Biology Commons^™

Greta Thunberg: A Small But Mighty Voice For The Environment, Madilyn Mortelliti

Faculty Curated Undergraduate Works

Abstract

This research paper discusses Greta Thunberg and the impact she has as a climate change activist. Thunberg faces many challenges as a young woman, but overcomes these difficulties while encouraging others to follow in her footsteps. She presents herself as a positive role model for younger generations. Thunberg has many accomplishments as an extremely young woman that leads to her global iconicity. She makes her power known in front of the highest ranked men in the world which forces legislation to make a change. Thunberg motivates others to make a difference before all hope is lost.

Understanding Differences In Underrepresented Minorities And First-Generation Student Perceptions In The Introductory Biology Classroom, Jacob Jantzer, Thomas W. Kirkman, Katherine L. Furniss

Biology Faculty Publications

We used quantitative methods to better understand the perceptions of students in an introductory biology course (Biology 101) at a small, liberal arts college (SLAC) that is also a primarily white institution (PWI). In pre/post surveys, we asked students questions related to their attitudes and beliefs about their professor, classmates, and Biology 101. We were especially interested in the responses and outcomes of underrepresented minorities (URM) and first-generation (FG) students. Our findings suggest URM and FG students have a decreased sense of belonging and increased perceptions of exclusion and differential treatment due to race. These findings can explain, in part, …

A Resource For Understanding And Evaluating Outcomes Of Undergraduate Field Experiences, Erin E. Shortlidge, Alison Jolley, Stephanie Shaulskiy, Emily Geraghty Ward, Christopher N. Lorentz, Kari O'Connell

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Undergraduate field experiences (UFEs) are a prominent element of science education across many disciplines; however, empirical data regarding the outcomes are often limited. UFEs are unique in that they typically take place in a field setting, are often interdisciplinary, and include diverse students. UFEs range from courses, to field trips, to residential research experiences, and thereby have the potential to yield a plethora of outcomes for undergraduate participants. The UFE community has expressed interest in better understanding how to assess the outcomes of UFEs. In response, we developed a guide for practitioners to use when assessing their UFE that promotes …

The Bioinformatics Virtual Coordination Network: An Open-Source And Interactive Learning Environment, Benjamin J. Tully, Joy Buongiorno, Ashley B. Cohen, Jacob A. Cram, Arkadiy I. Garber, Sarah K. Hu, Arianna I. Krinos, Philip T. Leftwich, Alexis J. Marshall, Ella T. Sieradzki, Daan R. Speth, Elizabeth A. Suter, Christopher B. Trivedi, Luis E. Valentin-Alvarado, Jake L. Weissman, Bvcn Instructor Consortium

Faculty Works: Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Studies

Lockdowns and “stay-at-home” orders, starting in March 2020, shuttered bench and field dependent research across the world as a consequence of the global COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic continues to have an impact on research progress and career development, especially for graduate students and early career researchers, as strict social distance limitations stifle ongoing research and impede in-person educational programs. The goal of the Bioinformatics Virtual Coordination Network (BVCN) was to reduce some of these impacts by helping research biologists learn new skills and initiate computational projects as alternative ways to carry out their research. The BVCN was founded in April …

Teaching Muscle Function And Physical Fitness: An Afterschool Program For Elementary Schools, Julianna Peters

Honors Theses

For this creative project, a nine-week club curriculum about muscle function and exercise was designed for upper elementary students (4^th-6^th grade), integrating science and physical education. This curriculum aims to introduce students to a basic understanding of muscle function and their body utilizing a scientific lens while also encouraging movement through the education of different muscle groups. It principally covers the three types of muscle with an emphasis on skeletal muscles. Students engage in experiments and activities focused on different aspects of muscle function and then do exercises focused on certain muscle groups. Additionally, it aims to …

Up And Atom, Emily Plotnik, Elizabeth Struwe

Honors Expanded Learning Clubs

"Up and Atom" is a hands-on and creative afterschool club geared towards fourth and fifth graders. Through conducting a variety of science experiments, the goal of this club is to inspire a creative and immersive perspective of the sciences for the younger generation.

Roles Matter: Graduate Student Perceptions Of Active Learning In The Stem Courses They Take And Those They Teach, Lorelei E. Patrick, Leigh Ann Howell, Everett William Wischusen

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Despite many calls to reform undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education to incorporate active learning into classes, there has been little attention paid to graduate level classrooms or courses taught by graduate students. Here, we set out to understand if and how STEM graduate students’ perceptions of active learning change in the classes they take versus those they teach. We found that graduate students had taken relatively few graduate level classes using active learning and they felt that more time should be devoted to active learning in the courses they were taking. Teaching assistants felt that they were …

Influence Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Amphibian Road Mortality, Gregory Leclair, Matthew H. Chatfield, Zachary Wood, Jeffrey Parmelee, Cheryle A. Frederick

Teaching, Learning & Research Documents

The COVID-19 pandemic and its related human activity shutdowns provide unique opportunities for biodiversity monitoring through what has been termed the “anthropause” or the “great human confinement experiment.” The pandemic caused immense disruption to human activity in the northeastern United States in the spring of 2020, with notable reductions in traffic levels. These shutdowns coincided with the seasonal migration of adult amphibians, which are typically subject to intense vehicle-impact mortality. Using data collected as part of an annual community science monitoring program in Maine from 2018 to 2021, we examined how amphibian mortality probabilities responded to reductions in traffic during …

Using A Self-Determination Theory Approach To Understand Student Perceptions Of Inquiry-Based Learning, Fangfang Zhao, Gillian Roehrig, Lorelei E. Patrick, Chantal Levesque-Bristol, Sehoya Cotner

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Inquiry-based laboratory activities, as a part of science curricula, have been advocated to increase students’ learning outcomes and improve students’ learning experiences, but students sometimes struggle with open-inquiry activities. This study aims to investigate students’ perceptions of inquiry-based learning in a set of laboratory activities, specifically from a psychological (i.e., Self-Determination Theory) perspective. Students’ ratings of the level of inquiry in these activities indicate that students’ perceptions of inquiry align with the instructor-intended amount of inquiry in each exercise. Students’ written responses, explaining their ratings, indicate that students’ perceptions of the amount of inquiry in a given lab exercise relate …

Student Perceptions Of Authoring A Publication Stemming From A Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience (Cure), Ashley N. Turner, Anil K. Challa, Katelyn M. Cooper

Research, Publications & Creative Work

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) engage students in authentic research experiences in a course format and can sometimes result in the publication of that research. However, little is known about student-author perceptions of CURE publications. In this study, we examined how students perceive they benefit from authoring a CURE publication and what they believe is required for authorship of a manuscript in a peer-reviewed journal. All 16 students who were enrolled in a molecular genetics CURE during their first year of college participated in semistructured interviews during their fourth year. At the time of the interviews, students had been authors …

Persistent Miscalibration For Low And High Achievers Despite Practice Test Feedback In An Introductory Biology Course, Jennifer L. Osterhage

Biology Faculty Publications

Students' ability to accurately judge their knowledge is crucial for effective learning. However, students' perception of their current knowledge is often misaligned with their actual performance. The relationship between learners' perception of their performance and their actual performance on a task is defined as calibration. Previous studies have shown significant student miscalibration in an introductory biology course: students' predicted exam scores were, on average, significantly higher than their actual scores. The goal of this study was to determine whether completion of a practice test before exams would result in better performance and calibration. The hypothesis was that students who completed …

Characterizing Biology Education Research: Perspectives From Practitioners And Scholars In The Field, Jeremy L. Hsu, Audrey Chen, Eduardo Cruz-Hinojoza, Duyen Dinh-Dang, Elizabeth A. Roth-Johnson, Brian K. Sato, Stanley M. Lo

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Biology education research (BER) is a recently emerging field mainly focused on the learning and teaching of biology in postsecondary education. As BER continues to grow, exploring what goals, questions, and scholarship the field encompasses will provide an opportunity for the community to reflect on what new lines of inquiry could be pursued in the future. There have been top-down approaches at characterizing BER, such as aims and scope provided by professional societies or peer-reviewed journals, and literature analyses with evidence for current and historical research trends. However, there have not been previous attempts with a bottom-up approach at characterizing …

Development Of An Online General Biology Open Educational Resource (Oer) Laboratory Manual, Dmitry Y. Brogun, Azure N. Faucette, Kristin Polizzotto, Farshad Tamari

Publications and Research

Currently, many academic institutions are using one or more variations of online modalities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and science educators face a unique challenge with distance-learning laboratories. Many resources to engage students in virtual, interactive laboratory activities exist, but we found that high costs and/or overlooked content left gaps for several topics typically taught in a general, introductory biology course for undergraduate biology majors (e.g., organismal biology). Additionally, resources for an online lab must be identified and curated from multiple sources, requiring intense demands on the instructors’ time. To meet this need and to overcome the financial burden of …

Graduate- And Undergraduate-Student Perceptions Of And Preferences For Teaching Practices In Stem Classrooms, Ngawang Gonsar, Lorelei E. Patrick, Sehoya Cotner

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Despite positive evidence for active learning (AL), lecturing dominates science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) higher education. Though instructors acknowledge AL to be valuable, many resist implementing AL techniques, citing an array of barriers including a perceived lack of student buy-in. However, few studies have explored student perceptions of specific AL teaching practices, particularly the perceptions of graduate students. We explored student-reported instructional strategies and student perceptions of and preferences for a variety of teaching practices in graduate and undergraduate classrooms across three STEM colleges at a large, public, research university. We found that both graduate and undergraduate students desired …

Proteomic Analysis Of Alzheimer's Disease, Grace Reynolds

Celebration of Scholarship 2021

The use of public Alzheimer’s Disease proteomics data to analyze the difference between asymptomatic Alzheimer’s Disease and symptomatic Alzheimer’s Disease as it relates to disease progression and underlying disease processes.

Black Apollo Of Science: The Life Of Ernest Everett Just - Summarizing Timeline, Sumitography And Concept Poster, Lillie R. Jenkins

Perkins Faculty Research and Special Events

This two-part chronology is based on Kenneth R. Manning’s biography, Black Apollo of Science: The Life of Ernest Everett Just (1983). Like other such timelines, this one details Just’s life and pioneering research work. Additionally, and distinctively, this timetable lays out Just’s pioneering fund-seeking and his work mentoring African American female co-researchers (Part 1). A sumitography featuring the United States Postal Service’s postage stamp (1996) recognizes Just’s innovative thinking in biology (Part 2). Following this logic, the author includes a proof-of-concept poster commending E.E. Just’s work as a forward-thinking administrator. This timeline summarizes, chronicles, and aims to re-frame Just’s …

Prosody And Attachment In Possessive Structures, Elizabeth Keeton, Katy Carlson

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Oral Presentations

In this project, we are studying the effect that prosodic boundaries and accent location have on attachment in an ambiguous phrase like “the daughter of the pharaoh’s advisor.” Under high possessive attachment, the phrase could mean, “There’s a daughter of the pharaoh, and we’re talking about her advisor.” If there is low possessive attachment instead, the phrase could be understood as, “There’s a pharaoh’s advisor, and we’re talking about his/her daughter.” In an auditory questionnaire, participants will listen to 24 dialogues, with the phrases preceded by the question “Who was it?” We placed contrastive accents on the first noun (“the …

Factors For Success In Rural Tourism: A Case Study Of Eastern Kentucky, Bethany Allen, Vijay Subramaniam

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Oral Presentations

This research study examines the variables of tourism that influence a traveler’s decision when traveling in Eastern Kentucky, specifically Morehead, Kentucky. Morehead is a destination with great potential to be built into a prominent location for tourism in Kentucky. To best understand the potential of the area, the resources available and the existing tourism locations were accessed to build the foundation of this project. Successful tourism destinations around the state of Kentucky have been assessed to determine what factors contribute to their success as well as what tactics/resources the businesses use to draw people in. In comparison to successful tourism …

Factors Associated The Underrepresentation Of Female Head Coaches In Intercollegiate Athletics, Chloe Whitlock, Steve Chen

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Oral Presentations

Past studies had shown the underrepresentation of females in the coaching profession. The purpose of this study was to examine the contributory factors to the underrepresentation of female head coaches in intercollegiate athletics. To further examine this issue, two studies were conducted to examine the perceptions of 124 current NCAA Division-I athletic coaches and 163 high school educators. Based on collegiate coaches’ responses, the factor analysis identified four important constructs that contribute to the success of female coaches’ job obtainment. According to the results of the second study, the high school educators (n = 163) believed there were gender biases …

What’S The Buzz?, Christine L. Moskalik

Teacher Resources

Read more: Moskalik, C. (2021). What’s the Buzz? A hands-on, interdisciplinary, & FUN way to learn about circuits, energy, engineering, bee communication and pollination. Science and Children. National Science Teaching Association. Volume 58 (Issue 5). May/June 2021.

Decade Long Monitoring Of Active Galactic Nuclei With Swift, Tithi Patel, Dirk Grupe

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Oral Presentations

I will report decade-long monitoring campaigns with the NASA Neil-Gehrels Swift mission of about 100 Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). Swift has started with monitoring some AGN since 2005. This long-term monitoring project has enabled us to catch AGN in extreme high and low X-ray flux states allowing to trigger follow-up observations by XMM-Newton, NuSTAR, HST. While this program has led in the past to at least one trigger per year, no AGN was found with extreme variability. I will also give a brief overview of the causes of this extreme variability.

A Mathematical Model Of Pancreatic Cancer Growth And Response To Treatment, Allison Cruikshank

Honors Theses

Pancreatic cancer is one of the leading causes of death due to cancer in the United States. Analyzing the effects of radiation is extremely valuable in determining when a patient is allowed surgical resection, which is, presently, the only potentially curative treatment for pancreatic cancer. This study examines pancreatic tumor growth and shrinkage to predict tumor response and change of resectability for pancreatic cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy. This is done using ordinary differential equations as a mathematical model. Mathematical models have increasingly been applied to various biological systems/processes to analyze the principles involved. In our project, a population dynamical …

Promoting Academic Integrity And Student Learning In Online Biology Courses, Jeremy L. Hsu

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an abrupt shift in biology courses, with many transitioning to online instruction. This has led to an increased concern about academic integrity and cheating in online courses. Here, I draw upon the peer-reviewed literature to provide evidence-based answers to four questions concerning cheating and online biology courses: (i) What types of cheating are prevalent with the shift to online instruction? (ii) Should instructors make assessments open book and open notes? (iii) How does cheating occur in biology lab courses? (iv) Finally, what strategies can biology instructors take to uphold academic integrity with online learning? I …

Building Excellence In Scientific Teaching: How Important Is The Evidence For Evidence-Based Teaching When Training Stem Tas?, Lorelei E. Patrick, Hillary A. Barron, Julie C. Brown, Sehoya Cotner

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Evidence-based teaching practices (EBTP)—like inquiry-based learning, inclusive teaching, and active learning (AL)—have been shown to benefit all students, especially women, first-generation, and traditionally minoritized students in science fields. However, little research has focused on how best to train teaching assistants (TAs) to use EBTP or on which components of professional development are most important. We designed and experimentally manipulated a series of presemester workshops on AL, dividing subjects into two groups. The Activity group worked in teams to learn an AL technique with a workshop facilitator. These teams then modeled the activity, with their peers acting as students. In the …

Diversity And Equity During Covid 19: An Analysis Of Student Attitude And Understanding In Pathophysiology, Sowmya Anjur

Faculty Publications & Research

To increase student engagement and reduce frustration over grades, data is being collected in my Pathophysiology classes on specific assessment questions which require students to think and apply what they have learned to answer assessment questions (“transfer” questions). These questions are being administered both before and after students have completed specific modules to assess their attitude and understanding of the material. Data is also being collected on student study habits before and after specific assessments for correlation with their scores on “transfer” questions. It is hoped to reduce student frustration over grades by analyzing their behavior and improving their understanding.

The Great Water Design Challenge: A Noaa Planet Stewards And Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy (Imsa) Collaboration, Elizabeth Martinez

Publications & Research

Through generous NOAA Planet Stewards funding, schools in the Northern Illinois area had the unique opportunity to participate in a one-day design challenge that focused on local and state environmental issues. Student teams, which ranged from fifth grade through high school, engaged in research and design thinking to create innovative responses and solutions to address their selected water challenge. Subject matter experts were available, both virtually and in person, for questions, conversations, and insights as teams worked. Simultaneously team sponsors engaged in their own professional development related to the NOAA Planet Stewards Program. Students showcased their work at the end …

The Crazy Critter Club - Lesson Plans, Caitlin Flynn Copenhaver, Audrey Anderson

Honors Expanded Learning Clubs

This curriculum covers the lesson plans for the 2021 "Cool Critter Club". It is focused on teaching students about animals and the environment, especially at a local level. This club engages students through the use of games, art, and spending time outside.

Aprendizaje Activo Y Pedagogía Culturalmente Relevante En Stem: Tres Lecciones Aprendidas Dentro Y Fuera Del Aula, Teresa Patricia Feria-Arroyo

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Uno de los mayores desafíos en la ciencia, la tecnología, la ingeniería y la educación matemática (STEM, por sus siglas en inglés) es mejorar el rendimiento y la retención de estudiantes de diversos orígenes. Existen grandes diferencias entre los logros académicos de los estudiantes de minorías subrepresentadas (EMS) con aquellos que no pertenecen a estas minorías. Las diferencias inician desde el kínder y continúan hasta los estudios de posgrado. El aprendizaje activo y la pedagogía culturalmente sensible/relevante han mostrado resultados exitosos minimizando estas diferencias educacionales. Desafortunadamente, el aprendizaje activo y la pedagogía culturalmente relevante no son métodos comunes de enseñanza …