Team-based learning (''TBL'') is an instructional process that this course has been using for 25 years. TBL has caught the attention of educators since 2000 as an effective method of improving student engagement and retention of learning. While possibly just a fad among professors, professional schools such as the University of Nevada School of Medicine have extensively adopted TBL into their curricula for educating doctors and nurses. View the team-based learning presentation to the Med School located here.

Team-Based Learning takes place through a number of steps that we will execute on the first or second day of class, and then at each class meeting throughout the semester:

1. Students study assigned materials before class.
2. Instructor assigns each student to a team- at the start of the semester. Each Lab Section will have its own set of teams.
3. In class, knowledge of assigned materials is tested with quiz questions. For each question:

a. First each student answers the question alone.

b. Then each team discusses the question.

c. All teams in the room show their answer simultaneously.

d. The instructor asks teams to explain why they chose their answers.

e.The instructor discusses the correct answer and receives any challenges on its correctness or the quality of the question.

1. The instructor gives a more difficult exercise to the teams, for group completion, simultaneous response, and class discussion. In this class, these will be the Lab sessions.
2. Occasionally during the semester, each student will write anonymous peer evaluations of each of their team members. Each student gets part of their participation score on the basis of the quality of the comments they write about other team members. Students will see, anonymously, what their team members write about them, but those comments will not affect their own grade.