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Articles 1 - 8 of 8
Full-Text Articles in Higher Education
Community-Derived Core Concepts For Neuroscience Higher Education, Audrey Chen, Kimberley A. Phillips, Jennifer E. Schaefer, Patrick M. Sonner
Community-Derived Core Concepts For Neuroscience Higher Education, Audrey Chen, Kimberley A. Phillips, Jennifer E. Schaefer, Patrick M. Sonner
Biology Faculty Publications
Core concepts provide a framework for organizing facts and understanding in neuroscience higher education curricula. Core concepts are overarching principles that identify patterns in neuroscience processes and phenomena and can be used as a foundational scaffold for neuroscience knowledge. The need for community-derived core concepts is pressing, because both the pace of research and number of neuroscience programs are rapidly expanding. While general biology and many subdisciplines within biology have identified core concepts, neuroscience has yet to establish a community-derived set of core concepts for neuroscience higher education. We used an empirical approach involving more than 100 neuroscience educators to …
Navigating The “Covid Hangover” In Physiology Courses, Jennifer E. Schaefer
Navigating The “Covid Hangover” In Physiology Courses, Jennifer E. Schaefer
Biology Faculty Publications
Undergraduate educators and students must navigate lingering aftereffects of the COVID pandemic on education in the 2021–2022 academic year even as COVID continues to impact delivery of undergraduate science education. This article describes ongoing difficulties for undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students and educators and suggests strategies and easy-to-use resources that may help educators navigate the “COVID hangover” and ongoing COVID-related disruptions.
Understanding Differences In Underrepresented Minorities And First-Generation Student Perceptions In The Introductory Biology Classroom, Jacob Jantzer, Thomas W. Kirkman, Katherine L. Furniss
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, …
Persistent Miscalibration For Low And High Achievers Despite Practice Test Feedback In An Introductory Biology Course, Jennifer L. Osterhage
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 …
Opportunities For Self-Evaluation Increase Student Calibration In An Introductory Biology Course, Jennifer L. Osterhage, Ellen Usher, Trisha A. Douin, William M. Bailey
Opportunities For Self-Evaluation Increase Student Calibration In An Introductory Biology Course, Jennifer L. Osterhage, Ellen Usher, Trisha A. Douin, William M. Bailey
Biology Faculty Publications
Accurate self-evaluation is critical for learning. Calibration describes the relationship between learners’ perception of their performance and their actual performance on a task. Here, we describe two studies aimed at assessing and improving student calibration in a first-semester introductory biology course at a 4-year public institution. Study 1 investigated students’ (n = 310) calibration (the difference between estimated and actual exam performance) across one semester. Students were significantly miscalibrated for the first exam: their predicted scores were, on average, significantly higher than their actual scores. The lowest-performing students had the most inaccurate estimates. Calibration improved with each exam. By …
A Low-Intensity, Hybrid Design Between A "Traditional" And A "Course-Based" Research Experience Yields Positive Outcomes For Science Undergraduate Freshmen And Shows Potential For Large-Scale Application, Thushani Rodrigo-Peiris, Lin Xiang, Vincent M. Cassone
A Low-Intensity, Hybrid Design Between A "Traditional" And A "Course-Based" Research Experience Yields Positive Outcomes For Science Undergraduate Freshmen And Shows Potential For Large-Scale Application, Thushani Rodrigo-Peiris, Lin Xiang, Vincent M. Cassone
Biology Faculty Publications
Based on positive student outcomes, providing research experiences from early undergraduate years is recommended for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors. To this end, we designed a novel research experience called the “STEMCats Research Experience” (SRE) for a cohort of 119 second-semester freshmen with diverse college preparatory levels, demographics, and academic majors. The SRE targeted student outcomes of enhancing retention in STEM majors, STEM competency development, and STEM academic performance. It was designed as a hybrid of features from apprenticeship-based traditional undergraduate research experience and course-based undergraduate research experience designs, considering five factors: 1) an authentic research experience, 2) …
Engaging Students In A Bioinformatics Activity To Introduce Gene Structure And Function, Barbara J. May
Engaging Students In A Bioinformatics Activity To Introduce Gene Structure And Function, Barbara J. May
Biology Faculty Publications
Bioinformatics spans many fields of biological research and plays a vital role in mining and analyzing data. Therefore, there is an ever-increasing need for students to understand not only what can be learned from this data, but also how to use basic bioinformatics tools. This activity is designed to provide secondary and undergraduate biology students to a hands-on activity meant to explore and understand gene structure with the use of basic bioinformatic tools. Students are provided an “unknown” sequence from which they are asked to use a free online gene finder program to identify the gene. Students then predict the …
Assessment Of Student Skills For Critiquing Published Primary Scientific Literature: Using A Primary Trait Analysis Scale, Manuel F. Varela, Marvin M.F. Lutnesky, Marcy P. Osgood
Assessment Of Student Skills For Critiquing Published Primary Scientific Literature: Using A Primary Trait Analysis Scale, Manuel F. Varela, Marvin M.F. Lutnesky, Marcy P. Osgood
Biology Faculty Publications
Instructor evaluation of progressive student skills in the analysis of primary literature is critical for the development of these skills in young scientists. Students in a senior or graduate-level one-semester course in Immunology at a Masters-level comprehensive university were assessed for abilities (primary traits) to recognize and evaluate the following elements of a scientific paper: Hypothesis and Rationale, Significance, Methods, Results, Critical Thinking and Analysis, and Conclusions. We tested the hypotheses that average recognition scores vary among elements and that scores change with time differently by trait. Recognition scores (scaled 1 to 5), and differences in scores were analyzed using …