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Articles 1 - 15 of 15
Full-Text Articles in Biology
Engaging Students Equitably In Biological Systems Modeling, Sowmya Anjur
Engaging Students Equitably In Biological Systems Modeling, Sowmya Anjur
Faculty Publications & Research
It has been my goal as an educator to engage students in meaningful and innovative assessments that are hands-on, engage their creativity and improve their interdisciplinary understanding. At the same time, the engagement need to be equitable as well, to recognize each student for their individuality and creativity. To this end, I created my Pathophysiology course with the objective of teaching students how to model biological systems. The course is a one semester course that is based on homeostasis maintenance in the body and how homeostatic disruptions result in symptoms of pathologies. Students are required to understand how homeostasis is …
Diversity And Equity During Covid 19: An Analysis Of Student Attitude And Understanding In Pathophysiology, Sowmya Anjur
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.
Adaptations Of The Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy In Response To Covid-19, Sowmya Anjur, Dave Devol
Adaptations Of The Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy In Response To Covid-19, Sowmya Anjur, Dave Devol
Faculty Publications & Research
No abstract provided.
Graphic Novels In Biology – A Novel Assessment Idea, Sowmya Anjur
Graphic Novels In Biology – A Novel Assessment Idea, Sowmya Anjur
Faculty Publications & Research
Galileo once said, “You cannot teach a man anything, you can only help him find it within himself.” (Goodreads, 2020). I have often pondered upon how best I could use this advice. I have been an educator for 24 years and have loved every minute of it. During this time, I have seen students of all cadres come and go, but they all have one thing in common - their innate fear of written assessments. In general, students in high school tend to have a different perspective on education than their adult counterparts - they tend to procrastinate, are usually …
Collaboration And Inquiry For The Science Classroom, Jessica Amacher, Sarah O'Leary-Driscoll, Crystal Randall
Collaboration And Inquiry For The Science Classroom, Jessica Amacher, Sarah O'Leary-Driscoll, Crystal Randall
Faculty Publications & Research
Science is a collaborative endeavor, where most of the significantly influential advances are achieved by groups of scientists working together across varying institutions and disciplines. To reflect this, we should offer opportunities for our students to learn, research, and communicate with their peers. In this workshop, we share models that we have found successful for designing opportunities, as well as ideas for topics that promote real world application and cross disciplinary work for students, drawing from our experiences with the International Student Science Fair and other international strategies. We will help interested teachers in developing their own working groups to …
Environmental Impact- Using Digital Media To Focus Student Learning, Crystal Randall, Sowmya Anjur, Donald Dosch
Environmental Impact- Using Digital Media To Focus Student Learning, Crystal Randall, Sowmya Anjur, Donald Dosch
Faculty Publications & Research
Environmental issues are global challenges that our students will have to address in their future. Addressing these issues through curriculum helps bring purpose to students’ learning. We have developed a capstone project in our introductory biology class that allows students to engage in these issues in a creative and personalized manner, and which asks students to not only address the biology at the core of these issues but also suggest possible solutions to the problem. In this session, we will share how we scaffold our curriculum to prepare students for this experience, as well as show examples of student work.
Engaging Students In Fundamental Biological Concepts Through Un Sustainability Goals, Sowmya Anjur, Donald Dosch
Engaging Students In Fundamental Biological Concepts Through Un Sustainability Goals, Sowmya Anjur, Donald Dosch
Faculty Publications & Research
Advanced Biological Systems is year-long introductory biology course for Juniors at IMSA. It is aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development goals, the use of which has been identified as an initiative for curriculum development. These goals help to bring purpose to students’ learning. We have identified three of the seventeen goals as guideposts for our curriculum. These are clean water and sanitation, sustainable cities and communities, and good health and well-being. In this presentation, we will share our curriculum development process and examples of instruction linked to these UN goals.
Innovations In High School Physiology: The Arduino Heart Rate L.E.D Monitor, Sowmya Anjur
Innovations In High School Physiology: The Arduino Heart Rate L.E.D Monitor, Sowmya Anjur
Faculty Publications & Research
Physiology and Disease (PAD) is a Biology elective at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, Aurora, Illinois, which is a residential magnate school for students gifted in math and science. My PAD class is based upon student centered learning which has proven to be the best way to challenge students to take responsibility for their own learning. Students spend the most time on the cardiovascular unit, wherein they measure their heart rates, lung capacity and blood pressure before, during and after exercise, correlating their data to their understanding of neuronal controls. Students also build a working model of the mechanical …
Addressing Misconceptions About Evolution, Sarah O'Leary-Driscoll, Don Dosch
Addressing Misconceptions About Evolution, Sarah O'Leary-Driscoll, Don Dosch
Faculty Publications & Research
"Leave with effective ways to identify and address misconceptions about evolution, with a particular focus on supporting explanations with evidence."
Successful Inquiry Based Activities In High School Physiology, Sowmya Anjur
Successful Inquiry Based Activities In High School Physiology, Sowmya Anjur
Faculty Publications & Research
Physiology and Disease students at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in Aurora employ inquiry driven activities to improve their understanding and articulation of the discipline. Students make heart models and make correlations with heart rate, lung capacity and blood pressure measurements. Students seemed to gain a better understanding of the cardiovascular unit as reflected in their heart unit assessment scores.
Engaging Students In Current Topics: Ecosystem Disruption, Sarah O'Leary-Driscoll
Engaging Students In Current Topics: Ecosystem Disruption, Sarah O'Leary-Driscoll
Faculty Publications & Research
One of the most compelling aspects of studying biology is that it has immediate relevance to the world around us. It is the study of life, which can give us amazing insight into how we as organisms work as well as our place in Earth’s ecosystem. This second point is especially crucial for our students to understand, as the Earth is in many ways in a state of ecological crisis. Ecosystems across the globe are changing, often as the result of human influence, and an understanding of the causes and effects of these changes is essential for our students, especially …
Understanding The Neuronal Controls Behind Heart Rate And Respiration, Sowmya Anjur
Understanding The Neuronal Controls Behind Heart Rate And Respiration, Sowmya Anjur
Faculty Publications & Research
Students in the course Physiology and Disease at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy learn physiology by designing, executing and evaluating their own experiments based on evidence. This semester, students designed laboratory experiments that involved the use of the same type of exercise to increase both heart rate and respiration rate. Students will collect quantitative data from these experiments to make conclusions regarding the correlation of heart rate and respiration rate. This will be followed by student research into the neuronal controls in the brain that were responsible for these correlations.
Integrating Quantitative Experiments Into The Physiology Classroom, Sowmya Anjur
Integrating Quantitative Experiments Into The Physiology Classroom, Sowmya Anjur
Faculty Publications & Research
Physiology and Disease is a student led inquiry based class at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, where students design and execute their own experiments and analyze their data based on the evidence they have gathered. Student surveys have also indicated the need for more quantitation in lab experiments. To accommodate all these issues, several changes are being implemented into the course in an effort to allow students to identify the role of the neuronal controls for parameters such as blood pressure and heart rate, and to understand better how they work in concert. A new project (construction of a …
Integration Of Student Centered Physiology Learning Into Related High School Science Courses, Sowmya Anjur
Integration Of Student Centered Physiology Learning Into Related High School Science Courses, Sowmya Anjur
Faculty Publications & Research
Student centered teaching was previously found to enhance student understanding and even improve performance of students in other courses taken in the same semester in high school (6). In an effort to improve student performance in related science classes, the same student centered methods used in my Physiology and Disease (PAD) class were implemented in a Biophysics class this semester. Initial student surveys showed that students felt that integrating physiology concepts into Biophysics helped them understand the material from two very different perspectives, giving them a "more complete picture". Test scores from each of the four units were compared in …
Reconnecting The Sciences, John Eggebrecht, Raymond Dagenais, Don Dosch, Norman J. Merczak, Margaret N. Park, Susan C. Styer, David Workman
Reconnecting The Sciences, John Eggebrecht, Raymond Dagenais, Don Dosch, Norman J. Merczak, Margaret N. Park, Susan C. Styer, David Workman
Faculty Publications & Research
During the last three years at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, we have been working on a partial reconstruction of Whitehead's "one subject matter," a course reconnecting biology, chemistry, earth and space sciences, and physics into an Integrated Science program.