Improving an Upper Level Biology Course

This paper critically examines the place of traditional lectures within the context of an upper level biology course in an increasingly technological large American university. We examined a professor's effort to improve his course by incorporating weekly student presentations. This organizational change in the course resulted in the removal of about one-third of the content previously covered. The presentations were successful at engaging students, but additional pedagogical changes were identified that may improve student engagement. Our results suggested that knowing content is necessary but not sufficient to keep students engaged and explain complex biology content in an understandable fashion.