Contact: Leah Barbour
Photo by: Beth Wynn
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Examine the fossilized rock. Observe it; then sketch it. Describe the fossils on paper. Analyze and interpret where the sample may have come from and how old it may be.
Each week of the 2014 fall semester, students in Renee M. Clary's principles of paleobiology course at Mississippi State University completed this type "paleo-write" assignment as they learned about fossil structure, classification and distribution.
The associate professor of geosciences rewrote the course syllabus during the summer to incorporate writing-to-learn strategies when Clary trained in MSU's Maroon Institute for Writing Excellence, an annual three-week professional development workshop.
Clary's paleontology class is yet another MSU course not traditionally associated with writing now using writing to reinforce class concepts. The course has become part of the Maroon & Write quality enhancement plan to improve student writing at MSU.
Students agreed the writing-centered assignments helped them learn and retain the concepts Clary presented.
"The paleo-writes helped me see the big picture, and the repetition of concepts really helped me learn," said senior Marvin Kunath of Brandon, a geosciences/professional geology major. "If I work somewhere and my bosses want me to turn in a report or write a grant, I have to be able to do it in a professional way, and this class showed me how to do that.
"I'm sure I'll be writing after I graduate and get a job."
During the fall semester, Kunath and his classmates completed 13 paleo-write assignments, and they wrote, edited and submitted summary papers about their respective research projects. In the formal reports, worth 20 percent of the final grade, students reconstructed past Mississippi environments based on fossil observations, illustrations, descriptions, analyses and interpretations.
Regan Byrd of Florence, another senior geoscience/professional geology major, said every writing assignment directly related to the concepts she, Kunath and other students were reviewing.
"Dr. Clary did a really good job of teaching us and pushing us toward more writing," Byrd said. "She did a good job of making the assignments apply, so when it was time for tests and the big paper, it helped us and we were ready. We did a lot of work, but we didn't always notice."
Like Kunath, Byrd said she expects to write scientific reports when she joins the professional workforce. In fact, writing was one of her responsibilities as an intern at Neel-Schaffer, a major engineering firm based in Richland.
Byrd said writing in Clary's class gave her more confidence in her abilities.
"I had comments on my evaluation saying, 'This is the best class I've ever taken,'" Clary said. "I've started using writing-to-learn strategies in my other classes, as well.
"Once you see your students' learning progression, you become an advocate for Maroon & Write," she said.