From University Park to Tarangire
What happens when the student becomes the teacher?
In a stereotypical classroom, there are clearly defined roles. Usually, lectures and course materials are developed and delivered by a professor, and students listen to lectures and occasionally engage in discussions. However, Leana Topper, teaching professor of biology, has sought to challenge this traditional model.
In her BIOL 497: Wild Nature Institute course, students work with the organization of the same name to develop their own educational materials to be used in schools in Tanzania.
The Wild Nature Institute is an organization that conducts scientific research on endangered wildlife, particularly in Africa, and inspires the public to protect wild nature. In collaboration Monica Bond and Derek Lee, principal scientists at the Wild Nature Institute (WNI), Topper has engaged over 70 students in her course.
“This course provides an opportunity for students that is not typically seen in the biology curriculum,” said Topper. “In the course, students get to design and develop course materials for students in grades K–12.”
Prior to the course being created at Penn State, WNI researchers published the children’s book “The Amazing Migration of Lucky the Wildebeest” in 2015. The book has been translated into English, Maasai — the language spoken by the traditional people living in northern Tanzania — and Swahili — the national language of Tanzania— and tells the tale of Lucky the wildebeest who must travel to find food and water with his mother and friend. For nearly five years, the book had been taught in classrooms in Tanzania to illustrate the importance of wildlife conservation for the ecology and economics of the surrounding region. However, while teaching the book, instructors lacked any additional course materials to deepen the lessons.
Topper’s course at Penn State was first offered in the spring of 2020. Using the story of Lucky and his journey as a starting point, students developed various course materials ranging from crossword puzzles and word searches to picture matching and board games. These activities were designed with the knowledge that students in Tanzania would only have access to paper, glue, tape, and markers.
"The activities [created by the students] are fun and creative and easy to use, while helping kids of many ages to learn about the wonders of wildebeests and migration,” added Velia Makundi, Wild Nature Institute's Tanzanian education coordinator. “Not only did the students in Leana’s class help design new educational activities about wildebeest migration,” said Bond, also an academic affiliate with the Penn State Department of Biology, “but they helped us to quantify the changes in perceptions and knowledge about wildlife based on questionnaires we gave the Tanzanian kids before and after they used our existing materials.”
When Topper offered the course again in 2023, she set out to further meet the needs of the Wild Nature Institute and her students. This time, students worked to develop materials about the plants, animals, and human-wildlife interactions in Tanzania. Many of these student groups also took it upon themselves to not only create course materials in English, but also in Swahili.
Students taking the course not only learned about pedagogy but also were able to creatively apply their lessons to developing course materials.
“What stood out to me most about the class was how hands-on and creative it was,” shared Blake Greenspan, who graduated from Penn State in 2023 with degrees in pre-medicine and bioethics and medical humanities and is currently a medical student in the Penn State College of Medicine. “Instead of just learning from a textbook, we were building things that could make a difference. I loved helping design The Game of WildLife, a board game that lets you ‘be’ a wildebeest on its migration. It was fun and playful but also taught you about the challenges these animals face with predators and finding water. That project showed me how science can be taught in creative ways.”
“We plan to continue using these materials," said Lee, also a former associate research professor of biology at Penn State, "and they are growing in importance as Wild Nature Institute works to safeguard the endangered wildebeest migration routes in the Tarangire Ecosystem.”