The belief that new roles for the students imply new roles for the faculty is fundamental to this project. Accordingly, as the course was being designed and taught project staff worked to foster a teaching culture in the department. Workshop Biology reverses the proportions of laboratory and lecture time, so that students spend only an hour and a half each week in lecture, and four hours per week in the laboratory. Instruction centers on open-ended, investigative activities for re latively small groups. Each term, laboratories revolve around one of two general workshop themes such as human genetics or the biology of cancer.
Students choose one workshop or the other at the beginning of the term.
Lectures are replaced by assemblies, which all students attend together. Assemblies include special presentations and small group activities, and give students the opportunity to generalize abstract concepts from their concrete workshop experiences, to link important ideas, and to discuss the implications of their knowledge. These activities are often designed to confront the fundamental misconceptions about the natural world that many students share. Investigative activities, which emphasize the skills and attitudes necessary for scientific inquiry and an understanding of current scientific controversies. Students design, conduct, and evaluate studies, and present their findings in writing.