Sally Hoskins knows a thing or two about science. The college professor is changing the way students are learning about it, too, with a new teaching approach she is advancing to other educators with help from the National Science Foundation.

A professor at City College of New York, Hoskins and grant project partner Leslie Stevens of the University of Texas-Austin bring science journal articles to class instead of those heavy textbooks that rip out backpack seams.

"It's the language of science. It's what scientists read," said Hoskins, a member of Professional Staff Congress, representing CUNY faculty and professionals.

She is working to inspire more American college students to go into research science, including medical research.

Hoskins has students read several papers published by the same lab group over an extended period. This helps them understand methods and systems, and see the evolution of an experiment.

When completing an article analysis, students often form mock grant panels to vote on what merits funding and what experiment they would choose as a follow-up. For instance, what would the next experiment be in this study of nerves in frogs? Then they're presented with the actual next experiment performed.

At the end of a project, students write to paper authors for inside information about their lives as working scientists, both personal and professional.

Hoskins and Stevens were awarded grants to train and track faculty in using their new methods.

Their how-to pivots on a method called CREATE, asking students to Consider, Read, Elucidate the hypothesis, Analyze and interpret the data, and Think of the next Experiment. This step-wise approach helps students to read the papers using newly developed pedagogical tools.

They make concept maps (not outlines) to brainstorm topics around the experiments in the journal articles. These are then organized in clusters around the related topic.

They must sketch cartoon diagrams of the experiments, and match methods used to data represented in the papers. Students must determine which hypothesis the lab groups were testing.

Transparent

"Fundamentally, it's very transparent, the way experimental science works. All of your findings are there for the public to see. Other scientists can build on results," Hoskins said. "It's like going to a restaurant and having a great chef give you a recipe, or having a fashion designer give you a pattern."

Students become scientific sleuths looking at data, examining whether the authors are pushing an interpretation.

"It's kind of empowering for students to notice, 'What have I been accepting at face value?'" she said.

"I expected they had a theory, they proved that theory, that's it," said one student evaluation. "Now I see it's more like a blind person placed in a room and trying to feel around as to what they think a structure may be."

Hoskins provides redacted versions of journal articles, with key details missing, to keep the Internet-savvy students from taking shortcuts and going right to the article summaries. The result is a richer scientific education.

Next fall, she will create a workshop modeling her methods for college science faculty in the area.

Hoskins has even applied her research methods to the PSC - she served last year as a co-grievance counselor for City College, developing hypotheses to address health and safety issues.

- Liza Frenette