobile phone and web sites to serve
as evidence in solving an epidemiological
mystery.

6. The National Science Teachers
Association (NSTA)
 The (NSTA) acknowledges the importance of
the integration of 21st-century skills within
the context of science education and
advocates for the science education
community to support these skills consistent
with best practices across a preK–16 science
education system.
Source: http://www.nsta.org/about/positions/21stcentury.aspx

7. Science
 Science constitutes an ideal context where
skills such as:
 critical thinking
 problem solving
 information literacy
can be infused in the teaching to promote the
use of science practices.

8. Science curricula
 Need to embed technology.
 Use the world wide web to support
interactive learning.
 Help students appreciate the technological
environment where they live.
 Provide a global perspective.

9. The Survival skills for
Careers, College and
Citizenship
 Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving
 Collaboration Across Networks
 Effective Oral and Written communication
 Accessing and analyzing Information
From The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even our Best Schools Don’t Teach The New Survival Skills Our
Children Need- and What We Can Do about It, by Tony Wagner (Basic Books, 2008)

10. Driving pedagogical
rationale
 Provide an epistemic game experience to




microbiology students as they learn and
apply course concepts
Adopt the role of professionals.
Use of the vocabulary and terminology
outside the classroom.
Develop the students’ science and
technology literacies
Use technology- based motivational
activities to engage and motivate students in
their academic work.

11. Microbiology with Lab
 Examines microorganisms with an emphasis
on their structure, development, physiology,
classification, and identification.
 The laboratory experience includes culturing,
identifying, and controlling microorganisms
with an emphasis on their role in infectious
disease.

12. * Microorganisms
 Ubiquitous (everywhere).
 Without them, we wouldn't be able to
survive!
 Decompose our waste.
 Used in Bioremediation (clean up).
 Help plants to obtain nutrients from the soil.

13. * Microorganisms
 Used in fermentation (cheese, bread and
wine)
 Produce vitamins.
 Produce hormones (Genetic engineering)
 Only a few of them make us ill or even kill us
and other living beings.

14. EPISTEMIC GAME
EPISTEMIC FRAME

15. Epistemic Frame

16. Epistemic Frame

17. AR
Augmented Reality blends virtual
content over a real world
environment via computergenerated sensory input through
a GPS enabled application

18. TAGWHAT

23. Ludic Fallacy and
Quantitative Reasoning
MEDTAG ALGORITHM

24. Global Health Issues 2012 Trends
Rocky Mountain Chapter Annual Virtual
Conference
3 recorded sessions chosen by the Advisory
Board in the Rocky Mountain region.
 Brian Goldman: Doctors Make Mistakes
 Bill Davenhall: Your health depends on where
you live
 Dr. Svi Ovesola tours a hospital in Nigeria.

25. Epistemic Frame
IMPORTANCE OF A
GLOBAL COMPETENCE

27. Countries
* Canada
* Jamaica
* Germany
* India
* Slovenia
* Mexico
* Kenya
* C0ngo

28. Microbiolial species
 Clostridium botulinum
 Plasmodium falciparum
 Bortedella pertussisis
 Mycobacterium tuberculosis

29. Microbiolial species
 Trypanosoma brucei
 Rhabdovirus
 Hepatitis C virus

30. Pictures:

31. Grades Distribution (2012-13)
40%
35%
30%
Game Based
25%
Conventional
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
A
B
C
D
F
W

32. Results/Closing
 Increased students retention and success
rate.
 Students gain exposure to real life situations.
 Students learned the steps required to
complete an accurate diagnosis during health
outbreak situation.

33. * Results/Closing
 By using real life scenarios to create a
simulation of contagious disease
outbreak, we helped students understand
the epidemiological aspects of clinical
microbiology.
 The difference in comprehension between
students who were taught by using this
methodology and those who were taught
without this methodology was significant.

34. Student’s Feedback
 “The scenario made me think about what
kinds of things can influence someone to
become sick, like their environment, what
kind of bacteria or viruses they could have
been exposed to”.

35. Student’s Feedback
“Not having everything "spoon fed" to us when
we got into the scenario had a major impact on
the way I could look at the situation. It was no
longer about the basic pieces of information
that we commonly deal with, but about the
synthesis of many pieces. It came down to
interpretation a lot more than I would have
expected, and that makes it difficult to really
assess a situation”.

36. Student’s Feedback
“ It forced you to think more outside the box, in
terms of how a person could come into contact
with microbes during their normal life. It was
very different than working with aseptic
procedures in the lab”.

37. Student’s Feedback
“ Field conditions are much more difficult because
the communication is often on a verbal level and
only mentioned once. One has to have good
hearing and note taking skills, as well as multitasking and being able to concentrate with
distractions all around them. The cases in the field
are also not sterile, quiet, and controlled as they
are in the lab. This means a field agent must be
very careful when arriving to a scene to take extra
precautions to ensure things do not get any more
contaminated or continue to spread”.

38. Thank you
Q&A