Donald P. French, Professor. Science Education, Behavioral Ecology, Fish, Invertebrates.   Ph.D., 1985, Indiana University Phone: 405-744-9690 Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Curriculum Vitae

Specific Interests

The focus of my scholarly activities at OSU has been on the impact of technology and methods of instruction on student attitude and performance. This work involves developing multimedia exercises, tutorials, and computer-controlled instruments or applying different methodologies and testing their impact on students in the lecture, in the laboratory, or on the internet through surveys, test scores, interviews or observations, particularly in introductory biology. I am interested in mentoring students whose interest is in teaching and doing research on teaching at the college level. My more "traditional" research interest, generally, has been in the proximate and ultimate causation of behavior, in particular agonistic behavior in fish and foraging behavior in crustaceans. Currently, my students are investigating students’ misconceptions in genetics at various points in college and factors affecting podcasting as a teaching tool in biology.

Selected Publications

• French, D. P. (2007). Finding time through specialization. Journal of College Science Teaching. 36 (3): 70-71.
• French, D. P. (2006). iPods: Informative or Invasive. Journal of College Science Teaching 36 (1): 58-59.
• French, D.P. (2006). Animating Your Lecture. In Leonard, W. and J. Mintzes, eds. Handbook of College Science Teaching. NSTA Press, Arlington, VA. pp. 223-232.
• French, D.P. and C. P. Russell. (2006). Converting Laboratories from Verification to Inquiry. In Leonard, W. and J. Mintzes, eds. Handbook of College Science Teaching. NSTA Press, Arlington, VA. pp. 203-212.
• French, D. P. (2006). Don’t Confuse Inquiry and Discovery. Journal of College Science Teaching 35(6):58-59.
• French, D.P., K. McBee, M. Harmon, and D. Swoboda. 2003. Digital and analog video equipment as assistive technology in dissection-intensive labs: its potential benefits to students with disabilities. American Biology Teacher 65(9):634-641.
• French, D. P. and C. P. Russell. 2002. Do graduate teaching assistants benefit from teaching inquiry-based laboratories? Bioscience. 52(11): 1036-1041.