Generative artificial intelligence is changing how faculty in the College of Natural Science are teaching. Professor Melanie Cooper is developing her own AI-powered chatbot to give students instant, detailed feedback on homework—and eventually, on exams. She’s reshaping her courses to focus on deep thinking, challenging students to make meaningful connections rather than simply reciting answers they could find using tools like Microsoft Copilot or ChatGPT. Traditional multiple-choice exams rarely help develop those skills. In large introductory courses, though, they’ve often been the only practical option—until now.
Cooper and other faculty in the College of Natural Science are embracing generative AI as a transformative force in education. They’re rethinking their teaching strategies to emphasize problem-solving and conceptual understanding over rote memorization.
Some see this technology as the spark students need to shift their focus—from chasing grades to truly engaging with the material through critical thinking and deep learning. In coding courses, for example, students aren’t just learning how to write code. They’re also being taught how to craft effective prompts to generate code using AI, and how to critically evaluate and debug the results.
Read the entire article by Bethany Mauger at: https://natsci.msu.edu/news/2025/2025-03-from-chemistry-to-coding-ai-tools-enhance-learning-at-college-of-natural-science.aspx
