MULTI-CAMPUS DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF PROBLEM-BASED-LEARNING COURSES IN ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY WITH INTERDISCIPLINARY LEARNING

摘要

The project described here began with a civil engineering and biology laboratory research collaboration that ultimately led to educational research about course development and pedagogy. The laboratory research was centered on genetically engineered organisms for contaminant tracking, and it soon became apparent that neither students from civil engineering nor biology had the requisite backgrounds to work on this type of project without some supplementary tutoring. As a result, a team-taught environmental biotechnology (EB) course was piloted that was cross-listed between the two departments, and although it was satisfactory, it suffered some deficiencies because it was difficult to find the right content balance between the two disciplines. At about the same time, two sister institutions were also expanding their biotechnology offerings. North Carolina State University had just hired a new civil engineer with expertise in molecular biology who was developing new courses; and at UNC-Pembroke, a variety of bioprocess equipment had been donated, leading to interest there in designing a new biotechnology curriculum track. As we tweaked our course design, there was a sense that efforts were being duplicated and that there was a missed opportunity to capitalize on the collective expertise of the faculty at each institution. Further, there was a realization that the phenomenon of simultaneous development of similar courses at sister campuses in response to emerging disciplines likely was being played out in many other multi-campus university systems.