PS 69-124
Simulation of fish schooling behavior to teach antipredator tactics in an animal behavior classroom
There has been a recent shift in the college lecture classroom away from standard lecture practices to interactive methods in order to engage the students in the subject matter. Most educators are willing to use hands-on activities, but it is difficult to find a balance between such activities and providing foundational subject information. The use of an interactive lecture with multiple traditional and modern components may achieve this balance. To this end, I presented an interactive lecture to two different senior-level animal behavior classes. Antipredator behavior is composed of multiple strategies, and lends itself well to classroom activities. Although it is possible for students to simply memorize antipredator behavior tradeoffs, experiencing them firsthand through a simulation activity may guide them to identify the tradeoffs on their own. This interactive lecture was composed of a PowerPoint presentation with videos, a student simulation of fish schooling behavior, and group discussions. The students rated their level of engagement in material and identified their favorite components of the lecture in a survey using a Likert scale. I expected to find that students were more interested in the material after the simulation activity, and that they would prefer the activity to the PowerPoint lecture.
Results/Conclusions
The first class indicated a high level of agreement with the statement that the lecture encouraged them to think (average Likert score: 4.24, with maximum of 5) and indicated great interest in having more activities like the fish schooling simulation (Likert score: 4.18). They expressed greatest interest in several components, with the activity (42%), videos (26%), or both (19%) as the most frequently cited items. Few students indicated preference for the PowerPoint presentation lecture (8%). Conversely, students in the second class showed a lower level of perceived engagement (Likert: 4.08) with decreased interest in additional activities (Likert: 3.83). These students indicated the greatest interest in the PowerPoint lecture examples (37%) and videos (33%), with reduced interest in the activity (25%). Although the majority of the students reacted positively to the interactive lecture, it seems that student engagement can be achieved by simply incorporating videos into the lecture instead of a full behavior simulation. Elaborate activities require more planning and class time, but may not be required to achieve greater engagement. Future research should measure the impacts of these interactive methods on learning and retention to further understand the role of these teaching strategies in ecology education.