LSI biologist wins major teaching grant

U-M cell biologist Daniel Klionsky has been named a Distinguished Teaching Scholar by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and awarded $305,000 over four years to improve how introductory biology is taught at Michigan.

Klionsky is a charter faculty member of the Life Sciences Institute and a professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology and biological chemistry.

Klionsky

He has been teaching an innovative honors-level introductory biology course to U-M undergraduates without using a textbook or lectures.

The NSF grant will fund a pilot in applying the same methods to a non-honors introductory biology course and measuring the outcomes.

Rather than assigning readings and lecturing over the same material in class, Klionsky expects his students to have read some notes he provides before each class session. Each meeting of the class features a short quiz, some discussion, and some problem-solving activity, often in small groups. Biology is a hands-on, problem-solving experience, so he teaches it that way, Klionsky explains.

"I love teaching this course," Klionsky says. "What we cover in introductory biology are things every educated person should know. Basic biology is so important in our lives."

Klionsky's colleague, John Schiefelbein, who teaches the 500-student introductory biology course in the traditional way, says he and others on the U-M biology faculty will look for ways to incorporate more of the experiential approach in their classes.

"I sat in on Dan's experiential learning class and was impressed by how students work together to solve problems and use the concepts in new ways," Schiefelbein says.

When he's not teaching, Klionsky is a leading researcher who uses baker's yeast to understand some of the basic machinery of a living cell. Though much simpler than mammalian cells, yeast uses many of the same basic processes. "These are things that worked, and throughout evolution, they were conserved," he says.

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