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Biology education

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Full-Text Articles in Education

Exploring The Impact Of Subject Placement On Exam Questions​, Briana M. Craig, Jeremy L. Hsu May 2024

Exploring The Impact Of Subject Placement On Exam Questions​, Briana M. Craig, Jeremy L. Hsu

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Quizzes and exams are crucial elements of undergraduate biology courses; however, little research has been done exploring the importance of the phrasing used in the questions on these assessments. Question framing has the potential to impact student performance and sense of belonging greatly. In this study, we conducted an experiment where we created three versions of the exact same question except for the framing for the experimental scenarios. One version was written with self-referential framing using the term “you,” simulating the student conducting the experiment; another version used classmate-referential framing, placing one of their peers in the experiment; the third …


Transitioning Cell Culture Cure Labs From Campus To Online: Novel Strategies For A Novel Time, Jaime L. Sabel, Kendra Wright, Jacob J. Adler, Gary Bates, La Shall Bates, Sumali Pandey, Amanda M. Simons, Sarah J. Swerdlow, Nathan S. Reyna, Lori Hensley Mar 2021

Transitioning Cell Culture Cure Labs From Campus To Online: Novel Strategies For A Novel Time, Jaime L. Sabel, Kendra Wright, Jacob J. Adler, Gary Bates, La Shall Bates, Sumali Pandey, Amanda M. Simons, Sarah J. Swerdlow, Nathan S. Reyna, Lori Hensley

Articles

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) provide a way for students to gain research experience in a classroom setting. Few examples of cell culture CUREs or online CUREs exist in the literature. The Cell Biology Education Consortium (CBEC) provides a network and resources for instructors working to incorporate cell-culture based research into the classroom. In this article, we provide examples from six instructors from the CBEC network on how they structure their cell-culture CUREs and how they transitioned the labs to online in the spring semester of 2020. We intend for these examples to provide instructors with ideas for strategies to …


Gene Expression And Data Analysis Pipeline Using Cancer Bioportal In The Classroom, Chassidy N. Barnes, Blake P. Johnson, Stefanie W. Leacock, Ruben M. Ceballos, Lori L. Hensley, Nathan S. Reyna Mar 2021

Gene Expression And Data Analysis Pipeline Using Cancer Bioportal In The Classroom, Chassidy N. Barnes, Blake P. Johnson, Stefanie W. Leacock, Ruben M. Ceballos, Lori L. Hensley, Nathan S. Reyna

Articles

At institutions with an emphasis on authentic research experiences as an integral part of the biology curriculum, COVID created a huge challenge for course instructors whose learning objectives were designed for such experiences. Moving such laboratory experiences online when remote learning became necessary has resulted in a new model for CUREs that utilizes free online databases to provide not only a novel research experience for students, but also the opportunity to engage in big data analysis. Cancer BioPortal (cBioPortal) is an open-access collective cancer research resource for storing and exploring clinical, genomic, proteomic, and transcriptomic data. cBioPortal eliminates the computational …


Combined Srl-Based Cognitive-Motivational Modules Increase Undergraduate Biology Grades, Jennifer G. Cromley, Tony Perez, Avi Kaplan, Ting Dai, Kyle Mara, Michael J. Balsai Jan 2019

Combined Srl-Based Cognitive-Motivational Modules Increase Undergraduate Biology Grades, Jennifer G. Cromley, Tony Perez, Avi Kaplan, Ting Dai, Kyle Mara, Michael J. Balsai

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Students’ success in undergraduate STEM courses requires effective study strategies, but also the motivation to enact them, drawing on two key tenets of Self-Regulated Learning. Interventions designed to promote students’ achievement and retention in STEM have commonly focused on either cognition or motivation. Building on Pintrich’s (2000) SRL framework, we iteratively-developed and tested the effect of different combinations of one of four cognition-focused with one of three motivation-focused intervention modules. Initial development took place in 2015-2016 and post-iterative experiments occurred in 2017. Participants were 3,092 undergraduate introductory biology students tested in 10 studies at 3 universities over 4 academic years. …


The Basic Competencies Of Biological Experimentation: Concept-Skill Statements, Nancy Pelaez, Trevor Anderson, Stephanie M. Gardner, Yue Yin, Joel K. Abraham, Edward Bartlett, Cara Gormally, Jeffrey P. Hill, Mildren Hoover, Carol Hurney, Tammy Long, Dina L. Newman, Karen Sirum, Michael Stevens Jan 2016

The Basic Competencies Of Biological Experimentation: Concept-Skill Statements, Nancy Pelaez, Trevor Anderson, Stephanie M. Gardner, Yue Yin, Joel K. Abraham, Edward Bartlett, Cara Gormally, Jeffrey P. Hill, Mildren Hoover, Carol Hurney, Tammy Long, Dina L. Newman, Karen Sirum, Michael Stevens

PIBERG Instructional Innovation Materials

This biological experimentation competencies map is a model created by members of the ACE-Bio Network of seven areas a competent biologist calls in when doing experimentation in biology. Each competency is represented by a summary word on a uniquely colored segment of the model. For presentation convenience, the seven major areas within experimentation in biology are mapped onto tables in a linear manner. However, this is not meant to convey a particular order that one must follow during experimentation. The areas are given equal weight and flexible order of their use throughout the process of experimentation. This work is meant …


Model Of The Use Of Evolutionary Trees (Muet), Yi Kong, Trevor Anderson, Nancy Pelaez Aug 2015

Model Of The Use Of Evolutionary Trees (Muet), Yi Kong, Trevor Anderson, Nancy Pelaez

PIBERG Instructional Innovation Materials

This Glossary is intended for both teachers and their students who are learning about evolutionary trees. To improve K-14 teachers’ and students’ as well as non-biology major undergraduate students’ understanding of trees, the Model of the Use of Evolutionary Trees (MUET) was developed based on professional biologists’ use of evolutionary trees in their scientific publications in 2012-2013. Definitions of terminology in this Glossary are referenced to published literature listed at the end of this Glossary. In addition to the Glossary and the MUET in html format, below as an additional link to a file giving you the Glossary in MSWord …


Assessing Current Instructional Practices In General Biology One (Bio1010) And Arguing For A Model-Centered Curriculum, Seth Manthey Jan 2015

Assessing Current Instructional Practices In General Biology One (Bio1010) And Arguing For A Model-Centered Curriculum, Seth Manthey

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This collected papers dissertation focused on the argument for the need to adapt and develop a model-centered General Biology I course through the analyses of current instructional practices at a large, public, Hispanic-serving university. This dissertation included a comparison of General Biology I course sections taught in two differing formats, one is a traditional lecture with face-to-face meetings and the other is an online instruction setting. The comparison of these sections was accomplished through the use of a conceptual inventory, student attitude survey, drop-fail-withdraw (DFW) rates, and Social Network Analysis. This comparison found that there was no detectible significant difference …


Case Study: From Gummy Bears To Celery Stalks: Diffusion And Osmosis, Kevin M. Bonney Jul 2014

Case Study: From Gummy Bears To Celery Stalks: Diffusion And Osmosis, Kevin M. Bonney

Publications and Research

The article describes a case study which interperses information on diffusion and osmosis with content review and knowledge application questions, as well as simple experiment that can be conducted without the use of a laboratory. Topics discussed include biological membranes, the use of gummy bears to demonstrate osmosis and osmosis in animal cells. Also mentioned is osmosis in plants. It notes that the case study was developed for use in an introductory undergraduate biology course.


Development Of The Biology Competencies Assessment Series (Bcas), Michelle K. Smith Apr 2013

Development Of The Biology Competencies Assessment Series (Bcas), Michelle K. Smith

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This project is supporting a workshop to convene biology education researchers to plan out the development and validation of a Biology Competencies Assessment Series (BCAS). The BCAS will consist of several multiple-choice and short-answer questions validated by students and designed to evaluate student progress on learning biology concepts and achieving the competencies recommended in "Vision and Change: A Call to Action." In particular, the workshop is bringing together Principal Investigators of both new and established TUES projects related to developing assessment tools to address effectiveness of instruction.

Intellectual merit: The project provides the opportunity for experts in biology educational research …


Species Shout-Outs From Abdul To Zebra: Encouraging Nonmajors To Communicate In The Biology Classroom, Christina P. Colon Dec 2012

Species Shout-Outs From Abdul To Zebra: Encouraging Nonmajors To Communicate In The Biology Classroom, Christina P. Colon

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.


Redesigning Introductory Biology: A Proposal, Eileen Gregory, Craig Lending, Amanda N. Orenstein, Jane P. Ellis May 2011

Redesigning Introductory Biology: A Proposal, Eileen Gregory, Craig Lending, Amanda N. Orenstein, Jane P. Ellis

Faculty Publications

With the increasing complexity and expansion of the biological sciences, there has been a corresponding increase in content in the first-year introductory biology course sequence for majors. In general this has resulted in courses that introduce students to large amounts of material and leave little time for practicing investigative science or skill development. Based on our analysis of data compiled from 742 biology faculty at a variety of institutions across the United States, we verified that there is strong agreement on the content appropriate for introductory biology courses for majors. Therefore, we propose that faculty teaching these courses focus primarily …


The Future Of Natural Selection Knowledge Measurement: A Reply To Anderson Et Al. (2010), Ross Nehm, Irvin Sam Schonfeld Jan 2010

The Future Of Natural Selection Knowledge Measurement: A Reply To Anderson Et Al. (2010), Ross Nehm, Irvin Sam Schonfeld

Publications and Research

The development of rich, reliable, and robust measures of the composition, structure, and stability of student thinking about core scientific ideas (such as natural selection) remains a complex challenge facing science educators. In their recent article (Nehm & Schonfeld 2008), the authors explored the strengths, weaknesses, and insights provided by a detailed exploration of three commonly used measures of student thinking about natural selection in a large sample of underrepresented minority students. One of their core findings was that all of the tools they studied--including the CINS--have strengths and weaknesses that must be carefully taken into consideration by those …


Measuring Knowledge Of Natural Selection: A Comparison Of The C.I.N.S., An Open-Response Instrument, And An Oral Interview, Ross Nehm, Irvin Sam Schonfeld Jan 2008

Measuring Knowledge Of Natural Selection: A Comparison Of The C.I.N.S., An Open-Response Instrument, And An Oral Interview, Ross Nehm, Irvin Sam Schonfeld

Publications and Research

Growing recognition of the central importance of fostering an in-depth understanding of natural selection has, surprisingly, failed to stimulate work on the development and rigorous evaluation of instruments that measure knowledge of it. We used three different methodological tools, the Conceptual Inventory of Natural Selection (CINS), a modified version of Bishop and Anderson's (Bishop and Anderson [1990] Journal of Research in Science Teaching 27: 415-427) open-response test that we call the Open Response Instrument (ORI), and an oral interview derived from both instruments, to measure biology majors' understanding of and alternative conceptions about natural selection. We explored how these instruments …


Does Increasing Biology Teacher Knowledge Of Evolution And The Nature Of Science Lead To Greater Advocacy For The Teaching Of Evolution In Schools?, Ross Nehm, Irvin Sam Schonfeld Jan 2007

Does Increasing Biology Teacher Knowledge Of Evolution And The Nature Of Science Lead To Greater Advocacy For The Teaching Of Evolution In Schools?, Ross Nehm, Irvin Sam Schonfeld

Publications and Research

This study investigated whether or not an increase in secondary science teacher knowledge about evolution and the nature of science gained from completing a graduate-level evolution course was associated with greater preference for the teaching of evolution in schools. Forty-four precertified secondary biology teachers participated in a 14-week intervention designed to address documented misconceptions identified by a precourse instrument. The course produced statistically significant gains in teacher knowledge of evolution and the nature of science and a significant decrease in misconceptions about evolution and natural selection. Nevertheless, teachers' postcourse preference positions remained unchanged; the majority of science teachers still preferred …


Does Increasing Biology Teacher Knowledge Of Evolution And The Nature Of Science Lead To Greater Advocacy For The Teaching Of Evolution In Schools?, Ross Nehm, Irvin Sam Schonfeld Jan 2007

Does Increasing Biology Teacher Knowledge Of Evolution And The Nature Of Science Lead To Greater Advocacy For The Teaching Of Evolution In Schools?, Ross Nehm, Irvin Sam Schonfeld

Publications and Research

This study investigated whether or not an increase in secondary science teacher knowledge about evolution and the nature of science gained from completing a graduate-level evolution course was associated with greater preference for the teaching of evolution in schools. Forty-four precertified secondary biology teachers participated in a 14-week intervention designed to address documented misconceptions identified by a precourse instrument. The course produced statistically significant gains in teacher knowledge of evolution and the nature of science and a significant decrease in misconceptions about evolution and natural selection. Nevertheless, teachers' postcourse preference positions remained unchanged; the majority of science teachers still preferred …


Techniques Utilised To Incorporate Environmentally Focused Service Learning Projects Into Courses In Biology And Economics, Bridget Lyons, Jennifer Mattei, Phyllis Machledt Jan 1999

Techniques Utilised To Incorporate Environmentally Focused Service Learning Projects Into Courses In Biology And Economics, Bridget Lyons, Jennifer Mattei, Phyllis Machledt

WCBT Faculty Publications

Sacred Heart University has emphasised the use of service learning for over five years. Service Learning offers students opportunities to learn and develop through active participation in service experiences that are integrated into the academic curriculum. The work meets community needs and is directly linked to the content of the course. A Service Learning course includes reflection and analysis of the service experience. Two recent courses at Sacred Heart University incorporated environmentally focused service learning projects: one in biology and one in economics. This paper discusses the development and outcomes of these two projects: a park restoration project and a …