Students worked together in groups to research a particular topic within aerobiology. They created slides to address specific prompts I asked them. They presented their mini-lectures to the whole class. This activity came about toward the end of the semester when social distancing restrictions were easing up and I noticed that participation in class was decreasing. The activity's goal was to give students an opportunity to engage with one another and equip them with skills to research and verbally communicate scientific topics. In the SRTEs, many students stated that they enjoyed working on the aerobiology presentations and would like to have done more collaborative activities in class.
I used depth of knowledge style study guides where I listed topics students were expected to know at different levels. I did not include questions in the first study guide but observed that students did not perform as well as I had expected. Students did not engage as much in the first general review session, where they could ask me questions about the course material. Therefore, I decided to include ten questions (not used in the exam) in the second study guide and have students form groups to answer the questions together. They received participation points if they submitted their study guides with the questions answered. In the SRTEs, several students indicated that they preferred this method of reviewing course material over a general review session.
