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

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

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

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

Use the 2022 Winter Olympics to boost student engagement in your statistics course! The right example could spark your students’ interest in the material–something that is especially important after the last couple years. Check out the following example from The Basic Practice of Statistics, 9e to see how ‘randomness’ turned silver to bronze in 2006. The Basic Practice of Statistics, 9e uses examples and exercises from a wide variety of topic areas that use current, real data to provide students insight into how and why statistics are used to make decisions in the real world.  Achieve for The Basic Practice of Statistics, 9e connects the trusted Four-Step problem-solving approach and real world examples in the book to rich digital resources that foster further understanding and application of statistics. Watch the video below to learn more about Achieve and the resources available for statistics. To learn more, request access to Achieve or contact your rep today! ... View more

With the Olympic Games returning for the Winter, we’re looking at the stats of our favorite teams and Olympic athletes! Take advantage of this opportunity to introduce some of the harder statistics concepts and use examples that are current and relevant.  Request access to Achieve and see how the e-book engages students with real-life examples and interactives. The e-book offers highlighting, note-taking, offline access, and screenreader functionality. Data sets and Video Technology Manuals are available for commonly used statistical software, including Excel, SPSS, R, Minitab, and many others.    Take inspiration from the content and cover of Kokoska’s Introductory Statistics: A Problem-Solving Approach! Learn more about Achieve for Statistics or sign up for a demo for a one-on-one tour. ... View more

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!     ... View more

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.   ... View more

Available for the first time with Macmillan's new online learning tool Achieve, Susan Karr’s Environmental Science for a Changing World 4e uses an engaging, journalistic approach. The resources in Achieve are designed to provide opportunities for students to deepen their Environmental Science knowledge, while instructors gain insight into class performance and comprehension. NEW Decision Point Simulations A short video sets up the activity addressing the dilemma or topic from various perspectives. Students are asked to make a decision based on the information given. Students can see the environmental, economic and social impacts of their decisions. How would you use these tools to encourage active learning in your classroom?   Learn more about Achieve for Environmental Science https://www.macmillanlearning.com/college/us/digital/achieve/environmental-science Request access to Achieve https://go.macmillanlearning.com/achieveaccessrequest.html  ... View more

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! ... View more

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. ... View more

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. ... View more

How would your students define their relationship with math? BFFs? Casual Acquaintances? Estranged?    Whether you teach precalculus, math for liberal arts, or quantitative literacy, understanding how your intro students feel about math can set the stage to help your students develop confidence in their problem-solving abilities and an appreciation of how math affects the world around them.  Check out this exercise that Bruce Crauder, Macmillan author of Quantitiative Literacy and Preparation for Calculus, assigns to his students at Oklahoma State University.       Turn in a full-page typed essay covering the following topics: --Paragraph 1.  Introduce yourself to me What's your major? Where are you from? What are your hobbies? --Paragraph 2.  Write your math autobiography, i.e. tell me about yourself and math Do you dream in mathematical terms? Or did you part ways with math in the third grade and never look back? --Paragraph 3.  Let me know what you want to achieve in this class What will completing this class enable you to do? What do you hope to take away from this class? What can I do to help you get there?   Finding out a little bit about your students' approach the course can go a long way in helping them succeed. And who knows, maybe your students and math can be lifelong friends after all!   ... View more