"One of the best things that have happened to me," pre-med student says
Practice group sessions are less formal than lectures. Students sit together at tables, working out problems and sharing their notes.
The dozen students working together in a Rutgers University classroom dream of forging careers in the health sciences. Some want to be physicians. Others are focused on drug development. Among them also are aspiring dentists, physical therapists, and research scientists.
But at the moment, these mostly first-year students are preoccupied with a more immediate goal: Getting through “General Biology,” the demanding School of Arts and Sciences course that draws nearly 2,000 students every year from across Rutgers–New Brunswick.
A long leap past high school biology, "General Biology" is a two-semester sequence of lectures and workshops that’s among the first major hurdles facing students pursuing life sciences.
Christy Beal“It’s pretty wide in scope and takes a lot of work,” says Christy Beal, a teaching professor in SAS’s Division of Life Sciences (DSL). “This is not a course students take for a fun and easy four credits.”
It’s also not a course in which memorizing every body part or process necessarily leads to a good grade.
“A lot of students come in from high school with a powerful skill in memorizing absolutely every piece of minutiae,” Beal says. “But to succeed in General Biology they need the skills to associate those pieces, so they understand what happens when they all work together, or more importantly, what happens when one of those pieces breaks down.”
The good news is that students have a place outside the regular lectures to develop those skills.
Beal oversees General Biology Practice Group, a one-credit elective that began in 2017 as a weekly meetup for students seeking to improve their grades. The program has become one of the fastest-growing initiatives in DSL, drawing about 300 students every semester for small-group sessions led by undergraduates who have already completed General Biology and the practice group option.
Students see practice group classes as much more than review sessions. They’re learning strategies to absorb the vast scope of material.
“I have never seen anything like this with another course,” said Annabella S. La Mantia, a pharmacy student who recently took the practice group. “It’s a really positive experience, and a good grade booster that forces you to stay on top of things, which is critical when you’re a first-year student.”
Elizabeth SleatElizabeth Sleat, an SAS student planning to major in molecular biology and biochemistry, agreed.
“It’s fun and a good way to make friends, but also a way to learn, and hold yourself accountable,” says Sleat, who is considering dental school.
Practice group sessions are less formal than the fast-moving, information-packed biology lectures. Students sit together at tables, working out problems and sharing their notes. In one recent class, Lilia Carnes, the student facilitator, engaged students in a game of biology-themed Jeopardy.
“I walk around (the class) and I present these activities and I pick their brains a bit,” says Carnes, a senior majoring in biological sciences and an aspiring pediatrician. “I make sure that when they are writing something down, they know why they are writing it down.”
In another session, senior Sarah Levin sought to ease her students’ anxiety over the upcoming final.
“You have some time,” Levin tells them. “Start reviewing, start getting ready. I believe in you guys.”
The bulk of practice group is dedicated to the fine art of developing “organizers”—tables and flow charts completed by students that sequence biological processes step by step. For example, an organizer for respiration would chart every step beginning with air passing through the nostrils and ending with the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the lungs.
“What happens with first year students is they read their notes over and over but don’t internalize it,” Beal said. “By pushing them to close their notes and create it on a different piece of paper in proper sequence, they start to study in a different way.”
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Having already taken General Biology, Lilia Carnes is now a facilitator in practice group, helping students learn strategies for success in the course.I had hundreds of organizers when I took General Biology,” Carnes adds.
The approach makes sense to students like Fatima Mohamed, who began practice group last spring after her first semester in General Biology.
“There’s now a set time to sit down and build out the organizers, and that definitely helped me understand the concepts better,” said Mohamed, who is considering majoring in exercise science.
With rave reviews piling up, Beal said she expects the practice group to continue growing.
“I don’t want to see someone who would be an amazing doctor being held back simply because no one taught them the study skills they need to navigate the material,” she said.
Meanwhile, student facilitators like Carnes and Levin say that leading the sessions has been a major learning experience in itself. Each of the facilitators receives special training once a week from DSL.
Levin sees a connection between the way she helps students figure out the material and the way a doctor advises and advocates for their patients.
“This is one of the best things that have happened to me in all of Rutgers, and I don’t say that lightly,” says Levin, who is majoring in cell biology and neuroscience and wants to become a doctor specializing in pain management. “I learned how to study better, and I learned how to help people study better.”
“I know I will be using this throughout my career, for my patients, for everything.”
