All posts by cfwest

Teaching as Research

This semester, I – Laura Masur – conducted an educational research project as part of a Teaching as Research (TAR) fellowship, sponsored by the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (CIRTL) at BU. The overarching goal over this program is to teach young academic professionals in STEM fields to be better teachers, using the scientific research process. While archaeology’s place in STEM is undoubtedly up for debate, this was a great opportunity for me to start thinking about the mechanics of teaching. The program provides excellent opportunities to explore recurring trends in classes, in order to improve student learning outcomes.

Masur TAR PosterView Poster: 2016.5.2_TAR_Poster_FINAL

Archaeology professors at BU have observed that students in 300-level classes have difficulty developing research questions and testable hypotheses. Students also encounter problems when connecting technical methods (e.g., the identification and analysis of animal bones) to their broader historical or cultural context in order to draw conclusions from research. This was particularly reflected in final written research reports in AR 308, Archaeological Research Design and Materials Analysis, taught by Catherine West. Others have observed that many archaeology students lack the necessary scientific background for reading primary literature and developing their own research projects (Agbe-Davies et al. 2013:839). Journal club workshops that providing students with the necessary skills for reading and analyzing journal articles have been shown as effective methods for teaching scientific literacy in a classroom setting (Robertson 2012).

For this project, I investigated whether teaching scientific literacy to students using journal articles would more effectively prepare them to develop and carry out independent research projects. Students completed pre-tests and post-tests in the form of journal worksheets (adapted from Robertson 2012), and submitted their own research design in a similar format. Students were also asked to complete an anonymous survey about their experiences learning about research design in the class. I hypothesized that if students are able to develop scientific literacy through reading and evaluating journal articles, they will be able to more readily generate their own research questions and hypotheses, and as a result, more effectively connect their data to broader research themes.

AR 308 worksheetSample worksheet completed by students as a pre-test and post-test for determining scientific literacy (View Worksheet: 308_Worksheet_1 ).

The results of the project surprised me. Post-test values were slightly higher than pre-test values, meaning that students’ ability to read and gather key information from articles increased after related lessons, and the difference between these values was statistically significant (p < .05) when using a paired t-test. Nonetheless, the results of the post-test and the research design were not well correlated (r = .43), suggesting that students who did well on journal article assignments did not always succeed to the same degree when creating their research design. This suggests that learning about research design through related reading (e.g., Booth et al. 2008), primary literature, and class discussion is not sufficient to prepare all students to generate their own research questions and hypotheses.

2016.5.2_Graph_for_blogLine graph showing pre-test, post-test, and research design scores, with slight correlation (n = 7, max score = 24).

Students had neutral to positive reactions to the article worksheet, suggesting that it may serve as a useful learning tool in future classes. Students also agreed that reading primary literature prepared them to develop their own research design, which indicates the importance of this exercise. Additional in-class activities may provide an avenue for students to improve their ability to develop scientific research designs. Future research may establish whether in-class activities, which would guide a student through the process of developing a research design, would help students by simulating the research process. Students could be provided with a research scenario, and work in groups to develop a research design, which they would then present to the class.

References cited

Agbe-Davies, Anna S., Jillian E. Galle, Mark W. Hauser, and Fraser D. Neiman. 2013. “Teaching with Digital Archaeological Data: A Research Archive in the University Classroom.” Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 21 (4): 837–61.

Booth, Wayne C, Gregory G Colomb, and Joseph M Williams. 2008. The Craft of Research. Third edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Robertson, Katherine. 2012. “A Journal Club Workshop That Teaches Undergraduates a Systematic Method for Reading, Interpreting, and Presenting Primary Literature.” Journal of College Science Teaching 41 (6): 25–31.

BU archaeology students in the news

Students in Professor Catherine West's spring course - Archaeology 308: Archaeological Research Design and Materials Analysis - learned to do hands-on archaeological research using collections on loan from the Alutiiq Museum in Kodiak, Alaska. The goal of the course is to give students real archaeological experience as they move on to field school, lab-based research, or employment in archaeology, and to have them think about the application of their data to contemporary people and descendant communities. As a result, our class will be featured in the next newsletter from the Alutiiq Museum, which is seen by museum members around the world!

Ellie #1BU undergraduate Ellie Jordan analyzed the treatment and conservation of prehistoric pottery from Olga Bay, Alaska through consultation with conservators at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Photo by Michael Hamilton.

In the spring semester 2016, students worked in lab groups to generate research questions and hypotheses, to analyze archaeological material, and to present this material in a group presentation and individual, formal lab reports. Students focused on understanding parts of the changing Alutiiq identity and history, prehistoric people's use of the environment, and their food ways in both the historic and prehistoric periods. From analyzing lithic and pottery assemblages, faunal material, historic sources and oral histories, and legal issues, students generated a variety of creative and thoughtful research projects.

IMG_2034AR308 students learn to flintknap and grind stone with BU graduate student Justin Holcomb. Photo by Peri Tur.

Building Collections at the Zooarchaeology Lab

My name is Laura Masur and I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Archaeology at Boston University. This year I am managing the Zooarchaeology Lab for my graduate fellowship. I work closely with Professor Catherine West to keep the lab running: this involves working with students who are sorting fauna or researching class projects, facilitating communication among lab members, and making sure collections and archaeological samples stay organized.

Blog1_Photo1Since fall of 2015, we’ve been working on building the Zooarchaeology Lab’s comparative and teaching collections. This process involves sorting older collections housed in the department, and adding new specimens to the collection.

We first had to sort the old collections. Some boxes contained complete skeletons that were identified to species. We were able to incorporate these specimens into our comparative collection, in order to identify faunal samples from archaeological sites. Other boxes contained skeletons or crania with missing or non-specific taxonomic identification. Still more boxes contained old archaeological samples without context information. Because we don’t know the provenience or taxonomic identification of these bones, they are most suitable for our teaching collection.

Blog1_Photo2We also found some pretty wild things in the old collections. Some of our favorites were owl pellets, a mummified mouse, tiny bones stored in cigarette, cream cheese, and Laughing Cow cheese boxes, and a vial labeled “flamingo tongue.” (Never fear: this was not a flamingo’s tongue, but a species of sea snail!) Professor West was partial to the desiccated Sturgeon, wrapped in 1980s newspaper in a gift box.

Over the past few years, we have been working with Professor Jonathan Bethard and Dr. Tom French of the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife to acquire and process new specimens for our comparative collections. These animals met their unfortunate ends of natural causes or under veterinary care, and ended up at the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife in Westborough, Massachusetts. We let nature “render skeletons” for us, and bring the bones back to the lab. Our students and volunteers diligently wash these skeletons, and label them with a zooarchaeology lab or “ZL” number.

Blog1_Photo3While each specimen in the comparative collection is housed in its own box, the teaching collections are organized by element. This way, students learning a specific element will be able to examine inter-species variations in that element.

Blog_1_Photo4We plan to continue this process until we have a good selection of animal species, useful for both research and teaching purposes. Please be in touch if you have animals we could use!

 

Newsmakers

We have finally made it. Stars were born. Our celebrity is on the rise.

We are proud to announce that the Community Archaeology project - including the fabulous BU crew - was featured on Anchorage's KTVA Frontiers program this past weekend. We were interviewed about the archaeological site and the museum work we have been doing, and we got our University's participation a little press!

Click here to enjoy the show.

UAA grad student Alexandria made the cut!

Happy as a clam! Falling in love with Kodiak Island.

Christine Bassett joins us from the University of Alabama’s Department of Geological Sciences, where she is a graduate student. Check out the Aleutian Islands Working Group feature on her research here.

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Christine with her clam harvest

As a geologist, I am studying how butter clam (Saxidomus gigantea) shell chemistry and growth might help archaeologists to take a peek at past environmental conditions in the North Pacific Ocean. Clams are sensitive to changes in water conditions, and they record these changes in their shells – so the shells in archaeological sites around Kodiak may be the key to understanding ancient environments! I came to Kodiak, Alaska to collect live butter clams from several sites, and I will look for differences in how the shells are growing in each location.

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Archaeological butter clam from the Uyak Site on Kodiak Island.

I grew up in central Georgia, so before coming to Kodiak I had never been clamming. I knew the types of environments where butter clams are most likely to grow and I knew how to identify butter clams, but finding them was a challenge. During my week on Kodiak, I learned by making connections and working with clamming veterans from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the University of Alaska. At low tide, they showed me how to dig and then rake back the sand and gravel to uncover groups of clams…and eventually I collected more than 120 clams in just three beach visits! I also took temperature and salinity measures at each site so I can connect the shell growth to the environmental conditions.

DSCN3468I will take these clams back to the University of Alabama, where I’ll analyze them over the next year. My fieldwork on Kodiak has been a huge success, and I can’t wait to come back to this spectacular place.