In my course responsibilities, Therapeutic Drug Management I and II, students must apply mathematical models to develop appropriate drug dosing recommendations for patients. However, students often have difficulty knowing how or where to begin. These forensic cases seem to lead the students more naturally to what they need to do to problem solve. Science instruction is especially well suited to inquiry and problem-solving. PBL has been used at Samford to guide non-science majors in learning of the basics of the scientific methods and important principles in physics, astronomy, chemistry, and biology.
Students also learn the unique approaches to address problems used by scientists.
Additionally, students learn how scientific results are presented, how science is funded, and how science influences lives. Problems in the course are written to engage students in the process of posing questions and seeking answers from the appropriate resources.