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Showing articles with label Biology.
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Community Manager
02-22-2023
08:39 AM
Our classrooms are increasingly diverse. Students learn in different ways, have varied levels of preparation, and have different backgrounds and experiences. Using inclusive teaching practices not only allows everyone to learn, but also creates a sense of belonging and community, one of the best predictors of success in science. In this webinar, Jim Morris will discuss practices he uses regularly in his large introductory biology class to include all students. He will also share resources in the introductory biology textbook How Life Works that foster inclusive practices.
Access the recording!
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Biology
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Macmillan Employee
01-12-2022
08:29 AM
Research experience is essential for the ongoing education of many students. As an instructor, you may have developed research tasks, implemented them into your course, and sought supporting personnel to ensure your students learn the essentials. CUREs, or course-based undergraduate research experiences, provide undergraduates a form of apprenticeship-style research experience.
Dolan and Weaver’s A Guide to Course-based Undergraduate Research offers guidance and some of the best practices on how to provide research experiences outside of the lab. One of the first things to take into account when planning to implement a CURE, is that students bring with them certain types of background knowledge and skills, and have different areas of knowledge that need to be developed. Knowing about your students skill levels should help guide the structure of the CURE, including which instruments and materials will be needed, which sections of the project will be “practice” versus novel exploration, and how much time will be devoted to each aspect of the experience.
If you would prefer to adapt an existing CURE, you can choose to do so separately from other instructors who teach that CURE, or you can join a group of users implementing the CURE at multiple other institutions.
Consider these existing programs:
Freshman Research Initiative (FRI) at the University of Texas at Austin: https://cns.utexas.edu/fri
Science Education Alliance-Phage Hunters program (SEA-PHAGES): https://seaphages.org/
How do you introduce research experiences in your course?
To learn more about developing and implementing CUREs, get your copy of A Guide to Course-based Undergraduate Research today!
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Macmillan Employee
12-13-2021
03:10 PM
As winter break approaches and students prepare for final exams and projects, instructors are busy writing and grading those finals and discovering how well students actually understood the material. With the mix of available virtual and in-person courses, the consideration of different types of assessments becomes very complex.
Courses in STEM disciplines often cover a large amount of material that tends to encourage superficial learning instead of the more ideal deep approach to learning. Additionally, STEM courses seem to have a threatening and anxiety-provoking assessment system.
Summative assessment is the assessment of student learning; it is usually an exam, final project or report that provides a score on that student’s performance but rarely offers timely or effective feedback. But these final exams and evaluations are inherently necessary in the framework of our education system. What remains is to learn how to use summative assessment as a learning tool. Consider the ideas in the table below for your own test-taking processes.
During the test
Collaborative test-taking
Pyramid exams
Immediate feedback assessment technique
Self-corrected exams
Prior to return of the test
Do-over
After the return of the test
Highlighting missed material
Point-recapture
Test analysis
How do you make use of summative assessments?
Explore the various types of assessments and strategies for their use in Assessment in the College Classroom.
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Macmillan Employee
11-04-2021
11:45 AM
Designing Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs)
What is a CURE Class?
A Guide to Course-based Undergraduate Research highlights several key elements that make Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences, or CUREs, distinctive. There are some design features that are inherent to all CURES but there are also those that depend on educational and personal goals. In order to implement a CURE and achieve program goals, it is important to strategically integrate the CURE into your course.
Goals & Considerations for Designing a CURE Class
There are different goals to consider when implementing a CURE. Some of the implementation insight from A Guide to Course-based Undergraduate Research is organized in the following table:
CURE’s Overarching Goal
Ideal Implementation
To allow students the opportunity to dabble in research and consider it as a potential career path
Early curriculum integration is recommended. Students are able to experience and learn more about different options and opportunities in research.
To improve student retention
Integrate the CURE in the curriculum prior to the point at which students leave.
To engage students in experiential learning
Integration can be done at any point in the curriculum.
The inherent similarity among CUREs is that they involve students in research that can produce actual discoveries relevant to the stakeholders. Students should also be involved with iterative work that includes troubleshooting, problem-solving and other aspects of research.
To learn more about developing and implementing CUREs, get your copy of A Guide to Course-based Undergraduate Research today!
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Macmillan Employee
10-22-2021
11:34 AM
With a new school year underway, it is important to consider and anticipate some of the potential threats to a new research student’s success. Among those threats are stereotypes that can take hold, especially in STEM fields of study.
Stereotype threat is defined in Entering Research as “the psychological experience of anxiety about performing in a way that reinforces a negative stereotype about your group”. An important step to avoiding these stereotype threats is to understand the subtle cues that make negatively stereotyped groups feel anxious or undermined. When groups of students are triggered, they experience anxiety that leads them to underperform and subsequently reinforce those negative stereotypes, creating a harmful loop.
There are many stereotypes surrounding women, racial minorities and others in academia. One of the ways to protect these groups of people from stereotype threat is to build and develop self-efficacy beliefs. However, saying that students should simply have strong beliefs in their own abilities to perform does not make it a reality. So to mitigate the negative impact of stereotype threats, a more direct approach of educating students about these threats may be necessary. Being a good role model regardless of gender, race or sex; encouraging students to have a growth view of intelligence; explaining other reasons for test anxiety; providing activities that reaffirm the student’s abilities.
How do you support your students when stereotype threats arise?
Read more about stereotype threats and other ways to help your research mentees in Entering Research: A Curriculum to Support Undergraduate & Graduate Research Trainees.
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Macmillan Employee
10-14-2021
10:25 AM
The best assessment is one that both gauges learning and engages students in learning. The first edition of Assessment in the College Science Classroom discusses two types of assessments: formative and summative.
Formative assessment facilitates learning in many ways, not the least because it is iterative and provides ongoing feedback. Engaging students is challenging enough, but many effective strategies employ questioning. There are many types of formative assessments that can help engage students by requiring them to recall information from memory and apply that knowledge. See the table below for some examples of small-scale formative assessments discussed in Assessment in the College Science Classroom.
Example
Intended Learning Outcome
Brainstorming
Students list everything they know on a given topic or in response to a question
Students retrieve prior knowledge
Concept Maps
Students create graphical illustration with connecting arrows indicating relationships
Students synthesize their understanding of complex processes or systems
Immediate Response Systems (“Clickers”)
Class polling systems allow anonymous responses and immediate feedback
Students retrieve information, apply new understanding and correct misconceptions
Quizzes
Quizzing at the beginning of class or online prior/after class
Students retrieve information and apply prior knowledge to answer questions
Do you use assessments to encourage student learning?
Learn more about the different types of assessments and their potential benefits in Dirks, Wenderoth and Withers’ Assessment in the College Science Classroom.
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Macmillan Employee
11-20-2020
08:17 AM
Jenni Punt provides an overview of the immune response in the context of a SARS CoV-2 infection, including: viral life cycle, organs and tissues of the immune system, and the development of an innate and adaptive immune response.
Access On-Demand Webinar!
WATCH ON-DEMAND HERE
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