When I was an undergraduate the model was very much the path of sit and listen to the faculty member and try to remember everything he said. We didn’t do a lot of group work. I wish I would have. I think I would have learned more and it would have been—I mean, I’m very happy with my undergraduate experience, but looking back and knowing what I do know now, I would have loved to have groups to interact within especially being a chemistry major. When in my dorm, I couldn’t walk down the hall and talk to somebody if I was having a problem, because those were the olden days when there were segregated dorms. Nowadays that’s another nice thing about dorms that have males and females together. They’re even here in Madison and I’m sure lots of other places now, dorms that emphasize community. There is a dorm for women in science, so it makes it very easy then to form these groups even if the class doesn’t make formal groups

Ann Burgess is the Director Emeritus of the Biology Core Curriculum. She earned her B.S. in chemistry from UW-Madison and her Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from Harvard University. She was a Senior Lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1987 to 2002.

Biology Core Curriculum is four semester intercollege honors program that provides a broad and integrated background for students interested in any field of biological science. She is interested in undergraduate science education with a particular accent on laboratory and filed experiences that absorb students in process of science.

Ann Burgess is running in several UW-Madison and national efforts to advance science education, including the BioQUEST Consortium and the National Institute of Science Education's College Level One team.