it’s said that a picture is worth a
thousand words but for biologists a
picture might also be worth a thousand
years you see scientists use pictures
and diagrams to represent their
understandings of science but when we
use those diagrams that teach in the
classroom those students don’t always
understand those diagrams as intended so
a common diagram that we biologists use
all the time is called the Tree of Life
it represents this foundational concept
in our field that all living things are
related to one another
so take this kind of diagram for example
this was drawn by Charles Darwin during
his famous voyage of the Beagle and
these three diagrams come in many
different shapes sizes colors
orientations they look wildly different
which makes it so difficult for students
to understand these kind of diagrams
what I want you to understand is that
when you look at some kind of teaching
aspect it’s better not to focus on just
one simple aspect but on the larger
diagram because for my master’s thesis I
was extremely interested and how
students understood these diagrams but
also how teachers taught these kind of
diagrams to students because ultimately
we sell ourselves short we when we
attempt to only learn in one way teach
and only one way and experience things
in only one way so what does this mean
for students well we know that incoming
college students have a really hard time
understanding what these diagrams
represent because when they walk into
the classroom they bring with them a
slew of misconceptions that act as
barriers to their understanding and a
couple studies have actually tried to
figure out what kind of approaches are
best for teachers they use to help
students overcome these barriers but
they’re actually very limited because
they only focus on one kind of teaching
approach so here I come to Texas say for
my master’s thesis to not focus on
simply one approach but I focus on four
different one so I’m going to extremely
briefly walk you through what these each
were so what I had first was no
instruction so students that didn’t have
any instruction about trees were
considered my control group next I had
students that experienced some kind of
implicit approach which meant that they
were exposed to these kind of diagrams
and their textbooks and their lectures
but they were not explicitly taught by
their teachers next I have what I call
the video method where students
interacted with an online video or they
point-and-click
learned about each of the different
aspects of the trees and also that there
are so many different ways that these
diagrams are represented it’s from the
tree boom Oregon it’s from the USC joint
session with some kind of museum that’s
also in Southern California and it works
really well I highly recommend it
next I have this what I call the
manipulative model because students
actually could take these different
color pipe cleaners and manipulate them
with the hands-on tactile experience and
bend them and shape them and twist them
into any kind of orientation or style or
shape that they wanted to and last I
have what I call the X instant method
which is essentially a combination of
the implicit the video and the
manipulative model approach and one of
the findings for my thesis is that
students that partook in this extensive
approach actually had the highest
learning outcome statistically and
significantly from any other individual
outcome which suggests to us students
learn better in diverse ways but what
does it mean for teachers well we know
that teachers were required to that at
least I taught in the exes and method
were required to teach this implicit
video and manipulative model combination
for you know the next two weeks that
they actually spent on teaching these
diagrams and it turns out that students
actually again did have the highest
learning outcomes which again tells us
that teachers should reach out or at
least attempt to reach students in many
different ways and not only do I have a
personal relationship with this research
because I actually did it but I also
have personal experience with this as a
student myself in high school English
where we learned about rhetorical
devices and I hated it it was the worst
thing because I had no idea why we even
bothered using them in the first place
my teacher got so upset trying to figure
out why is he not getting this but she
actually sat down with me and tried a
couple different approaches one rote
memorization on flashcards which didn’t
work she tried sending me out of the
classroom to find examples in different
textbooks knowing she knew that they
were there but I didn’t know that didn’t
work as well
unfortunately we actually tried picture
Association which well not unfortunately
that actually did work because it worked
in some aspect so when we hear the word
hyperbole we think of it as an
exaggeration for me I think of it as
blowing things out of proportion so
every time I see the word hyperbole or
see something exaggerated I think of
this
tire air pump because also she showed me
and I think of someone pumping a bike
tire so large that it just explodes
because it’s disproportionate or blowing
things out of proportion
and that helped me a lot because she
went above and beyond her call of duty
as a teacher and again she used many
different teaching approaches and the
best teachers use more than just one
approach because they don’t focus on the
different aspects of learning they want
to focus on the bigger picture to get
the best results for their students so
yeah while those students actually learn
better in diverse ways it’s also up to
the teachers to reach the diverse
students by teaching in diverse ways and
you might be thinking to yourself well
that’s great for the classroom Lawson
well I’m not an educator I don’t teach
people but I’m also not a student
because I don’t pay tuition anymore but
I would actually kind of argue that in
one way or another we’re all students
and we’re all teachers because as
students of life we learned
exceptionally well through experiencing
many different things as possible and
learning from those experiences and from
other people also helps us bridge the
difference between us and the people
that we might perceive to be different
than us for example in the summer of
2016 I went on a study abroad trip with
Texas State to Cambodia and during our
free time myself some of the instructors
that are actually out in the audience
with us today and some of the students
actually during our free time went to
eat at a restaurant called the bug cafe
and it is exactly what you know there it
is it’s exactly what you might think it
is it is a restaurant that serves bugs
incorporated into all their meals so
some of the things that I try include
but are not limited to a tarantula
doughnut which is a deep fried whole
tarantula I am not joking
I tried this scorpion salad with
dazzlingly water bugs it was a very big
mental block for me for this one I swear
those scorpions were about this big um I
also tried spring rolls that were extra
crunchy because I had a lot of ants in
them and what I learned that day from
that experience was all some people say
fish are friends not food bugs are not
my friend nor should they ever be
considered food
but essentially I did find common ground
with a man that owned the restaurant
because he moved halfway across the
world from Paris to Cambodia just simply
to reach out and advocate that it’s okay
to include bugs in your diet especially
if you have dietary restrictions non-gmo
this or gluten-free that so it’s okay
for some people that have those things
to eat bugs because they are a renewable
source of protein and while he thinks
they might taste great I don’t think so
but and that experience I was a student
so I was experiencing different things
through eating bugs but in that way I
saw him as a teacher because his
teachers of life we love to share our
ideas and our experience is very much
like what I’m doing on the stage right
now in fact some people might say that
it’s the responsibility of these life
teachers to continuously expose people
to as many different opportunities and
different experiments experiences as
possible a science brain got a switch
and so essentially what that is is we
talked about that in the classroom by
exposing different students at different
methods but we can also take that idea
out of the classroom because as we
continue to expose people the new
experiences we bridge the difference
between what people know and what they
don’t know and I love that because it’s
that aha moment so yeah you are all in a
way students and again you were all in a
way teachers so while the master’s
thesis that I worked on actually help
students understand those three diagrams
that I spoke about earlier I think
there’s also a larger application into a
lot much larger perspective about
diverse experiences so again while those
diagrams represent to us how all things
are related tween each other
biologically and represent biodiversity
I think that learning from the world
around us and from other people around
us helps us better understand the world
around us especially bridging those
differences between what people know and
what they don’t know and from people who
we might receive to be different than us
and this is a picture that is very near
and dear to my heart because these are
some of the Cambodian students that I
helped teach how to teach biology in
Cambodia and that was a very long hike
up to the very very top of that mountain
and that temple but essentially yeah I
prefer showing people and sharing my
experiences through pictures because I
love to take pictures so while you might
say yes a picture is indeed worth a
thousand words for me it’s worth more
than that
a picture is also worth
a thousand experiences thank you
[Applause]
thousand words but for biologists a
picture might also be worth a thousand
years you see scientists use pictures
and diagrams to represent their
understandings of science but when we
use those diagrams that teach in the
classroom those students don’t always
understand those diagrams as intended so
a common diagram that we biologists use
all the time is called the Tree of Life
it represents this foundational concept
in our field that all living things are
related to one another
so take this kind of diagram for example
this was drawn by Charles Darwin during
his famous voyage of the Beagle and
these three diagrams come in many
different shapes sizes colors
orientations they look wildly different
which makes it so difficult for students
to understand these kind of diagrams
what I want you to understand is that
when you look at some kind of teaching
aspect it’s better not to focus on just
one simple aspect but on the larger
diagram because for my master’s thesis I
was extremely interested and how
students understood these diagrams but
also how teachers taught these kind of
diagrams to students because ultimately
we sell ourselves short we when we
attempt to only learn in one way teach
and only one way and experience things
in only one way so what does this mean
for students well we know that incoming
college students have a really hard time
understanding what these diagrams
represent because when they walk into
the classroom they bring with them a
slew of misconceptions that act as
barriers to their understanding and a
couple studies have actually tried to
figure out what kind of approaches are
best for teachers they use to help
students overcome these barriers but
they’re actually very limited because
they only focus on one kind of teaching
approach so here I come to Texas say for
my master’s thesis to not focus on
simply one approach but I focus on four
different one so I’m going to extremely
briefly walk you through what these each
were so what I had first was no
instruction so students that didn’t have
any instruction about trees were
considered my control group next I had
students that experienced some kind of
implicit approach which meant that they
were exposed to these kind of diagrams
and their textbooks and their lectures
but they were not explicitly taught by
their teachers next I have what I call
the video method where students
interacted with an online video or they
point-and-click
learned about each of the different
aspects of the trees and also that there
are so many different ways that these
diagrams are represented it’s from the
tree boom Oregon it’s from the USC joint
session with some kind of museum that’s
also in Southern California and it works
really well I highly recommend it
next I have this what I call the
manipulative model because students
actually could take these different
color pipe cleaners and manipulate them
with the hands-on tactile experience and
bend them and shape them and twist them
into any kind of orientation or style or
shape that they wanted to and last I
have what I call the X instant method
which is essentially a combination of
the implicit the video and the
manipulative model approach and one of
the findings for my thesis is that
students that partook in this extensive
approach actually had the highest
learning outcome statistically and
significantly from any other individual
outcome which suggests to us students
learn better in diverse ways but what
does it mean for teachers well we know
that teachers were required to that at
least I taught in the exes and method
were required to teach this implicit
video and manipulative model combination
for you know the next two weeks that
they actually spent on teaching these
diagrams and it turns out that students
actually again did have the highest
learning outcomes which again tells us
that teachers should reach out or at
least attempt to reach students in many
different ways and not only do I have a
personal relationship with this research
because I actually did it but I also
have personal experience with this as a
student myself in high school English
where we learned about rhetorical
devices and I hated it it was the worst
thing because I had no idea why we even
bothered using them in the first place
my teacher got so upset trying to figure
out why is he not getting this but she
actually sat down with me and tried a
couple different approaches one rote
memorization on flashcards which didn’t
work she tried sending me out of the
classroom to find examples in different
textbooks knowing she knew that they
were there but I didn’t know that didn’t
work as well
unfortunately we actually tried picture
Association which well not unfortunately
that actually did work because it worked
in some aspect so when we hear the word
hyperbole we think of it as an
exaggeration for me I think of it as
blowing things out of proportion so
every time I see the word hyperbole or
see something exaggerated I think of
this
tire air pump because also she showed me
and I think of someone pumping a bike
tire so large that it just explodes
because it’s disproportionate or blowing
things out of proportion
and that helped me a lot because she
went above and beyond her call of duty
as a teacher and again she used many
different teaching approaches and the
best teachers use more than just one
approach because they don’t focus on the
different aspects of learning they want
to focus on the bigger picture to get
the best results for their students so
yeah while those students actually learn
better in diverse ways it’s also up to
the teachers to reach the diverse
students by teaching in diverse ways and
you might be thinking to yourself well
that’s great for the classroom Lawson
well I’m not an educator I don’t teach
people but I’m also not a student
because I don’t pay tuition anymore but
I would actually kind of argue that in
one way or another we’re all students
and we’re all teachers because as
students of life we learned
exceptionally well through experiencing
many different things as possible and
learning from those experiences and from
other people also helps us bridge the
difference between us and the people
that we might perceive to be different
than us for example in the summer of
2016 I went on a study abroad trip with
Texas State to Cambodia and during our
free time myself some of the instructors
that are actually out in the audience
with us today and some of the students
actually during our free time went to
eat at a restaurant called the bug cafe
and it is exactly what you know there it
is it’s exactly what you might think it
is it is a restaurant that serves bugs
incorporated into all their meals so
some of the things that I try include
but are not limited to a tarantula
doughnut which is a deep fried whole
tarantula I am not joking
I tried this scorpion salad with
dazzlingly water bugs it was a very big
mental block for me for this one I swear
those scorpions were about this big um I
also tried spring rolls that were extra
crunchy because I had a lot of ants in
them and what I learned that day from
that experience was all some people say
fish are friends not food bugs are not
my friend nor should they ever be
considered food
but essentially I did find common ground
with a man that owned the restaurant
because he moved halfway across the
world from Paris to Cambodia just simply
to reach out and advocate that it’s okay
to include bugs in your diet especially
if you have dietary restrictions non-gmo
this or gluten-free that so it’s okay
for some people that have those things
to eat bugs because they are a renewable
source of protein and while he thinks
they might taste great I don’t think so
but and that experience I was a student
so I was experiencing different things
through eating bugs but in that way I
saw him as a teacher because his
teachers of life we love to share our
ideas and our experience is very much
like what I’m doing on the stage right
now in fact some people might say that
it’s the responsibility of these life
teachers to continuously expose people
to as many different opportunities and
different experiments experiences as
possible a science brain got a switch
and so essentially what that is is we
talked about that in the classroom by
exposing different students at different
methods but we can also take that idea
out of the classroom because as we
continue to expose people the new
experiences we bridge the difference
between what people know and what they
don’t know and I love that because it’s
that aha moment so yeah you are all in a
way students and again you were all in a
way teachers so while the master’s
thesis that I worked on actually help
students understand those three diagrams
that I spoke about earlier I think
there’s also a larger application into a
lot much larger perspective about
diverse experiences so again while those
diagrams represent to us how all things
are related tween each other
biologically and represent biodiversity
I think that learning from the world
around us and from other people around
us helps us better understand the world
around us especially bridging those
differences between what people know and
what they don’t know and from people who
we might receive to be different than us
and this is a picture that is very near
and dear to my heart because these are
some of the Cambodian students that I
helped teach how to teach biology in
Cambodia and that was a very long hike
up to the very very top of that mountain
and that temple but essentially yeah I
prefer showing people and sharing my
experiences through pictures because I
love to take pictures so while you might
say yes a picture is indeed worth a
thousand words for me it’s worth more
than that
a picture is also worth
a thousand experiences thank you
[Applause]
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