Learning science is a good place to start, not stop: Taking the next steps toward creating an inclusive classroom and meaningful learning Research in biology education has helped us better understand how students learn. Learning objectives, backward design, and high structure not only increase learning, but also reduce the achievement gap among students. The good news is that these kinds of practices have been incorporated and are now a standard in many classes, textbooks, and online systems. Incorporating these practices is just a first step. It is also critical to be inclusive, offer diverse perspectives, tell stories, connect facts and concepts to real-world issues, and even spark joy. In this webinar, James Morris will share resources and practices he uses in his introductory biology class that foster learning. Access the recording! ... View more

Earth Day serves as a moment each and every year for people to not only appreciate the natural world around us, but to also reflect on what we can do to better preserve and protect it. Fortunately, much of what many of us learned as children remains tried and true today, and we can continue to focus on behavioral changes that will help reduce our water and energy consumption.   Susan Karr, MS, Carson-Newman College These behavioral changes are the types of lower-impact actions that cost us nothing. For those of us that seek to reduce our impact on the environment to a greater degree, we can invest a little (or a lot) of money to employ new technologies that reduce resource use in our homes. For this year’s Earth Day, we’ve invited Susan Karr, author of Environmental Science for a Changing World—available for the first time with Macmillan Learning’s new online learning tool, Achieve—to share more about a feature in the book called “Bring it Home.”  “With ‘Bring it Home’, we offer students suggestions on ways they can reduce their impact on the environment,” says Karr, such as ways to reduce their water and energy consumption.  “We also share with students the 4 “Rs” when considering their consumer choices: refuse, reduce, reuse, and recycle.”    Water Susan encourages us to consider how we use water and to look for ways to reduce that use. “And remember,” she says, “saving water also means saving the energy it took to collect, purify, deliver, and perhaps heat that water.”  Karr suggests that a technology option to consider is a low-flow faucet and a low-flow showerhead. A low-flow faucet can reduce the rate of water flow by 1 to 2 gallons per minute, and a low-flow showerhead can reduce flow rate by 1 to 1.5 gallons per minute, she explained. “It really makes a significant difference knowing that some older kitchen faucets have a flow rate of up to 5 gallons per minute,” Karr says.  If you don’t have the money to install a low-flow faucet or showerhead, Susan suggests some behavioral changes you can make when running water in the kitchen or bathroom: Don’t let the water run while brushing your teeth or shaving. Don’t turn on the water at full speed unless needed. Capture water while waiting for it to heat up and use that collected water to water plants, fill the dog bowl, or other uses.  Time your shower for a few days to determine its average length, and then try to reduce shower time by a few minutes.  Take a “Navy” shower by turning off the water except to rinse.  Other technologies to consider that will reduce your water consumption include a front-loading washing machine or a low-flow toilet, Karr says. An energy and water efficient front-loading washing machine uses nearly half the water as older top-loading models. “Similarly,” Karr says, “installing a low-flow toilet or a model with two buttons—one for liquid waste and one for solids—will also reduce water waste.”  Once again, if you’re unable to purchase and install these water-waste reducing technologies, Karr offers some behavioral changes you can make:  Only wash clothes when needed. Only run the washing machine when it’s full. Don’t flush the toilet to dispose of tissues; dispose of them in the trash.  Energy Karr also reminds us that right now, fossil fuels power modern society, so making choices that use less energy will reduce the use of fossil fuels and, consequently, reduce the negative impact of using those fuels. “Three areas of our lives where we can use less energy include transportation, home, and electricity,” Susan says.  Transportation When possible, Karr encourages people to purchase the most energy efficient vehicle they can afford and that meets their needs. If you’re unable to upgrade your vehicle to one that is more energy efficient, there are still behavioral changes you can make: Carpool, take public transportation, walk, or bike.  Combine trips and plan your route to avoid backtracking if you are out running errands to reduce miles driven. Keep your car tuned up and tires properly inflated to improve the fuel efficiency of your vehicle. Use cruise control when appropriate—maintaining a constant speed improves fuel efficiency. Avoid idling—starting a car back up takes less fuel than idling for more than a few seconds. Home According to Karr, it’s important to make sure that your home has the recommended insulation for your region to reduce energy needed to heat and cool your home. “You can also insulate your hot-water heater,” Susan says. Inexpensive hot-water heater ‘blankets’ are also available and easy to install. Behavioral changes made at home include: Lower your thermostat in the winter by a degree or two; do the same in the summer by turning it up. Set the water heater to no higher than 120 degrees Fahrenheit; turn it off if you will be away from home for at least several days.  Electricity Energy efficient versions of many devices are available. For example,replacing light bulbs with more energy efficient varieties, such as LEDs, can save energy and money. You can also invest in renewable energy, such as solar panels, by installing them in your home, or you can support local renewable energy initiatives with your energy providers. Some key behavioral changes include: Turn off lights and electronics when not in use.  Take advantage of natural light by opening curtains during the day.    The 4 “Rs” when considering consumer choices “Other changes are more related to your consumer choices than to technology or behavioral options,” Karr says. “You can reduce the impact of your consumer choices by considering the resources used to make those consumer goods.” The 4 “Rs” when considering consumer choices are refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle.  Refuse “Don’t buy a product if you can do without it,” Karr says. For example: Drink water from a fountain instead of buying bottled water. Refuse to take a shopping bag from a store—carry your items or bring your own reusable bags.  Opt to buy unpackaged produce rather than bagged or boxed items. Rent or borrow items, when possible, and lend them to others—especially if you will rarely use them.  Reduce Karr says to choose products that require fewer resources to make or that are minimally packaged. For example: Minimize packaging—if you must buy a bottled drink, buy the largest bottle you will use instead of several smaller bottles.  Contact retailers or marketers to reduce receipt of unsolicited mail or visit the Federal Trade Commission for suggestions on ways to reduce promotional mail such as catalogs, credit card and insurance offers.  Reduce your consumption of meat, especially the consumption of beef—the animal-based food with the highest water and carbon footprint.  Reuse “Use products again,” says Karr, “for their intended purpose or another.” For example: Purchase durable products you can use again and again rather than disposable items or those with a short lifespan.  If you must buy a product that comes in a package, consider reuse potential—can you use it for another purpose? Recycle Karr reminds us that we can turn a recyclable item back in to be made into a new product. For example:  Check with your local recycling center or solid waste department to learn about which materials are accepted for recycling in your area. Choose products that can be recycled over items (or packaging) that are not recyclable. Support the recycling industry by choosing products made from recycled materials. Avoid “wish-cycling”—placing items in a recycling bin that are not recyclable in your area; this has the potential to contaminate other recyclables in the bin (forcing recyclers to dispose of the entire bin) and/or increase the time and money needed to sort through the recyclables, decreasing profit and viability of the recycling industry. There are many things that we can all do to reduce our impact on the environment. Perhaps you already do some of the things on this list, or perhaps there are other ways that you decrease your usage of resources such as water and energy. We hope that this Earth Day you try something new and consider your impact on the environment. You can also sign up for a demo of Achieve for Environmental Science for a Changing World: https://go.oncehub.com/ AchieveDemos. ... View more

Transforming Intro Bio at a Hispanic-Serving, Land Grant Institution (and how the pandemic got us to the finish line) Many institutions are working to enhance student success and reduce disparities in introductory biology courses. In this webinar, Michèle Shuster discusses how after many years of incremental progress, she took advantage of the disruption of the pandemic to overhaul her approach on the return to in-person teaching. The result has been substantial improvements in student success, and elimination of disparities in pass rates between minoritized and non-minoritized students. In this webinar we'll talk about Michèle's current course structure, the rationale for the decisions she made, and how these ideas can be used elsewhere. Access the recording! ... View more

Even as higher education offers a world of exciting possibilities, the transition to college also presents harrowing opportunities for stress, struggle, and failure. At the same time, it is common for students, particularly new students, to lack awareness that experiences with failure and recovery can reveal, which include some of the most enduring and important lessons in life. In this webinar, Jay Phelan explored the use of instructor self-disclosure to nurture resiliency and a growth-mindset in students. We identified practical techniques for helping students not simply bounce back from failure, but actually thrive and reach better outcomes than what would have been possible without failure. Access the recording! ... View more

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! ... View more

Skills and Key Features of Biology: How Life Works, 4e Achieve for Morris, Biology: How Life Works, 4e includes multiple features which focus on building scientific skills. These can help students review skills they may have learned in previous courses and reinforce key biology concepts.    Skills Primers The Skills Primers are self-paced tutorials that guide students to learn, practice, and use skills, like data visualization and graphing, experimental design, working with numbers, reading and building phylogenies, and working with models. These short tutorials can be used throughout the course as refreshers to aid students with the core skills they need to work with data. How Do We Know? Activities How Do We Know? activities are designed to provide practice for students in the skills they need to think like a scientist. These activities are available in every chapter and accompany the How Do We Know? feature in the textbook—walking students through scientific inquiry and data analysis⁠, and ending with application questions that extend to new information. Cases A key feature of How Life Works is that it connects key concepts to one another, highlighting the bigger relevance of understanding biology. Throughout the textbook, Cases and Visual Synthesis figures provide a framework for connecting and assimilating information. The eight Cases highlight topics, such as cancer and climate change, and showcase how concepts learned in individual chapters connect to these larger, relevant areas of biology. Visual Syntheses Every Visual Synthesis figure in the textbook has an interactive counterpart in Achieve. Each interactive offers an immersive, highly visual learning environment that includes informative text, embedded animations, simulations, virtual tours, and links between interactives, helping students see how individual concepts connect to tell a single story. New to this edition: two new Visual Syntheses covering the History of Earth and Life, and Homeostasis can be found in the textbook and Achieve. How Life Works Podcasts The How Life Works Podcasts cover pertinent topics that relate directly to the material in the textbook. New to this edition: the authors of How Life Works interview a diverse selection of scientists about research topics, which directly align with each of the eight Cases found in the textbook. Each podcast includes background information about the author and a set of open-ended reflection questions that can be assigned to students.   Which features do you use? Comment below to let us know! ... View more

Customize Your Course in Achieve It’s important that you use Achieve in a way that works for you. Here are some strategies for personalizing your course:   Course Creation When you create your course, you can choose a course populated with all the chapters and resources provided or you can build your course piece by piece from our library of content. The pre-built course in Achieve includes several types of assessments, but Achieve also has a bank of questions available to instructors for ultimate customizability. These are some best practices on curating and adapting your course to fit your style. Where To Go To Assign Content  In a prebuilt course, you can assign content directly from our Course Content page by clicking on the calendar icon next to the content item or from the resources page.  How to Find and Filter Content In the Resources tab, you can see all of the content that has been assigned, and you can add new content. You can use the filters on the left to help you find what type of content you are looking for. How to Edit Assignment Details A checkmark appears next to an assignment that has already been added to your course. Click on the calendar/plus icon to edit student visibility, due date, etc. How to Edit Assignment Content From the Resource page, click into an individual assignment to view the questions and to edit the content. You can remove, add, or edit questions, choosing from several question collections. ... View more

Achieve offers many options for post-class work to keep students progressing as the content becomes more complex.  Homework Assignments Our titles include a bank of assessments that can be easily assigned through pre-built homework assignments or your own assignments using our easily sortable question library. The interactive homework questions in many titles feature targeted feedback and are available for each core concept in the textbook. Animation and Media Assignments STEM titles in Achieve contain a library of 2D animations, 3D animations, and simulations with accompanying assessments to help students visualize the complex processes they need to understand in this course. These can be assigned as homework, review, or as group work for students to complete.    How are you using these resources in your class? Let us know! ... View more

Using Achieve and iClicker In-Class Whether teaching in-person or online, Achieve has the resources you need to keep students actively engaged during class.   iClicker With Achieve’s seamless integration with iClicker, you can help any student participate—in the classroom or virtually. iClicker’s attendance feature gets students in class, then instructors can choose from flexible polling and quizzing options to engage, check understanding, and get feedback from students in real time. iClicker also allows students to participate using laptops, mobile devices, or iClicker remotes—whichever each student prefers. Additionally, we offer Instructor Activity Guides and book-specific iClicker question slides within Achieve to make the most out of your class time.  Instructor Activity Guides     The guides provide instructors with a structured plan to facilitate an activity that encourages student engagement in both face-to-face and remote learning courses. Each guide lays out for professors the best implementation for each activity and highlights the resources available for use in class, including presentation slides, iClicker questions, and student handouts. The guide displays the activity type, estimated prep and class time, implementation instructions, suggestions for remote implementation where applicable, and Learning Objectives for ease of use. Activity Details: Approximate class time, Implementation effort, and best use case.  Activity Summary and Implementation suggestions for both in person and remote classes. All resources and links to implement the activity.  Resources for the Activity Activities typically include accompanying presentation slides (with iClicker questions) and student worksheets. All items, as well as guidance for best practices for activity use, can be found in the instructor's guide.   Active Lecture Slides These brief, visually interesting slides are designed to hold students’ attention in class with graphics demonstrating key concepts and real-world examples. Each slide deck also contains iClicker questions that can be used during lecture.   Let us know how you’re using Achieve during class this term! ... View more

Using Achieve Pre-Class Activities Achieve has a multitude of features that can be assigned as pre-class, in-class, or post-class work. Here are just a few of the key features we see used best as pre-class work.   Adaptive Quizzing Learning Curve Adaptive Quizzing puts the powerful concept of “self-testing to learn” into action and strategically develops personalized study plans that directly address students’ gaps in knowledge. Adaptive quizzing provides personalized question sets and clear feedback based on each student’s correct and incorrect answers—offering an easy way for students to prepare for class by reviewing the e-book and then assessing their understanding of the key concepts.  Reporting Tools Instructors can use the reporting features of Adaptive Quizzing to evaluate class performance to get a sense of what their class needs to focus on, attuned to the individual needs of each student. Instructors can see how many questions each student answered before reaching the target score, how many students have completed each activity, and how individual students are performing, as well as composite results for the class as a whole. This can help guide how much time is spent in class on certain topics or concepts. Helpful Guidance  Each question includes a topic-specific link that guides students to the e-book so they can use that material to assist them in answering the question correctly. Referencing this additional material doesn't cost students any points. Students can also Get a Hint for fewer points or Show answer for no points. Instant Feedback Students receive instant feedback after each question in Adaptive Quizzing. Not only does this assist with retention, it also corrects them immediately on any misconceptions or mistakes.  Students who are unprepared or who need more help will receive as much practice as they need to master a concept. At any time during an Adaptive Quizzing activity, students can click on links to online instruction for more explanation and examples. This way, students can receive guided help before attending class.    Reading Assignments Reading can be assigned prior to class, ungraded or for points, to help students come prepared.   Animations Most of our titles include a variety of engaging animations, which can be assigned pre-class or post-class. Many animations that match the chapter content are provided with 6–8 assessment questions. These are designed to aid students in connecting their visual understanding with the core concepts in the chapters.    Pre-Class Assignments Each chapter has a 10-question assignment that can be used to check reading comprehension and pre-class preparation. These assignments cover the entire chapter but can be modified and edited to suit professors’ individual needs by editing wording or adding new questions via our question banks.   You can customize your course in a way that works best for your students. Let us know how you use these features of Achieve! ... View more

Introducing Goal Setting and Reflection Surveys in Achieve When Macmillan’s Learning Science team was doing research to develop Achieve, both students and instructors told us that they needed more than just discipline content; they needed tools to help students be great students, regardless of the course content. There are five surveys in Achieve designed to get students to set goals for themselves and reflect on their learning throughout the semester. For each survey you assign, you will receive insights on the strategies students are using, how they think the semester is going, and how you can target interventions and support based on your class.    Our Learning Science team's data suggests not only do students like the surveys, but that using Goal-setting and Reflection Surveys positively impacts student course performance.  Students completing up to 2 surveys perform 2-3% better on their course grade than their peers not completing surveys.  Students completing 3-5 surveys perform up to 5.5% better on their course grade than their peers not completing surveys.  Students completing their surveys also complete up to 36% more of their assigned Achieve activities.  Goal-setting and Reflection Surveys help students pay attention to their needs in the course and self-advocate throughout the semester. These surveys can offer you a better sense of what your students are struggling with and help you notice classroom trends.    Learn more about Achieve! ... View more

What’s In Your Achieve Course?  Hello, Instructors! As you and your students continue to learn this term, we want to be sure you’re making the most out of your Achieve course. This series will show you the types of content in your Achieve course.    Learning Path Beyond the platform itself, what sets Achieve apart is the content. In Achieve, content is organized to meet your unique course goals. You can easily see in the learning path which assessments and media resources are aligned for their pedagogical usage: to prepare for class, to be used during class time, and for review after class time.  This allows instructors to provide a high degree of structure to the course work they assign. This benefits all students, but especially those who come into the course less prepared. Although we suggest content for pre-class, in-class, and post-class, feel free to mix and match and make it your own. Arrange material in a way that works best for you and your students.   Interactive E-book The Achieve course is built around the e-book, providing a structured framework of content, media, and assessments for your students. The e-book in Achieve is more than just a flat PDF. The e-book can be accessed directly to be read section by section. The e-book is also included in our adaptive quizzes, allowing students to reference back to sections in the book as they work through formative assessments.    These are a few key features of the e-book: Audio: The Read-Aloud option allows you to listen to the text. You can also fast forward or rewind and change the reading speed.  Font: Easily change the font style or size. You can also select day/night mode or change the line spacing to personalize the reading experience. Highlight and Notes: Select any text to highlight it or add notes. As students work through the book, these notes are compiled into a notebook for them to easily reference later while studying. Animations and Media: Animations play right in line with the text. Self-Assessment: Check your knowledge with in-line answers to the end of section questions.   Which feature of Achieve do you and your students like best? Comment to let us know! ... View more

iClicker and Achieve: Active Learning in the Math and Statistics Classroom Resources for the math and stats classrooms are not in short supply. You could choose several tools for your course, but switching between multiple programs within a single class period can quickly become problematic. Together, Achieve and iClicker are an exceptionally effective and convenient pairing for making a math or statistics classroom more interactive, and, because iClicker is integrated into Achieve, managing the two programs really feels like managing one.  iClicker and Achieve pair seamlessly, and when using them together you gain access to additional capabilities including: Taking attendance with the click of a button Setting up ice-breaker questions so students can get to know each other (and you can see who would work best with each other in group assignments) Boosting engagement with polling questions Providing opportunities for whole-class participation in a low-stress environment Offering tighter feedback loops where students are more concerned about getting the right answer to a question rather than what their overall grade is Creating automatic review resources based on the questions you ask, with iClicker, in class At the very heart of iClicker’s functionality is active learning. iClicker is designed to get students involved in the lesson they’re learning by instigating a two-way conversation with immediate feedback.  Tip: Use iClicker to ask entrance questions such as: What do you remember most from our last class?  What part of the homework gave you the most trouble?  Based on your students' responses, you can then pivot your lesson plan for the day to address common issues. iClicker is also a great tool for: Think-pair-share activities. Put up a question all students answer. Before sharing the answer, ask students to talk to each other about why they picked their response. Asking the same question a second time will show whether students shifted their answer choice. This is a dynamic way to engage students and get them talking with each other.  Virtual hand-raising. This is a great alternative to having a chat that gets out of control if you’re teaching virtually or in a hybrid format. It brings a little order back into the course and is a more official way for students to communicate with you.  Confidence checks. Using the anonymity feature in iClicker, you’re able to have students answer a question without having to feel like they’re going to get singled out. This is perfect for the question, Do you understand everything we just covered? Having to raise your hand in front of everyone to respond is embarrassing, but iClicker makes it anonymous and easy. How Achieve Keeps Students Organized Another way to utilize features in both Achieve and iClicker is to help get students organized. Within Achieve, students can see their to-do list of assignments as well as the big picture with an entire course content view. Because Achieve and iClicker are integrated, even iClicker work is listed for students to see. This helps prevent students from claiming they didn’t know what the homework was.  You can also assign adaptive quizzing to keep students on the right learning path. It’s a great pre-class assignment to get students organized with the right terms and concepts. As the instructor, you have the ability to decide what content you want students to see in Achieve, and what you don’t, so you’re able to highlight those features that will really help students keep it together. How Achieve Reinforces Math and Stats Concepts  Being able to assign iClicker questions within an Achieve assignment means more coverage that related to the topic you’re teaching. Students can answer a question in class in real time and get scored immediately. Then, you can put the same question into Achieve for students to answer on their own time through the program’s interface.  Try this example, suggested from one of our Achieve for Calculus users:  Ask your students to use the Target question to find the inflection point on a graph, then you can select the area in which the right answer falls to grade the question.             How Achieve Supports Instructors  Two features in particular allow Achieve to give instructors a break in their own workload: pre-built activity guides and assessments.  Activity guides span varied topics throughout the course. Topics are timely, relevant, and interesting to students.Instead of having to come up with what to do from scratch, Achieve presents a step-by-step guide for preparing and implementing the activity. You get everything you need to do, including tools like worksheets, presentation slides, and even iClicker questions when available.  Take a closer look at Instructor Activity Guides: The assessment engine within Achieve is mobile-friendly and meets accessibility standards. Students can see it and use it on any device. It links the interactive e-book, hints, course-specific resources, and a variety of tools that can help with homework assignments. The assessment engine also gives students detailed feedback as they work, making it easier to address any errors or misconceptions. Learn more about Achieve ... View more

The Winter Olympics are almost over, but there's still time to engage your stats students with some new online learning tools and resources. Check out some of our winter sports examples and problems, and see how Achieve is changing the game.  Kokoska's Introductory Statistics: A Problem-Solving Approach, 10e helps students develop the fundamental lifelong skill of solving problems and interpreting solutions in real-world terms. Take a look at this Sports and Leisure example: Tour Achieve for Kokoska 10e to see the tools and resources designed for use before, during and after class. Students apply their knowledge with the following snowboarding problem from The Basic Practice of Statistics, 9e.  Take a tour of Achieve for BPS 9e to see the digital resources that support in-class learning as well as independent studying. Request access to Achieve or contact your rep to see more! ... View more

Are you watching the Winter Olympics? Macmillan has statistics examples and problems to compliment your watching experience! With downloadable data sets and guided practice, Achieve for Statistics deepens your students’ statistical knowledge while giving you an insight into class performance. Built-in coaching tools—hints, detailed feedback, and fully worked solutions—guide students toward the correct answers. By stating, planning and solving the problem, students gain a better understanding of concepts. Check out the following exercise from Chapter 2 of The Basic Practice of Statistics, 9e.   Watch the video below to learn more about our data sets and video technology. Find your rep or request access to Achieve to see this data set and more! ... View more