Promoting Interdisciplinary Learning: A Cross-Course Assignment for Undergraduate Students in Advanced Biology and Drawing Courses.

INTRODUCTION

Creativity, keen observation, continual experimentation, and collaboration are critical characteristics that define success in both biology and art disciplines, albeit enunciated from the divergent epistemologies of these fields. Given that future scholars in both fields—and indeed any member of the future workforce who will seek solutions to societal problems—would need to integrate strategies from varied perspectives, we were inspired to develop a cross-course assignment that provides an opportunity to hone such skills. Our goal was to broaden students’ horizons through participation in an interdisciplinary assignment that required biology students to be immersed in art making and for art students to be engrossed in discussions about fundamental concepts in biology. The idea was to provide an opportunity for both cohorts to think about how best to visually articulate the encounter of art and biology such that it would engage and educate the public. We hypothesized that our students would value the concepts and methods of each other’s scholarly disciplines as they worked collaboratively in interdisciplinary teams. We hope this assignment will be of interest to other educators, especially given that a single joint assignment, as described here, provides a gentle foray into interdisciplinary teaching.

PROCEDURE

The assignment, entitled Morphology and the Body, was the product of significant collaboration between instructors of advanced Cell Biology (BIOC10H) and advanced Drawing (VPSC55H) courses at the University of Toronto Scarborough. Students worked in groups composed of a ratio of about 2:1 of biologists to artists (based on course enrollments). We asked students to focus on a biological process involving the human body where morphology or evolution takes place, or movement or transformation. We advised students to feel free to include low relief elements of collage and to use color and/or black and white elements. Art students were asked to include at least two media that the Drawing class had explored that term, with the final project being approximately the size of a grown person. Students were asked to focus on textural mark making and how to embody the drama of change within the biological microcosm of the body. Biology students were asked to consider why a specific biological process is relevant and important for communication to the public. Why would it induce curiosity? Students were urged to move beyond the idea of creating a simple scientific illustration, the likes of which you find in biology textbooks and instead consider creative ways to portray a biological concept that would leave an impression on the public.

Together, they would decide which biological process to develop (biology students led this) and which drawing strategies to incorporate (drawing students led this). However, the idea was to have everyone in each group fully engage in the creation of art that would invoke the curiosity of the public about a fundamental process of life.

The learning goals for this assignment were:

Develop communication skills, including the use of artistic expression, to communicate with those entirely outside your field.

Practice keen observation skills.

Build teaching skills, particularly of discipline-specific techniques.

Expand knowledge of art materials and their creative use.

Contribute effectively to groups and provide constructive criticism to peers.

Logistics of the assignment

The courses were timed to have a common two-hour session each week that allowed the two groups of students to come together, if necessary. In addition, we used a merged Blackboard site dedicated to this assignment as our primary platform for resources and communications. The teaching assistant for the biology course provided significant contributions to the flow and logistics of the project.

The biology course instructor randomly assigned two to four biology students to the project groups. The art instructor was familiar with the majority of her students and assigned two students to each group, ensuring that each group had at least one student with strong leadership qualities. The leaders were outgoing students who were paired by the art instructor with shy students, the idea being that the shy students would feel supported by the extroverted art companion and consequently feel more confident in expressing their opinions. There was no evidence that any one student dominated a collaborative group. Students completed self and peer evaluations at the end of the term, in which they evaluated whether everyone had done a fair share of the work, contributed ideas, and considered the ideas of others. The evaluations confirmed that all groups functioned effectively.

Students felt that it was instructive to design the art to include modular elements that each group member could do on their own. This minimized the time they ultimately required to put the final artwork together. Each group also negotiated pooling their funds to cover the cost of art materials. The art students made art store trips to purchase supplies. In a couple of teams, biology students joined in on art store treks to learn about details such as the specific weights of paper.

Appendix 1 includes all assignment information, instructions, scaffolding, and deliverables. Figure 1 summarizes the timeline and deliverables aligned with the learning outcomes (LOs).

FIGURE 1

Assignment timeline and structure. The assignment was implemented over a 12-week semester. Student groups were required to meet in class in Weeks 2, 8, and 11 and were encouraged to meet weekly outside of class. LO = learning objective.

The assignment was valued at 10% of the final course grade in each of the biology and art courses.

CONCLUSION

Samples of student work in the assignment are in Appendix 2. Students completed reflections as part of this assignment; many described navigating differences in schedules and priorities and making new friends. Some biology students described initial struggles to communicate with art students but learned to better explain biological concepts to non-experts. This quote from a biology student beautifully articulates how the interdisciplinary nature of this assignment provided them with a unique learning experience.

For example, we described an important step of the pathway, such as the exit of modified proteins, via vesicles, from the Golgi apparatus to the plasma membrane of the cell. Unexpectedly, the art students visualized this function as a conveyer belt used for moving objects from one place to another. To my surprise, the input from the art students on their understanding about the biological process of the secretory pathway further enhanced my knowledge and understanding as well. (Biology student)

The art students also enjoyed collaborating with students from another discipline and masterfully communicate their learning gains, as in this quote:

The Morphology and the Body project was a great learning experience, especially bringing to light the importance of collaboration and stepping out of your comfort zone. It was a fun experience to interact with the students from the biology department and be able to build relationships with them, comparing and contrasting the way our programs work. At first, there was a little bit of miscommunication because the language used by the bio students was foreign to us art students and vice versa. This issue allowed us to navigate and problem-solve language in different ways to allow for a better collective understanding of the processes on both sides. I learned a lot about myself, including my ability to take leadership and [to] work … with different people. (Art student)

The reflections suggest that bringing students together ensured key moments of learning, metacognition and a positive outlook toward diverse perspectives. They suggest that students shifted their expectations and interest in academic disciplines beyond their primary area of study. We believe this is important to producing well-rounded graduates who appreciate disciplinary differences and can use reasoning strategies from within and outside of their disciplinary foci. Interestingly, arts-based learning in medical curricula results in improvements to observation skills and being open to others’ perspectives (1, 2). Our insights reinforce the need to support interdisciplinary learning in undergraduate education and aligns with calls for integrating art and science education, specifically (3, 4).

Click here for additional data file.