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Full-Text Articles in Higher Education
Development Of An Online General Biology Open Educational Resource (Oer) Laboratory Manual, Dmitry Y. Brogun, Azure N. Faucette, Kristin Polizzotto, Farshad Tamari
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 …
Water In Your Neighbourhood: A Model For Implementing A Semester-Long Course-Based Undergraduate Research Project In Introductory Biology, Ana Lucia Fuentes, Maria Entezari
Water In Your Neighbourhood: A Model For Implementing A Semester-Long Course-Based Undergraduate Research Project In Introductory Biology, Ana Lucia Fuentes, Maria Entezari
Publications and Research
Undergraduate biology education has changed over the past decade, incorporating an iterative and evidence-based approach. Many educational assessments have confirmed the effectiveness of integrating authentic research and open-ended inquiry into introductory biology courses, demonstrating a significant positive impact on students’ learning and attitude towards STEM majors. Despite these findings, only a handful of Biology instructors in 2-year colleges adopt this approach, and when adopted, most activities constitute a small fraction of these courses. Finding a feasible, sustainable, semester-long, and cost-effective strategy to incorporate authentic research in the curriculum which promotes integrated understanding of science and addresses socio-scientific issues, is a …
The Science Teaching Fellows Program: A Model For Online Faculty Development Of Early Career Scientists Interested In Teaching, Loretta Branacaccio-Taras, Kelly A. Gull, Claudia Ratti
The Science Teaching Fellows Program: A Model For Online Faculty Development Of Early Career Scientists Interested In Teaching, Loretta Branacaccio-Taras, Kelly A. Gull, Claudia Ratti
Publications and Research
The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) has a history of providing a wide range of faculty development opportunities. Recently, ASM developed the Science Teaching Fellows Program (STF) for early career biologists and postdoctoral students to explore student-centered teaching and develop the skills needed to succeed in positions that have a significant teaching component. Participants were selected to STF through a competitive application process. The STF program consisted of a series of six webinars. In preparation for each webinar, participants completed a pre-webinar assignment. After each webinar, fellows practiced what they learned by completing a post-webinar assignment. In a survey used …
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
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 …