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Ideas for Creating a Stimulating Undergraduate Paleobiology Course: Emphasis on Student-Directed Learning, Evolution, and the Chronological Succession of Phanerozoic Life

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2017

David Sunderlin
David Sunderlin*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences, Lafayette College, Easton, PA 18042
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Abstract

It is commonly noted that students with no prior coursework in paleobiology are intrigued with it. Whatever the reason, many students look forward to an undergraduate course in the subject, even if they are not earth or life science majors. We, as instructors, can seize on this interest and build on it with careful course design. Here I describe a deliberate pedagogical approach in my undergraduate paleobiology course using repeated student-directed learning (SDL) activities. I also detail two course design strategies that I have found to be particularly successful: 1) placing uncommonly heavy emphasis on evolutionary processes, and 2) studying fossil groups according to their general chronological succession through the Phanerozoic. Specifically, SDL in this course involves a suite of activities that the students have some role in designing, such as choosing the study organism for an analysis or developing hypotheses for testing with data collected from the field. SDL activities are integrated into each course module, helping to create a learning environment of scientific inquiry that balances prescribed readings and lecture components with individual, interest-driven research investigations into captivating aspects of the discipline. The course design highlights evolutionary processes early in the term, then follows an unorthodox, chronological approach to organismal paleobiology in the course's second half. The strategies described here have met with success over many course iterations, both in terms of student evaluations of their own learning and in assessment of how students reach learning outcomes regarding the acquisition of knowledge and scientific research skill-sets.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Paleontological Society Special Publications , Volume 12: Teaching Paleontology in the 21st Century , 2012 , pp. 11 - 20
Copyright
Copyright © 2012 by The Paleontological Society 

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