As a biology teacher, you face many challenges to get your students to successfully pass tests and finish labs. Statistics show many STEM students never finish their declared majors. One estimate has nearly half either dropping out without a degree, or taking a degree in a different field. This, to me, is unacceptable.
Some of the problems stem from the outmoded student STEM textbooks we use. For instance:
- The long revision cycles make them outdated the moment they are published
- They include reams of material never assigned by the professor
- They’re so expensive that many students skip buying them
For the past two years, my JoVE colleagues and I have been working on an answer.
Video: Answer To Struggling Students
We created JoVE Core: Bio to meet these textbook-related problems head-on. Students can use it as a dynamic supplement or as a complete replacement for a static textbook. It’s already been tested in top flight schools. At St. John’s University in New York, 85% of the Core testing students preferred it to their assigned textbook.
We made Core to have a broad appeal. Among Core’s pluses, it:
- Is highly affordable/accessible — The school pays for the subscription, meaning students of all financial means can use it at no cost to them, helping to level the academic playing field.
- Is designed for closed captioning
- Empowers individual students — Because Core is multimedia-based, students focus on the information that matters in the multimedia format they prefer.
- Offers a breadth of biology content — With 450 videos, there is something applicable to virtually all biology undergrads that can help them in their studies.
- Connects ideas to lab realities — Core makes the concepts come alive so that students can easily take the ideas right to the lab and see how they work concretely.
Do you want to see a change in results? Then talk to us about a trial.