Class E

 Class E was a two-hour, stand-alone laboratory class in which students

participated in laboratory exercises. Content of the course entailed structure, nutrition and

growth of microorganisms. The students were also required to write reports discussing

the findings of laboratory exercises. The course was mandatory for all students wishing to

take advanced courses in the Department of Microbiology and Cell Science.

 The faculty member of Class E was a 54 year-old female. She had 23 years of

teaching experience at the college level; however she had no prior teaching experience at

any other level. The faculty member insisted that instruments were to be administered

during class, but completed outside of class time. Students were asked to bring completed

instruments to the next normally scheduled class meeting time. The faculty member did

not provide extra-credit for students participating in the study.

 There were three sections of Class E, each taught by the faculty member with one

syllabus. Each section consisted of 35 students of which 16 responded in each section.

The three sections were combined to form Class E with a total of 48 student respondents.

Among respondents, 97.9% (n=47) were full-time students with one student reporting as

part-time. Female students held the majority (77.1%, n=37) with males making up 22.9%

(n=l 1) of the class.

 There were 18 academic majors reported in Class E, of which only four

constituted more than 10% of the group. Those academic majors were nutritional science

(18.8%, n=9), microbiology (14.6%, n=7), animal biology (12.5%, n=6) and biology

(12.5%, n=6).

 Student age in Class E was bimodal with 14 students (29.2%) being 21 years of

age and 22 years of age. Three students (6.3%) were 19 years old and two students