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Biology LibreTexts

1.1: How to succeed in BIS2A

  • Page ID
    38083
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    BIS2A is a 5-unit course with live lecture, and online learning resources (readings, recorded lectures, quizzes) that can be accessed at any time, plus a 2-hour weekly live Discussion, at your scheduled Discussion time. Office hours are also available (some in person, some via Zoom)- see your Canvas home page for times.

    BIS2A is one of three courses in the lower division core sequence in the biological sciences. BIS2A provides a foundation in key biological concepts that are of use across a broad spectrum of majors. Students are introduced to the fundamental chemical, molecular, genetic, and cellular building blocks of life, biological mechanisms for the recruitment and transfer of matter and energy, basic principles of biological information flow and cellular decision making, and core concepts underlying the relationships between genetic information and phenotype.

    It is important to realize that BIS2A is not a survey course in biology. Biology is an exciting, broad, and dynamic field. It is critical for students in biology or related fields to develop a strong conceptual foundation and to demonstrate their ability to use it in contexts that may be novel to them. Students in BIS2A will be asked to begin developing the ability to identify and articulate the key scientific and biological questions that are at the core of the course content. Students will be expected to learn and use correct technical vocabulary in their discussions of course content. Students will be expected to begin conceptualizing course content from a question-driven and problem-solving perspective.

    Yes, BIS2A will require you to work hard, but we also hope that you will have fun discovering new aspects of biology and exploring the many unanswered questions concerning what it means to be alive.

    The main course learning objectives include:

    • Apply principles of chemistry and bioenergetics in the context of biological systems to describe how cells acquire and transform matter and energy to build and fuel various life sustaining processes, including chemical transformations of molecules, cellular replication, and cellular information processing.
    • Explain the relationship between genotype and key genetic processes that create phenotypic diversity.
    • Describe the processes regulating the management of cellular information; how information is stored, read, rearranged, replicated; how cells interact with their environment and how these processes can control cellular physiology.

    Who should I ask when I have questions about the course?

    1. General information about the logistics of the course: You'll find this in the "General Information" module of our Canvas site. For the quickest answers to many of your questions, we highly recommend looking at the Course Schedule and the HELP document before contacting one of the staff.
    2. General information about course material in BIS2A: Any BIS2A instructor or TA having office hours should be able to answer general questions about the lectures, readings, and Discussion material. If they can’t answer your questions, they will be happy to refer you to someone who can. However, they cannot help you answer material on quizzes until after the due date. You are not obliged to see only your own Discussion TA- all TAs, and your instructor, can help. See the Canvas home page for office hour schedules. You can also email your instructors and TAs (via Canvas) with questions, but it is very time consuming (and error-prone) to write answers to science question- please don't expect this. Instead, make use of office hours. You can also start a Chat with your fellow students about any topic. Of course you can also organize your own study groups too- this is the best way to learn!
    3. Technical issues with grades: Your Lecture TA (Usman Rehman, contact him via the Canvas mailtool) is a great source of information about the lecture material, but also supervises the loading of scores into your grade book (available on Canvas).
    4. Discussion material: Your discussion TA is the best source of information about the discussion material present in your specific discussion section, but again, all the TAs should be able to help you.
    5. All course content related material: Your instructor is a great resource for questions about content related material. Please make use of office hours! Again, do not send email inquiries about course content, except for yes or no questions.
    6. Enrollment issues: please send all inquiries to bistwoa@ucdavis.edu.

    Some of your responsibilities

    BIS2A is a team effort. Several professors are involved in developing the course content and assessment materials. There are also Teaching Assistants (TAs), who not only run the discussion sections, but also provide insights into which concepts students find the most difficult.

    Please keep up with your responsibilities as a student. Do the assigned reading, watch the videos, and master new vocabulary (often highlighted in green in your Libretext readings). We suggest you do the reading first, before making note of any confusing concepts. Formulating questions is work, but it's the best way to learn because its an active, rather than passive, experience. Then go to lecture and see if your questions are answered (and if more questions are raised). I suggest downloading the lecture slides (available on Canvas) before lecture, and taking notes on them. Fel free to ask questions in class- usually many students will have the same question, even if they're not raising their hands. If you're still confused (and being confused is not a bad thing- it means you're thinking!-, take your questions to your TA or instructor in office hours. Seek out assistance immediately when you need it- there are office hours available throughout the day. Remember, if you fall behind, things will become more difficult- the effect will snowball. If you keep up, everything will make more sense and therefore make learning easier and more interesting. If everyone in the class can conscientiously do these things, we’ll all have fun this quarter (even while working hard) and be a happy and smarter bunch at the end of the term!

    Strategies for Success

    Research shows that the most successful students are those who take charge of their own learning and follow a simple but disciplined strategy.

    • Identify the important vocabulary words and key concepts presented in lecture. Be able to recall this information and find opportunities to use it outside class: limiting your studying to reading a textbook does not constitute effective studying in this class. To be successful, you need to be able to use the information. Therefore, we have designed question-driven lectures and will ask you to practice using your knowledge in the readings, the lectures, and your discussion sections.
    • Recall information from your memory regularly: effective studying cannot be done the day before the exam. If you want to master a concept, you need to work on problems that ask you to apply that concept (and practice your vocabulary) at regular intervals throughout each week. Learning is a biologically-based process- approaching a concept on a regular basis, from different angles, will build resilient new neural connections.
    • Apply your knowledge to different problem types and new situations: we will give you the chance to do this with pre-class questions embedded in the readings, but coming up with your own questions is ideal. Obviously, forming a study group will give you a lot of opportunities to do this. Your questions and curiosity will give other members of your group an opportunity to think, explain, and learn. If you have a lot of questions, you'll be helping your study group practice their knowledge.

    Investment of Time

    To be successful in BIS2A, you need to make sure that you have sufficient time each week to devote to the class. Units at UC Davis are assigned based on time spent in class and time requirements associated with out-of-class work. For one lecture unit, you are expected to attend one hour of lecture per week and to spend about two hours per week out-of-class studying the material associated with this lecture. BIS2A has three hours of "lecture" per week, and normally you would be expected to spend at least six additional hours per week studying. BIS2A also has two hours of discussion per week. For the two discussion units, you are expected to attend one two-hour discussion section per week and to spend about four hours per week out-of-class studying the material associated with this discussion. So in total, you are expected to be spending about 15 hours/week on BIS2A!

    What is the most productive way to use this -15 hours/week? Material in BIS2A is cumulative and getting behind can have a major negative impact on your grade, while increasing your workload. Therefore, the key to being successful in BIS2A is to study the material every day. “Studying” includes any time spent learning the vocabulary, doing the reading, preparing for class by identifying problem topics, reviewing the slides and your notes after class, and completing the quizzes..

    How to Prepare for Class

    We have prepared/identified a variety of readings/activities designed to help you get the most out of the lectures and discussions.

    Before lecture, read the whole assignment (usually in libretext) and comment (to yourself, or a friend) on all parts - particularly the suggested discussion items. The libretexts are designed to be printable as pdfs, if you prefer to annotate in that format or write on a printed pdf.

    Study groups are a great way to encourage mastery of the material through conversation. They provide an opportunity to learn from and with your classmates and to use information you've learned from earlier modules. Raise questions on material you don't understand- and see if these items are clarified in the lectures/discussions. If not, consider asking about them in office hours/study hall and during lecture. Questions in lecture really help everyone learn!

    We have attempted to boldface any vocabulary words. Again, ask for help if definitions remain unclear after your best efforts (it is better for you to try first on your own than for you to immediately ask someone for help- you'll remember better this way). You may encounter words that you don't understand but are not in green/boldface- regard these as words you need to learn also! You can bet that if your instructor uses these terms, you may face them later on a test. Keep a list of unfamiliar words for review prior to tests.

    Lecture slides will be posted. I strongly suggest printing out the lecture slides before lecture and taking notes on them. If any slides or other resources are missing, send a reminder note to your instructor, Dr. Britt, abbritt@ucdavis.edu: she may be unaware of this.

    Please note that an early slide for each of Dr. Britt's lectures include a list of learning goals. You should take these very seriously; this list is what she will be reviewing when she makes up the exams!

    What happens in lecture

    Class time will be spent discussing course topics. Your instructor will expect that you have completed the assigned reading before you come to class and that you have attempted to answer the questions in the Libretext readings. You can ask question during or immediately after class.

    What to do after reading and attending lecture

    You have access to the lecture slides and a lecture capture video of the slides with voiceover/captions. If you were unable to answer some of the questions in the readings before class, go back to them now. If you generated pre-lecture questions of your own- were they answered?

    Before tests

    Exam style

    Our Midterms and Final will be strictly multiple choice. The weekly lecture quizzes provide examples of questions that are very much like what Dr. Britt will put on her exams (questions asked in the readings and lecture are often more open-ended). You'll be able to take the quizzes until you get 100%. Try to answer these on your own (in open book style- use any resource but another human) and keep track of topics that were difficult for you. Part of preparing for each exam is the process of generating a 2 page (two sheets single sided, or one sheet double sided) "cheat sheet". This is a printed or written document, on actual paper.  You may use this as a reference during your exams.

    Again, learning goals are listed in the lecture slides. I'll be using those to generate new exams. You should use these too.  There may be reading or discussion material that goes beyond what I discuss in lecture.  If I don't discuss some topic at all in lecture, then it won't be on the exam. Focus on the Lecture material.

    How to use quiz questions effectively

    • Ask yourself if there are any vocabulary terms that appear multiple times in the quiz or any vocabulary words that you don't understand. Sometimes, just knowing the precise meaning of a term is enough to answer the question.
    • Ask yourself WHAT learning goal(s) are associated with each question and what skills do you need to answer the question. Remember, some questions may require you to integrate multiple learning goals.
    • Ask yourself HOW the instructor is testing whether or not you have mastered the learning goals you identified above. Figure out what you needed to know to be able to answer the question, and how the instructor asked you to demonstrate this.
    • Ask yourself how you might RECAST the question (changing some details or specifics) in a way that still tested whether or not a student had mastered the associated learning goals and not just memorized the answers to the old exam questions. We as instructors do this all the time.
    • Asking yourself how you might CREATE a new question that an instructor could use to test the same learning goals. We as instructors do this all the time too.

    Concept maps

    Draw pictures or flowcharts to illustrate concepts stressed in class. Do this first without any online or textbook resources. This is a great way to identify holes in your knowledge. Simply copying diagrams will not help as much as revising/correcting your own original work.

    Midterm Review Sessions...

    ... will be based entirely on questions from the audience, so bring questions. Students usually find that review sessions really help them see the "big picture".

    The cumulative nature of BIS2A

    By its very nature, the material in BIS2A is cumulative and it is very easy to get behind. Try to study the material in a lecture both the night before (based on the readings) and the night after the lecture (based on the slides and perhaps podcast, plus your own reading). It has been demonstrated that the brain actively builds new connections based on what we have experienced during the day, and it does this especially well with material we have experienced immediately before going to sleep

    Habits associated with highly successful BIS2A students

    Over the years, your instructors have talked with many, many students to try and understand why some students are more successful than others. The picture is, as you might expect, complicated. However, there seem to be at least two habits that we can consistently associate with highly successful students and that we find are practiced much less frequently by students who struggle. These are:

    • Reviewing and studying material associated with a Lecture. This includes reviewing the video and reading notes, vocabulary, and doing associated exercises. This ALSO includes making lists of concepts that still aren't clear and trying to have those questions cleared up before moving on to the next module.
    • Constant self-testing. That is, most successful students have developed methods (there are many) for assessing their comfort level with their understanding of the course material and spending more time on areas they find MOST challenging.

    The first point is relatively easy to understand. Don't procrastinate. Material builds up quickly, concepts are often layered and exams sneak up on you very fast in the quarter system. It is difficult to identify the holes in your understanding of a topic and fill them appropriately two days before the exam.

    The second point about self-testing is more subtle. Basically, students that are good at this skill have ways of asking themselves "do I really understand the point of this question and the reason for the answer?" This can happen in a number of ways. We suggested one above. Try to invent new exam style questions for a concept or skill. Another good way to test yourself is to work in groups and explain a topic or question to another student, as if you were the instructor. This is often more difficult than it seems. While this exercise can be hard - particularly if you are not used to flexing these particular mental muscles - this type of introspection is important to develop for both your short and long term success and we encourage you to look inward and test yourself and your understanding often when you are studying.

    Questions during Lecture

    You are always welcome to ask questions! Especially during lecture! I love questions, that's why I'm a professor. I know it is hard to ask questions if you're worried that everyone else knows the answer. If you're confused, it's a good guess that a significant number of other students are confused too, so please ask. This may sound odd, but I ask the class to hiss (go: "sssssssss") a little if they feel lost.  If you hear a student hissing, and you are lost too, join them! If I hear a lot of hissing, I'll back up and try again. I won't be insulted!  This is more anonymous than raising your hand, so some students prefer hissing.

    In every lecture, I will ask you to answer questions, with the class responding using iclickers. I will not "cold-call" individuals. These questions serve several purposes:

    • It can be very hard to focus on a passively received lecture; I know when I'm watching a lecture I sometimes don't even realize that I've started thinking about other things. To some extent, we're adding questions to lectures just to give you a break and refocus your attention.
    • However, questions also help you consolidate your knowledge by asking you to review what you just heard. This moves material from short-term to longer-term memory.
    • Questions act as mini "self-tests" for students. If you are uncertain about what question is being asked or how to answer it, this is a good time to review this material, perhaps using other resources. If the instructor took the time to ask you the question, this is a big clue that he/she thinks that both the question and the answer are important.

    Group questions are designed to stimulate thought and discussion rather than to elicit a discrete answer. In this case, you should not feel compelled to have one "right" answer!! Understanding this is very important. While it is okay to not know "the answer", it is nevertheless important for you to attempt to answer. 

    Your job

    We cannot emphasize too strongly that YOU have the primary responsibility for learning the material in this (or any other) course. Although we are invested in your success, your instructors and TAs cannot magically implant knowledge. Like any other discipline that requires mastery (e.g. sports, music, dance, etc.), we can help guide you and critique your performance, but we can not replace the hours of practice necessary to become good at something. You would never expect to become a proficient pianist by going to lessons once or twice a week and never practicing. To most of us, it seems self-evident that you need practice to become good at something like music, art, or sports. It should not be surprising that the same rule applies with learning Biology or any other academic subject.

    We see ourselves as your coaches for this class; we want all of you to succeed. However, for this to happen, you have to take your practice seriously. This means studying the material covered in class as soon as possible, not falling behind, identifying where you are uncertain and getting help to clarify those topics as soon as possible, and trying to make thoughtful contributions to online discussions.

    Bottom line: You need to be an active participant in your learning.

    Knowledge and Learning

    Teaching and Learning Science

    Teaching and learning science are both challenging endeavors. As instructors, we need to communicate complex, highly interconnected concepts that will serve as a foundation for all your future studies. We also want our students to demonstrate mastery of these ideas at a high level. As students, you need to learn a large new vocabulary, create mental models on which you can "hang" the new conceptual knowledge, and demonstrate that you can actually use this new knowledge. The process challenges both the instructor and the student. Although the process involves hard work, it can also be incredibly rewarding. There is nothing more satisfying for an instructor than those “Aha!” moments when a student suddenly understands an important concept.

    In BIS2A we face some interesting teaching and learning challenges. One key challenge is that we discuss physical things and ideas that exist or happen on time and/or size scales that are not familiar to most students. What does this mean? Consider the following example:

    Example: Some challenges associated with creating mental models

    An instructor teaching wildlife biology may want to talk about concepts in evolution by using bird beaks as a starting point for discussion. In this case, the instructor does not need to spend time creating mental pictures of different shaped bird beaks (or at the very least only needs to show one image); most students will readily draw on their past knowledge and everyday lives to create mental pictures of duck, eagle, or woodpecker beaks and infer the different functional reasons why Nature might have selected different shapes. As a consequence, the students will not need to expend any mental effort imagining what the beaks look like and can instead focus all of their energies on the core evolutionary lesson.

    More simply: If you are asked to think about something new that is closely related to something you already know well, it is not too difficult to focus on the new material.

    By contrast, in BIS2A we ask students to think about and discuss things that happen on the atomic, molecular and cellular scales and at rates that span microseconds to millennia. No one has lived life on the micro to nanometer scale. Yet, this length scale is where most of the events common to all biological systems takes place. Beginning students, who have not thought much about how things happen at the molecular scale, lack mental models upon which to add new information. This starting point places a burden on both the student and the instructors to create and reinforce NEW mental models for many of the things we talk about in class. For instance, to really talk about how proteins function, we first need to develop a common set of models and vocabulary for representing molecules at the atomic and molecular levels. Not only do these models need to find ways of representing the molecule’s structure, but the models must also contain abstract ideas about the chemical properties of molecules and how these molecules interact. Therefore, students in BIS2A need to put some effort into constructing mental models of what proteins "look" like and how they behave at the molecular scale. Since the entire course centers around biomolecules and processes that happen at a microscopic scale, a similar argument can be made for nearly every topic in the class.

    Note: Possible Discussion

    How do you interpret the term "mental model" and why do you think that it is important for learning?

    Some of the readings' exercises and clicker questions are designed to help with meet this challenge; most students have found them very useful. However, some students are more accustomed to studying for exams by memorizing information rather than understanding it. (It's not their fault; that's what they were asked to do in the past). As a result, if the problems are approached with the "memorize-at-all-costs" attitude some of the BIS2A exercises may initially seem pointless. For instance, why are your instructors asking you to draw some of the concepts described in class? What multiple-choice question could that exercise possibly prepare you for? While it is true that some of your instructors won't ask you to draw complicated figures on an exam, these drawing exercises are not trying to prepare students for one specific question. Rather the instructor is trying to encourage you to begin creating a mental model for yourself and to practice using it. The act of drawing can also serves as a "self test." When you force yourself to write something down or to create a picture describing a process on paper, you will be able to independently assess how strong your conceptual grasp of a topic really is by seeing how easy or hard it was to put your mental image of something onto paper. If it is hard for you to draw a core concept or process from class WITHOUT EXTERNAL ASSISTANCE, it is likely that you need more practice. If it is easy, you are ready to add new information to your model. Throughout the course, you will continue to add new information to your mental model or to use the concept represented in your mental model in a new context. Keep your drawings - or other self-testing mechanisms - current. Don't fall behind.

    Incidentally, the presentation of a course concept on an exam in a context that the student has never seen before is NOT an evil plot by the instructor. Rather it is a way for the instructor and student to assess whether the concept has been learned and whether that knowledge can be used/transferred by the student outside of the specific example given in class or in the reading. Asking the student to repeat the latter would represent an exercise in memorization and would not be an assessment of valuable learning and independent thinking or a representation of what happens in real life.

    IMPORTANT: The idea that students in BIS2A will be tested on their ability to USE concepts in specific contexts that they haven't seen before is critical to understand! Take special heed of this knowledge. Developing usable conceptual knowledge takes more discipline and work than memorizing. The quarter also moves VERY fast and concepts are layered one on top of the other. If you get too far behind, it is very, very difficult to make up for lost time two or three days before an exam. Be as disciplined as you can and keep up with course materials.

    So, some concepts are hard to teach and to understand. What are we to do? Something instructors and students both do is to use various communication tricks to simplify or make abstract ideas more relatable. We use tools like analogies or simplified models (more on the importance of these shortly) to describe complex ideas. Making things more relatable can take various forms. Instructors might try to use various similies or metaphors to take advantage of mental pictures or conceptual models that students already have (drawn from everyday life) to explain something new. For instance, the thing X that you don't understand works a little like thing Y that you do understand. Sometimes, this helps ground a discussion. Another thing you might catch an instructor or student doing is anthropomorphizing the behaviors of physical things that are unfamiliar. For example we might say molecule A “wants" to interact with molecule B to simplify the more correct but more complex description of the chemical energetics involved in the interaction between molecules A and B. Anthropomorphisms can be useful because, like similes and metaphors, they attempt to link the creation of new ideas and mental models to concepts that already exist in the student's brain.

    While these tools can be great and effective they nevertheless need to be used carefully - by both the instructor and the student. The main risk associated with these simplifying tools is that they can create conceptual connections that shouldn't exist, that lead to unintended misconceptions, or that makes it more difficult to connect a new concept. So while these tools are valid, we - students and instructors - also need to be vigilant about understanding the limits these tools have in our ability to learn new ideas. If these pedagogical tools are useful but their use also carries risk, how do we proceed?

    The remedy has two parts:

    1. Recognize when one of these "simplifying" tools is being used and
    2. Try to determine where the specific analogy, metaphor etc. works and where it fails conceptually.

    The second instruction is the most difficult and may prove challenging for learners, particularly when they are first exposed to a new concept. However, the act of simply thinking about the potential problems associated with an analogy or model is an important metacognitive exercise that will help students learn. In BIS2A your instructors will occasionally expect you to explicitly recognize the use of these pedagogical tools and to explain the trade-offs associated with their use. Your instructors will also help you with this by explicitly pointing out examples or prodding you to recognize a potential issue.

    Note: Possible Discussion

    Can you give an example from your previous classes where an instructor has used an anthropomorphism to describe a nonhuman thing? What were/are the trade-offs of the description (i.e. why did the description work and what were its limitations)?

    Using vocabulary

    It is also worth noting another problematic issue that can needlessly confound students just starting out in a discipline - the use of vocabulary terms that potentially have multiple definitions and/or the incorrect use of vocabulary terms that have strict definitions. While this is not a problem unique to biology, it is nevertheless important to recognize that it occurs. We can draw from real-life examples to get a better sense of this issue. For instance, when we say something like "I drove to the store", a couple of things are reasonably expected to be immediately understood. We don't need to say "I sat in and controlled a four-wheeled, enclosed platform, that is powered by the combustion of fossil fuel to a building that collects goods I want to obtain and can do so by exchanging currency for said goods" to convey the core of our message. The downside to using the terms "drove" and "store" is that we have potentially lost important details about what really happened. Perhaps the car is battery powered and that is important to understanding some detail of the story that follows (particularly if that part of the story involves calling a tow truck driver to rescue you up after the car has run out of power- they never seem to bring enough electrons). Perhaps knowing the specific store is important for understanding context. Sometimes those details don't matter, but sometimes if they aren’t known it can lead to confusion. Using vocabulary correctly and being careful about word choice is important. Knowing when to simplify and when to give extra detail is also key.

    Aside:

    In the laboratory, undergraduate students in biology will often report back to their mentors that "my experiment worked" without sharing important details of what it means to have "worked", what the evidence is, how strong the evidence is, or what the basis is for their judgment - all details that are critical to understanding exactly what happened. If and/or when you start working in a research lab do yourself and your advisor the favor of describing IN DETAIL what you were trying to accomplish (don't assume they'll remember the details), how you decided to accomplish your goal (experimental design), what the exact results were (showing properly labeled data is advised), and providing your interpretation. If you want to end your description by saying "therefore, it worked!" that's also great.

    Note: Possible Discussion

    Can you think of an example where the imprecise or incorrect use of vocabulary caused needless confusion in real life? Describe the example and discuss how the confusion could have been avoided.

    Problem Solving

    Educators and employers alike have all argued that the ability to solve problems is one of the most important skills that should be taught to and nurtured in university students. Problem solving ability consistently ranks as one of the most sought after traits employers want from their hires. Medical, professional, and graduate schools alike look for students with demonstrated ability to solve problems; the MCAT has even recently changed its format to more specifically assess student’s ability to solve problems. Life is full of problems to solve, irrespective of the profession one chooses. This is important!

    Despite a clear demand for this skill set it is surprisingly rare to find problem solving taught explicitly in formal educational settings, particularly in core science courses where the transmission of “facts” usually takes precedence. In BIS2A we aim to start changing this. After all, nobody really cares if you’ve memorized the name or catalytic rate of the third enzyme in the citric acid cycle (not even standardized tests), but a lot of people care if you can use information about that enzyme and the context it functions in to help develop a new drug, design a metabolic pathway for making a new fuel, or to help understand its importance in the evolution of biological energy transformations.

    Your instructors believe that the ability to solve problems is a skill like any other. It is NOT an innate – "you’ve either got it or you don’t "– aptitude. Problem solving can be broken down into a set of skills that can be taught and practiced to mastery. So, even if you do not consider yourself a good problem solver today, there is no reason why you can’t become a better problem solver with some guidance and practice. If you think that you are already a good problem solver, you can still get better.

    Cognitive scientists have thought about problem solving a lot. Some of this thinking has focused on trying to classify problems into different types. While problems come in many different flavors (and we’ll see some different types throughout the course) most problems can be classified along a continuum of how well structured they are. At one end of the continuum are well-structured problems. These are the types of problems that you usually encounter in school. They usually have all of the information required to solve the problem, ask you to apply some known rules or formulae, and have a pre-prescribed answer. On the other end of the continuum are ill-structured problems. These are the types of problems you will usually face in real life or at work. Ill-structured problems may start poorly defined, usually do not present themselves with all of the information required to solve them, there may be different ways of solving them, and many possible “correct” outcomes/answers.

    Note: Possible Discussion

    Well-structured problems (like the story-problems you might often encounter in text books) are often set in an artificial context while the ill-structured problems one faces in every day life are often set in a very specific context (your life). Is it possible for multiple people to observe the same situation and perceive different problems associated with it? How does context and perception influence how one might identify a problem, its solution, or its importance?

    To have a fruitful/enriching discussion it pays to start by presenting an example AND some direct reasoning. Replies that acknowledge the initial comment and either provide an extension of the original argument (by way of a new perspective or example) or provide a reasoned counter-argument the are most valuable follow-ups.

    Problems can also be “simple” or “complex” depending on how many different variables need to be considered to find a solution or be considered “dynamic” if they change over time. Other problem classification schemes include story problems, rule-based problems, decision-making problems, troubleshooting problems, policy problems, design problems, and dilemmas. As you can see, problem solving is a complicated and deep topic and a proper discussion about it could fill multiple courses.

    While the topic of problem solving is fascinating, in BIS2A we aren’t interested in teaching the theories of problem solving per se. However, we ARE interested in teaching students skills that are applicable to solving most types of problems, giving students an opportunity to practice these skills, and assessing whether or not they are improving their problem solving abilities. Note: Since we are asking you to think explicitly about problem-solving it is fair to expect that your ability to do so will be evaluated on exams. Do not be surprised by this.

    We are going to incorporate problem solving into the class a number of different ways.

    1. We will have some questions in the readings and lectures that encourage problem solving.
    2. We will make use of the pedagogical tool we call the “Design Challenge” to help structure our discussion of the topics we cover in class.

    When we are using the Design Challenge in class we are working on problem solving. 


    1.1: How to succeed in BIS2A is shared under a not declared license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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