Table 1. General guidelines given to students at the beginning of the project.

These questions scaffold students

to plan their project (in conjunction with details for each step).
Step 3: Selection of Either the Action or Paper Option
Step 1: Proposal

Step 2: Assessment & Plan

t
Topic and community

t
Specific community group that

group selection related

to biotechnology.
t
What are your plans for
assessing the needs of
the community?
t
Describe the action you
are planning.

t

t

t

t

t

Action

t
Provide final action

you will work with for your action.

How did you assess the needs of
the community?
Describe your interview, survey,
etc. to find out the opinion or
understanding of your community
group to help you plan the action.
What questions did you ask? How
many people were surveyed?
Explain in detail your findings, and
how your findings will influence
your plan of action.
Plan your action. What will you do
to inform, influence, help, and/or
support your community group?

resources, for example

final PowerPoint slides,
final letter, final poster.
t
Provide documentation
of your action, for
example photographs,
audiotape, e-mail
response from
congressperson, thankyou letter from students,
written change in
opinion or knowledge of
community member.

Paper

t
Write a detailed formal

t

t

t

t

paper of 1517 pages,

double spaced.
In the paper, analyze the
data you collected in your
needs assessment, and
describe your plan and
expected outcomes.
Research the topic using
at least 7 reputable
references.
Reflect on what you
learned from conducting
this project and how you
learned it.
Give specific examples.

Table 2. Prompts provided to students for choosing

a project.
Suggestions for
Topics

Possible Community
Groups

t
Genetic disease
t
Genetic testing
t
Forensics
t
Cloning
t
Reproductive technologies
t
Stem cell research
t
Genetically modified plants
t
Genetically modified

t
Schools
t
Retirement home
t
Campus cafeteria
t
Farm
t
Grocery store
t
Doctors office
t
Political office
t
Business planners
t
After-school program
t
Radio station

animals

epigenetics

someone else learn, change their mind, or act differently. In this unit,
Table 3.
Overview
of final
Table 2. Prompts
provided
to students
for action
choosingrequirements.
students had opportunities to relate their own interests in a biotecha project.

nonmajors biotechnology class. The course challenged students to

choose a topic, assess the needs of a community related to that topic,
Suggestions for
Possible Community
needs offor
a community
and
planning an action
related to biotech2. GROUP. Provide
documentation of yourtheaction,
example
photographs,
audiotape,
e-mail response
fromaddressing
congressperson,
design an action
the needs, and document their work in
Topics
Groups
nology, and (3) taking action and documenting it. Student work was
thank-you letter
from students, written change
in opinion or knowledge of community member.
a
multimedia
format
of
their
choice. The project aimed to be meant
Genetic disease
t
Schools
scaffolded by framework questions in each step (Table 1) to generate
t
Genetic 3.
testing
t
Retirement summary
home
theof
action
plan.
If students could
not complete
their
action
because
of individual,
INDIVIDUAL. One-page
paper
your
reflection
for the
project.
One
paper
per
perbygroup.
ingful to not
students
connecting to the real world of the commut
Forensics Discuss the following
t
Campuspoints:
cafeteria
extracurricular demands, they could choose to write a 15- to 17-page,
nity, requiring students to witness reactions of citizens regarding
t
Cloning
t
Farm
double-spaced research paper for step 3, based on their needs assesst

What
did
participants
learn?
How
do
you know?
biotechnology ideas from class, and putting ownership of the inquiry
t
Reproductive technologies
t
Grocery store
ment. The length was effective in discouraging those who might take
t
What did yout
Doctors
learn from
examples.
t
Stem cell research
officedoing this project?
advantageGive
of the specific
option only
one student submitted a paper, and it
in students hands.
1. GROUP. Provide final action resources, for
example
final PowerPoint
slides,a letter,
poster.
nology
issue to communities
by (1) choosing
topic, (2)
assessing

t
Genetically
plants
t
Political
was and
well developed.
students
to work indi4. modified
INDIVIDUAL.
Print
outoffice
Participation Form
hand inMoreover,
one hard
copycould
perchoose
individual.
t
Genetically modified
t
Business planners
vidually on the project or in a group of up to five. The larger the
animals 5. GROUP. Include
t
After-school
all of yourprogram
previous work
and
for stepsexpected.
1 and 2.
Put
your
project together in a pocket folder.
group,
thefeedback
higher the productivity
Class
time
was provided
J
t
Radio station
to help students find people who shared an interest in similar topics.
Class time was also used to plan, get feedback from instructors, and
discuss ideas. The project entailed a small time commitment outside
of class to collect data approximately 2 hours, depending on the
type of project.

nonmajors biotechnology class. The course challenged students to

choose a topic, assess the needs of a community related to that topic,
Table 4. Participation Form in final report.
design an action addressing the needs, and document their work in
Topicfor Groups
a multimediaQuestions
format of theirfor
choice.
AllThe project aimed to be mean- Choosing a Community
Questions&Only
ingful to students by connecting to the real world of the commu- The first step of the project was to figure out a topic of interest and
1. students
Overall,
effectively
youregarding
or your group
3. to
Give
one
ofStudents
something
you
nity, requiring
to how
witness
reactions of did
citizens
how it might relate
a group
in example
the real world.
were given
biotechnology ideas
fromtogether
class, and putting
ownership
of the inquiry examples of potential
projectsnot
and ahave
list of learned
topics and alone.
groups to conwork
on this
project?
would
in students hands.
sider as a starting point (Table 2).

Overview
Arguably, the highest form of learning stems from not just knowing
something, but using it and applying it in the real world to help

learned from the group that you

2. Did you enjoy this project? Suggest one change

4. Suggest one change the group could make to improve.
the Needs of a Community Group
to make in the project assignment next Assessing
year.
242
THE AMERICAN BIOLOGY TEACHER

Description of the Community Action

Project
J

Description of the Community Action

Project

Overview
Arguably, the highest form of learning stems from not just knowing
something, but using it and applying it in the real world to help

The second step of the project involved assessing the needs of a group
5. Name your group members below, including yourself, circle
that had a stake in the topic. Students could conduct background
contribution,
and
givedata
specific
details of contributions.
research, interview of
stakeholders,
or collect
survey
to accomname):
A lot sknowledge,
Okay A
little Nothing
plish this. To better (member
assess the targeted
community
students conducted varied approaches such as questionnaires, e-mail
6. Contributions to the project were:
surveys, site visits, and interviews demonstrated in the examples
below. It was not necessary to conduct a major research investigation

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