Engaging Students in a Soils Discussion.

In Spring 2017, we integrated a series of active learning techniques into our soil science (n=126) and forest soils (n=34) courses. These activities were tied to the course learning objectives and included: group drawing exercises (e.g., the nitrogen and water cycles, soil moisture instruments, and clay minerals); immediate feedback assessment technique, iterative worksheets (e.g., micro/macro nutrients, calculations); demonstrations; and games (e.g., matching and trivia with electronic buzzers). Multi-colored pens were used to identify individual (blue), group (green), and class (red) responses/contributions on key in-class activities. iClicker questions were used to assess student understanding in lecture. This effort was coordinated across 2 lectures, 6 instructors, and 11 weekly recitation sections. Our goal was to assess whether these techniques would be well received by students and whether they felt the new approaches aided in the learning. At the end of the semester, anonymous assessments using a Likert scale were administered to assess students’ perception of the individual exercises/approaches, their learning experience and perceived achievement, and recommendations for course improvement. Overall, the students enjoyed the activities (89.6% ± 6.8, depending on the exercise in question) with more (92.5% ± 4.8) reporting that the activities contributed to their learning. Differences were noted across instructors (3.8% ± 1.2) and courses (3.4% ± 2.3) but did not change the overall trend.