University of Washington - BERG- Biology Education Research group - Recently Updated Pages

BERG- Biology Education Research Group

mpwenderoth — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 12:54:17 CDT

Home of the Biology Education Research Group at University of Washington.
Goals:
Create new methods for teaching Biology that will be adopted by faculty around the world,
Produce research based teaching methods.
Develop hypotheses concerning student learning in Biology that are testable.
Create guidelines for conducting rigorous biology education research.
Provide a forum to discuss effective teaching methods.
Create a network of faculty, grad students and post-docs across the UW tri-campuses to facilitate collaborations on grants and studies.
Create a certificate program in college science pedagogy for graduate students. This will serve as a pilot for a National Certification program by AAAS or HHMI.
Create mentored teaching opportunities for graduate students.
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MAILING LIST

Join the Biology Education Research Group mailing list to receive reminders about BERG meetings and other education-related meetings:

To post a message to the Biology Education Research Group mailing list, send email tobiology_education_research_group@u.washington.edu

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SABER web site ( Society for the Advancement of Biology Education)

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SPRING 2012
Meetings: Friday 4-5 pm Hitchcock 218

April 6- Eric Chudler- Teaching Neuroscience to Diverse Audiences
Eric's web site- quite a gold mine! ( 26 people)

April 13- Group read of Redesign of a Large Introductory Biology Course. C. Ueckert et al. 2011. CBE- Life Science Education
please read the article and come prepared to contribute to the group discussion. ( 7 people)

APRIL 17-TUESDAY-UW Symposium on Teaching and Learning 2-4:30 in Kane Walker Ames room on UW Seattle campus

April 20- Alison Crowe and Ben Wiggins- will present the TUES I grant they are submitting in May 2012.

April 27-Ben WIgins & Mandy Schivell- POGIL workshop for NWBIO

April 28 & 29- NWBIO at Everett Community College- registration is reasonable and it is a great networking opportunity.

May 4- Becca P- grant ideas

May 11-Siobhan Mangus, give a practice talk for the UR symposium. Her talk title is "I select you naturally: how an upper division textbook may unintentionally reinforce naïve conceptions about evolution."

May 18- (MG Undergrad research symposium)- no BERG

May 25- Brian B. Journal club:
Writing-to-Learn in Undergraduate Science Education: A Community-Based, Conceptually Driven Approach"
& "The Utility of Writing Assignments in Undergraduate Bioscience"
March issue of CBE--Life Sciences- 2012.

June 1-Alexa Tullis and Andreas Madlung from the U. of Puget Sound biology department are interested in developing a study on the incorporation of primary literature into undergrad courses and would like to run research design by BERG.

Winter 2012
Meetings: Wednesday 4-5 pm Hitchcock 218
Jan 11- Lara: Practice talk for job interview (research and teaching)
Jan 18- CANCELLED due to SNOW- will be rescheduled: Becca: Genetic drift concept inventory
Jan 25- Greg & Alison: CREATE journal club
Feb 1- Becca: Genetic drift concept inventory
Feb 8- Ben and Hannah:Lit review on Peer TAs/ Learning Assistants
Feb 15-Mary Pat - Bloom workshop- bring your exam questions.
Feb 22-Blooming Workshop part 2- bring your exam questions

Feb 29-Mary Pat- "What Cognitive Research Tells Us About Engaging Today's Undergraduate Students"

March 7- Bryan White- journal club (article from CBE Dec issue) and some research idea

Spring 2012
Martha Groom- Discuss a study she is doing on science process skills

Autumn 2011
Meetings in HCK 218
Friday 3-4 pm

Oct 7- set agenda for Fall, meeting updates
19 members present
Oct 14- Scott Freeman- Climate Change exercise
Oct 21- Ben - discuss possible topics for his dissertation in Science Ed.
Oct 28-Alison and Mary Pat- recap of IS-SOTL meeting
Sally Hoskins- CREATE for reading the primary literature
New Leadership Alliance for Student Learning and Accountability
glogster- on-line posters
Creative Commons
Nov 4- Planning Session for Best practices topic for winter ( topic, literature, videotaping, etc)
Nov 11- Veteran's Day
Nov 18- Karen- Use of Concept Mapping to assess student learning
Nov 25- Thanksgiving Holiday
Dec 2- Karen P. Review of Clicker literature
Dec 8-11- NSTA meeting in Seattle at Convention Center
Dec 9-Jenny Mc.- update on Concept Assessment in Physiology project.

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SPRING 2011
Meetings in HCK 218- map to HCK
Wednesday 9-10 am

April 6- Anna Davis
Teaching Anatomy and Physiology at the Community College: Status Quo, Opportunities, and Research Questions revealed through development of an Open Course Library A&P course.

April 13- Carol Pollack from UBC & Joan Sharpe from Simon Frasier Univ. - Speaking about the First year program in BIology at UBC and SF and how they used Blooming Biology Tool to assess thier first yer program. They will also tell us about the 6 concept inventories their group is producing.

April 19- UW SOTL from 2-4:30 in Kane Hall

Thursday April 20- 9am Jennifer Loertscher, Seattle U "Development and Implementation of Biochemistry assessment instrument."
Jenny's slides are posted at the very bottom of this page
Northwest Regional POGIL meeting this summer in Oregon

April 27-Cristy Walcher- Experimental Design component of GATEWAY project.

April 29 - May 1- NWBIO at Yakima Community College. A great place to present your BER results and build partnerships with community college faculty.

May 4- Greg Crowthers- will discuss the NSF TUES I grant they plan to submit May 20 2011

May 11- Linda Martin-Morris- will discuss the Diversity Scholars program that she is involved with on cmpus

Tuesday May 17 4pm -- Julie Libarkin Seminar in Biology

May 18- Julie Libarkin will talk to BERG

May 25- Lara Shamieh from UW Pathology Dept- would like feedback on her Senior Seminar format

June 1- Michael Fleming ?

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SUMMER 2011

July 29-31- SABER national meeting- Minneapolis

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WINTER 2011
Meetings in HCK 344
times alternate between 9am and 4 pm

Jan 12-- 4pm- Becca - attitude survey
Jan 19- 9 am-Michelle - Lexical Analysis and the Genetic Concept Assessment

Jan 26 - 4pm- Karen- poster she presented at SICB

Feb 2- 9 am- MPW- Testing Effect

Feb 9- 4pm- Brian B. Diversity in education

Feb 16 - 9 am- Maureen- A curriculum and database that guide students in developing and testing hypotheses in genetics.

Feb 23 - SPECIAL TIME_9am Dr. Charles Ofria (Biology seminar speaker- one of the architects of the AVIDA evolution computer program

Mar 2- 9am- Michelle S.- Statistical analysis of Genetic Concept Inventory responses.

Mar 9- 4pm- Jennie McFarland - present the Experimental Biology (EB) Poster on BERG as Learning Community
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Upcoming Deadlines

March 8th- submit abstracts to UW SOTL symposium held April 19 2-4:30 in Kane Hall.

April 29 - May 1- NWBIO at Yakima Community College. A great place to present your BER results and build partnerships with community college faculty.
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Possible topics
ask Jennifer Loertscher from SU to give a talk.
Journals in which to publish
invite Phil Bell from School of Ed to talk
invite Paula Heron from Physics Education Group on campus
what are funding opportunities
how to do curricular assessment
PEERS- an ADVANCE/CELT program at UW
IRB approval

others?

AUTUMN 2010
Welcome back to the 2010-2011 academic year and another great year for Biology Education Research.

Meeting: 9-10 Thursdays in HCK 446

Oct 7 - Set the agenda for the quarter.
LInk to SABER web site.

Oct 14- Becca Price- UW Bothell- Discussion of Lawson Reasoning Test and different types of Nature of Science (NOS) surveys
handouts- PriceBERG below
handouts- two levels below
science article on student reasoning- ( see Science mag 2009)
article on student understanding of age of earth and evolution ( see cotner below)

Oct 21- Bloom workshop-- creating higher order free response and MCQ
Biology in Bloom: Implementing Bloom’s Taxonomy to Enhance Student Learning in Biology
Crowe, A., C. Dirks & M.P. Wenderoth
CBE- Life Science Education Vol. 7, 368–381, Winter 2008

Oct 28- Linda Martin-Morris & Mandi Schivell UW Seattle, Biology- POGIL activities for Biology

Nov. 4- Brian Buchwitz- UW Seattle- HHMI- Using primary literature to help students think like a scientist

Tuesday Nov. 9- Scott Freeman- UW Seattle, Promotion talk at Biology dept Seminar- Physics (PAA 102)

Nov 11- Veteran's Day ( Armistice Day)

Nov 18- Karen Chan- UW Seattle, Fisheries- Use of simulations in the classroom and NOS surveys

Nov. 25- Happy Thanksgiving

NEXT
Dec 2- Linda Martin-Morris--Structuring assignments to maximize team work in groups

Dec 9- Scott Freeman, Alison Crowe, Mary Pat Wenderoth-UW Seattle, Biology- Update on the Biology 180 Second Generation research project.
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WINTER 2011

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SPRING 2010-- 9 am meeting - HCK 344

May 17- Teaching Tips Round table-- bring an idea that worked well in the classroom to share with your colleagues-- this will be a very practical session.

May 24-- Jenny McFarland from Edmonds CC will present an update on CABII ( Conceptual Assessment in Biology)
This is a NSF funded initiative that continues to develop a body of work on what are the key concepts in Biology and how best to assess them. article of interest.

May 31- Memorial Day-- NO meeting

June 1- last meeting of Spring
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Past SPRING meetings
April 5- UW SOTL abstracts- teaching innovations of BERG members
Jackie White and Mike presented the Tree of Life project that their Biol 490 course ( Telling Science Stories- Jen Reusink and Doug Ewing) created for the Biology 180 class diversity unit. The projects incorporates plants from the teaching collection of the Greenhouse and helps students gain a deeper appreciation of the evolution of plants. Students were required to fill out a survey after completing the Tree of Life project and Jackie and Mike presented an overview of these results. They will be presenting their work at the UW Teaching and Learning symposium on April 20 from 2-4:30 at the HUB.

April 12- Becca Price from Bothell will present the work she submitted to UW Teaching and Learning Symposium.
"Performing evolution: an artistic exploration of natural selection and the scientific method"

April 19-Brian Buchwitz will present some of the work he is doing with the HHMI Biology Scholar students ( freshman)
The Undergraduate Research Experience: A Developmental Approach to Program Design for Research-Intensive Universities
Brian J. Buchwitz and Barbara T. Wakimoto Department of Biology, University of Washington
Undergraduate research programs at colleges and universities vary widely in structure, criteria used to select participants, and type and duration of program support. Our aim is to design a program that is best suited for students and faculty mentors at large, research-intensive universities. Here we describe the design and assessment of the University of Washington-Howard Hughes Medical Institute Integrative Research Internship Program (UW-HHMI IRIP). The UW-HHMI IRIP differs substantially from the more common summer-only undergraduate research programs in its intentionally developmental and integrative approach. Key features include: selection of a diverse cohort of students who have had little or no previous research experience; a required seminar course to facilitate introduction to research culture and broaden students appreciation of different types of research fields in biology; and an extended period of support that includes part-time research for two academic quarters preceding full-time research in summer. To assess our program, we are using two national surveys, the Survey of Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE II) and the Undergraduate Research Student Self-Assessment survey (URSSA) which report gains as perceived by the undergraduate researchers. We show that UW-HHMI IRIP participants report higher than average learning gains in 20 of the 21 areas measured by SURE II. To compare student gains as evaluated by faculty mentors, we are testing a new mentor survey developed through a collaboration between our HHMI program and those at Montana State University, Oregon State University, and University of Montana. Overall, our results indicate that the UW-HHMI IRIP is providing beginning undergraduate researchers with meaningful research experience and encouraging retention in research for at least one additional academic year.

April 26-Ursula Valdez- will discuss her Teaching and Learning Symposium poster.
"Partnering Students with Field Researchers as an Alternative for Hands-on Opportunities in a Class-based Tropical Ecology Course"
Opportunities for hands-on learning experiences are limited in class-based ecology courses for undergraduates. However, using field-based connections and student creativity it was possible to generate high motivation and engagement in a tropical ecology course. This is the follow-up on a project I started as a Huckabay teaching fellow in 2009. My Huckabay project focus was to design a tropical ecology course with components of active and participatory learning, as well as with the incorporation of student participation in real field-based research even if not in the field. In Summer 2009 I taught BIOL 497 Tropical Ecology and I applied innovative approaches to engage students in the topic. I offered a diversity of activities oriented to full participation of students during lectures and student-led discussions. Students learned basic principles of tropical ecology, and also developed in-class activities based on topics and readings assigned. In addition, students worked in research projects in partnership with researchers based in the field at the time. Two students and their field-based partner shared ideas, developed hypothesis and with data collected in the field answered research questions. Students explored on the community structure, behavior and parental relationships of birds in Ecuador and Peru, analyzed primate survey data in the Amazonian rainforest, elaborated molt schedules for birds in the tropical Andes and evaluated effects of urbanization on wildlife in Colombia. Besides working on scientific reports, students also communicated their findings in creative ways and targeting general public (through puppet shows, games, designing children books and others). I conducted assessments of student knowledge pre-and-post course sessions, as well as I received formal feedback from students by the middle of the quarter that was timely incorporated to improve the efficiency of the educational approach. Course reviews were highly positive, and BIO 497 will be offered again in summer 2010

May 3 -Kimberly Sheldon will have a further discussion about the work she presented at UW Teaching and Learning Symposium:
"Integrated Interdisciplinary, International, Inter-Institutional Education: An Evaluation of the IGERT Program for Training Graduate Students"
Global environmental challenges transcend disciplinary, institutional, and political boundaries. Future environmental leaders must be trained accordingly. To be effective, they will need to collaborate successfully with an interdisciplinary, culturally and institutionally diverse group of colleagues. Traditional graduate school programs in the sciences, however, are not designed with this in mind. To address these limitations, the National Science Foundation (NSF) developed the Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT). Each IGERT program must integrate research across disciplines and institutions, and promote an international perspective. Despite this mandate, many IGERT programs fail. The IGERT program at the University of Washington titled Multinational Collaborations to Challenges in the Environment (MCCE) systematically and rigorously integrated interdisciplinary, international, and inter-institutional training. MCCE brought together students from traditionally unrelated disciplines who worked across institutional boundaries and were required to collaborate abroad during their second year of funding. Here, using the MCCE IGERT model of education as a case study, we show how integrated approaches to graduate education enhanced students' abilities to address multifaceted environmental challenges.

May 10- Antonio Lazcano- Departmental seminar speaker on Tuesday
Abstract: The heterotrophic origin of life proposed by Oparin and Haldane in
the 1920’s was part of a Darwinian framework that assumed that living
organisms were the historical outcome of a gradual transformation of
lifeless matter. This idea was strongly opposed by the geneticist H. J.
Muller, who argued that single genes or DNA molecules represented primordial
living systems. Their debates represent not only contrasting views of the
nature of life itself, but also major ideological discussions that reached a
surprising intensity in the years following the 1953 Miller experiment,
which demonstrated the ease with which organic compounds could be
synthesized under putative primitive conditions. During the years following
the Miller experiment, attempts to understand the origin of life were shaped
scientifically by the development of molecular biology and, in
socio-political terms, by the atmosphere created by Cold War tensions.

May 17- Teaching Tips Round table-- bring an idea that worked well in the classroom to share with your colleagues-- this will be a very practical session.

May 24-- looking for a volunteer to present.

May 31- Memorial Day

WINTER 2010
Feb 22- 9 am meeting - HCK 344
grant opportunities
meeting dates for Spring
open classrooms for Spring
**** we have posted (below) a list of grants and projects that BERG members are involved with.
IF you would like to get involved with any of these efforts please contact Mary Pat Wenderoth or Scott Freeman

March 1- 9am meeting 9am
undergraduate students working with Scott Freeman would like to present a study they are developing. They would like BERG's feedback and critique.
there are two papers by Cohen posted below that will serve as background for this project

March 8- 9 am meeting
Scott Freeman gave an overview of a newly-funded NSF CCLI grant awarded to BERG members to compare the effectiveness of different active learning strategies in helping students master difficult concepts in evolutionary biology

Mary Pat and David Haak discussed their on-going project looking at the role of metacognition in student performance. See papers by Kember posted below.

We also had a discussion about the use of Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL). See papers below.

AUTUMN 2009
October 15 3-4 pm -- Alison Crowe and Patty Montano will discuss the study workshop they developed for Biol 200 ( use of Bloom's and metacognition)

November 19, 3-4 pm - Alison Crowe and Mary Pat Wenderoth will report on what they learned at the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning ( IS-SOTL) held in Bloomington , IN Oct 22-25, 2009. ( 650 in attendance)

SUMMER 09
Monday July 13 at 10 am -- Scott will present ideas for "experiments in education"--HHMI
Thursday August 13 at 10 am-- Clarissa Dirks ( The Evergreen State College) and Mary Pat will talk about Science Process Skills survey and results
Thursday Sept 10 at 4pm-- Michael Fleming will discuss what he learned about ecology education at the ESA meeting

Articles by BERG members

mpwenderoth — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:36:22 CST

copies of some articles below

The SingAboutScience.org database: an educational resource for instructors and students. G. J. Crowther
2012 Biochem. Mol. Biol. Educ. 40: 19-22.

Using science songs to enhance learning: an interdisciplinary approach. G. J. Crowther.
2012 CBE Life Sci. Educ. 11(1): in press.

Increased Structure and Active Learning Reduce the Achievement Gap in Introductory Biology
David Hake, Janneke HIlleRisLambers, Emile Pitre, and Scott Freeman
2011, Science 332 (6034): 1213-1216

Increased Course Structure Reduces Fail Rates in Introductory Biology. . Freeman, S., D. Haak, and M.P. Wenderoth

2011 CBE Life Science Education 10 (2):175-186

How Accurate Is Peer Grading? Scott Freeman and John W. Parks
CBE Life Sci Educ 2010: 482–488 (Winter 2010)

Teaching the Process of Science: Faculty Perceptions and an Effective Methodology
David Coil, Mary Pat Wenderoth, Matthew Cunningham, and Clarissa Dirks
CBE Life Sci Educ 2010: 524–535 (Winter 2010)

Application of Bloom’s Taxonomy Debunks the “MCAT Myth”
Alex Y. Zheng,Janessa K. Lawhorn,Thomas Lumley, Scott Freeman
25 January 2008 Vol 319 Science

Biology in Bloom: Implementing Bloom’s Taxonomy to Enhance Student Learning in Biology
Alison Crowe,*† Clarissa Dirks,†‡ and Mary Pat Wenderoth*†
CBE—Life Sciences Education Vol. 7, 368–381, Winter 2008

Prescribed Active Learning Increases Performance in Introductory Biology
Scott Freeman, Eileen O’Connor, John W. Parks, Matthew Cunningham,
David Hurley, David Haak, Clarissa Dirks, and Mary Pat Wenderoth
CBE—Life Sciences Education Vol. 6, 132–139, Summer 2007

Meetings

mpwenderoth — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 15:25:32 CST

Threshold Concept conference

NARST- National Association of Research on Science TeachingThe Philadelphia Downtown Marriott
March 20, 2010 - Executive Board meeting
March 21-24, 2010 - Conference
Philadelphia, PA

IS-SOTL- International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Fall, 2010 in UK

Society for the Study of Evolution

Moscow, ID June 12-16, 2009 Education section provides unique opportunities for SoTL

Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB)
http://www.sicb.org/
January

Cell Biology-teaching section
http://www.ascb.org/
December

Lilly Conference on College and University Teaching
http://www.facit.cmich.edu/lilly/default.shtml

Human Anatomy and Physiology Society (HAPS)
May 2010 Denver Colorado

ASM_CUE: American Society of Microbiology- Conference on Undergraduate Education
May 20, 2010 San Diego, CA

The SoTL Commons Conference,
A Conference for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning (MKL)
March 10-12, 2010 Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA

Annual Conference on Case Study Teaching in Science
http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/p...onference.html
September 25-27 2009 SUNY Buffalo

ESA (Ecological Society of America) Annual Meeting
http://www.esa.org/albuquerque/call_abstracts.php
August 2-7, 2009Albuquerque, NM This year, the conference statement includes an invitation that they "welcome submissions reporting interdisciplinary work, that address communication with broad audiences, or that explore ways of teaching ecology at any level."

ESERA 2009 CONFERENCE (European Science Education Research Association) http://www.esera2009.org August 31st - September 4th 2009 Istanbul, Turkey

Pending grants

mpwenderoth — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:29:45 CST

GATEWAY Learning in Biology.
Alison Crowe, Mary Pat Wenderoth, and Scott Freeman.
submitted to NSF CCLI Phase I, May 2009

Project Summary
Can hypothesis-driven research produce teaching materials that will improve student performance in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)? This project tests the effectiveness of Guided Group Activities To Enhance Ways of Learning in Biology (GATEWAY Learning in Biology). We propose to develop and test GATEWAY activities—in-class, pencil-and-paper exercises done by small groups in a large lecture setting—designed to increase student understanding of three particularly important and difficult concepts for college majors in introductory biology: selection thinking, tree thinking, and principles of experimental design. These concepts are fundamental but are susceptible to well-documented misconceptions and teaching problems.

Intellectual Merit
The research contributes to “scientific teaching”—the effort to design courses and instructional materials based on well-designed experiments that test alternative strategies for maximizing student learning. The work is one of the first examples of “2nd-generation” research in STEM education, where investigators test alternative active learning exercises instead of comparing active-learning to passive-learning approaches.
The project’s focus on guided, in-class activities done by informal small groups applies aspects of studio/workshop, case-based learning, and POGIL instructional models to the large lecture setting. The GATEWAY exercises will be added to a large-enrollment course at the University of Washington (UW) that has implemented innovations such as peer TAs, weekly practice exams, automated response systems (clickers), and inquiry-based labs, but not extensive small-group work. The guided activities will also be used in a small lecture class at a 2-year community college to test their effectiveness in a different student population, class size, and institutional setting. Analysis of students’ written responses and observations of student interactions in the two settings will guide re-design and re-testing of the activities, with the goal of developing materials that have a significant impact on student learning and potential for widespread dissemination. Involvement of numerous undergraduates will deepen the project’s intellectual merit by: (1) providing a conduit for student feedback on the design of the in-class activities, (2) exposing students to STEM education research early in their careers, and (3) providing insight into students’ thought processes that lead to misconceptions of key concepts in biology.

Broader Impact
The GATEWAY activities developed and tested in this research have the potential to impact the approximately 300,000 students who take introductory biology in the U.S. each year. As active-learning materials like these improve student performance, the percentage of underrepresented minority and underprepared students who flourish in introductory biology is rising dramatically. The use of graduate students as research assistants and undergraduates as research advisors for this study helps broaden the base of young professionals with experience in STEM education research. Thanks to extensive collaboration and dissemination work, the project supports the development of a growing and vibrant STEM education research network in the U.S.
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SPARST: Assessing the Process of Science

Clarissa Dirks, The Evergreen State College
Mary Pat Wenderoth, University of Washington
submitted to NSF-CCLi phase I , May 23, 2009

Science process and reasoning skills, such as graphing, data analysis, experimental design, scientific writing, and basic statistics, are crucial components of undergraduate life science curricula as these skills provide the conceptual framework that allows students to develop a deep understanding of science. However, no tool currently exists to assess these skills. The goal of this project is to create, validate, and disseminate an assessment tool (SPARST) that will allow life science faculty to assess students’ acquisition of science process and reasoning skills at both lower and higher cognitive levels.
Intellectual merit:
Faculty view undergraduate acquisition of science process and reasoning skills as very important, and students who learn these skills early in their undergraduate education perform better (see project description; Dirks and Cunningham, 2006). Thus, there is a need to better assess how and when students learn these skills. Without an appropriate tool to assess our teaching of skills, we can only assume that students somehow acquire these skills in their education, which tends to focus primarily on content. We propose to develop SPARST – a reliable, valid, and comprehensive test – to assess students’ understanding and mastery of science process skills. SPARST will help faculty a) better gauge the skill level of incoming students, b) revise undergraduate curricula to better address the teaching of skills along with content, c) create a national network for sharing skill-teaching practices and resources, and d) improve the general science literacy of both science majors and non-majors. SPARST will also help to inform faculty of their effectiveness at teaching skills, resulting in students who are better prepared to enter graduate school or careers in science.
Broader Impact:
This project will enhance diversity in science and improve general science literacy. The lack of science process skills may be an important determinant of which students are at greatest risk for failing introductory courses in the life sciences. At many institutions, such as the University of Washington, undergraduates who are underrepresented minorities or first generation and economically disadvantaged fail introductory biology at twice the rate of other students. Our previous work showed that a) there is a positive correlation between science process skills and introductory biology grades at UW, and b) underrepresented/disadvantaged freshman who take a course specifically designed to teach science process skills have higher average grades in introductory biology than comparable students who do not take the course (Dirks and Cunningham, 2006). Considering that underrepresented groups, on average, tend to be less prepared for college introductory science courses than majority students, SPARST will help science educators to better assess the skill areas in which these students can improve in order to be more academically competitive.
The broader impacts resulting from the proposed activities will be to: 1. Assist under-prepared students in becoming more academically competitive, inclusive of the most underrepresented groups – first generation, economically disadvantaged students and underrepresented minorities. 2. Improve life science curricula by identifying a timeline and approach for teaching science process and reasoning skills in a scaffolding manner. 3. Encourage faculty to equally emphasize the learning of skills and content in their courses. 4. Expand faculty networks for disseminating SPARST and other materials that will improve the teaching of science process and reasoning skills to all students. 5. Enhance general science literacy through best practices for teaching the scientific process to both majors and non-majors.

BERG current projects

mpwenderoth — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:23:25 CST

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

Education Research Papers of Note

alisoncrowe — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:53:51 CST

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

Journals- Sci Ed

mpwenderoth — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:33:54 CDT

A list of journals that publish science education research- please add your favorite journal

A thorough list of Biology Education journals compiled by the Central Florida Libraries Alphabetical list

Advances in Physiology Education

Active Learning in Higher Education

Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Education (BAMBE)

BioScience journal of the American Institute of Biology Sciences

CBE-LIfe Science Education (LSE-used to be Cell Biology Education)

International Journal of Science Education

Journal of Biology Education (UK) published by the Institute of Biology

Journal of College Science TeachingA peer-reviewed journal published by the National Science Teachers Association

Journal of Excellence in College Teachingis a peer-reviewed journal published at Miami University by and for faculty at universities and two- and four-year colleges to increase student learning through effective teaching, interest in and enthusiasm for the profession of teaching, and communication among faculty about their classroom experiences. Sponosored by Lily Conference on College and University Teaching

Journal of Microbiology and Biology Educuation (JMBE)Established in 2000, the annual publication Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education (formerly Microbiology Education) features articles driven by outcomes-based research in student learning.JMBE recognizes educators who are at the forefront of cognitive research in microbiology and biology education

Journal of Research in Science Teaching -- published by National Association of Research on Science Teaching (NARST)

Journal of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Founded in 2001, the Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (JoSoTL) is a forum for the dissemination of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in higher education for the community of teacher-scholars. Our peer reviewed Journal promotes SoTL investigations that are theory-based and supported by evidence.

Journal of Science Education

Journal of Student Centered LearningThe Journal of Student Centered Learning is a resource for the exchange of both practical and theoretical information regarding the planning, design, implementation, and assessment of practices and programs that enhance college teaching and learning through student centered learning

Science has an Education Forum and as of Jan 2009 will also publish research in science ed.

Science Education

June 18 mtg

mpwenderoth — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:06:16 CDT

Minutes from the first meeting
Goals: ( in no particular order)
Create new methods for teaching Biology that will be adopted by faculty around the world,
Produce research based teaching methods.
Develop hypotheses concerning student learning in Biology that are testable.
Create guidelines for conducting rigorous biology education research.
Provide a forum to discuss effective teaching methods.
Create a network of faculty, grad students and post-docs across the UW tri-campuses to facilitate collaborations on grants and studies.
Create a certificate program in college science pedagogy for graduate students. This will serve as a pilot for a National Certification program by AAAS or HHMI.
Create mentored teaching opportunities for graduate students.

Actions: (for now)
will hold one meeting a month for the summer months-- in HCK 546

Monday July 13 at 10 am -- Scott will present ideas for "experiments in education"--HHMI
Thursday August 13 at 10 am
Thursday Sept 10 at 4pm

Autumn:
will hold a biweekly journal club- focus data papers

Winter:
TBD

Spring:
BEGOODD will host the journal club

Annual seminar speaker on recent advances in Science Education

In attendance
Michael Fleming- graduate student, Biology
David Haak-graduate student, Biology
Brooks Miner- graduate student, Biology
Cristy Walcher - graduate student, Biology
Bryan White- graduate student, Neurobiology- PIP fellow, Program in Interdisciplinary Pedagogy at Bothell
Becka Price- Faculty, Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, UW Bothell
Martha Groom-Faculty, Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, UW Bothell
Mark Servetnick -Faculty, Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, UW Bothell
Linda Martin Morris- Faculty, Biology, UW Seattle
Scott Freeman-Faculty, Biology, UW Seattle
Karen Petersen-Faculty, Biology, UW Seattle
Liz Van Volkenburgh-Faculty, Biology, UW Seattle
Mary Pat Wenderoth-Faculty, Biology, UW Seattle

Articles for CCLI - Intro Biology project

mpwenderoth — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:01:05 CDT

POGIL publications from http://new.pogil.org/effectiveness/

Farrell, J. J., Moog, R. S., and Spencer, J. N. (1999). A guided inquiry general chemistry course. J. Chem. Educ., 76, 570-574.
Hanson, D., and Wolfskill, T. (2000). Process Workshops - A New Model For Instruction. J. Chem. Educ., 77, 120-130.
Hinde, R. J., and Kovac, J. (2001). Student Active Learning in Physical Chemistry. J. Chem. Educ., 78, 93-99.
Lewis, J. E., and Lewis, S. E. (2005). Departing from lectures: An evaluation of a peer-led guided inquiry alternative. J. Chem. Educ., 82(1), 135-139.
McKnight, G. (2004). Unpublished results.
Straumanis, A, and Simon, E. A. . (2006). Manuscript submitted to J. Res. Sci. Teach.

Concept inventory article

Natural selection:

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/100519786/PDFSTART

Biology tutorials for engineers: funded by HHMI

http://depts.washington.edu/mllab/biologyTutorial/tutorial.html
BioLiteracy: the Biology Concept Inventory
http://bioliteracy.net/

TREE THINKING
Symposium on Tree thinking in undergraduate biology
The Tree Thinking Group- home page

Biology POGIL
Biology POGIL activities ( Dave found this web site)
Collection of Biology POGIL exercises

The Center for Connected Learning (CCL) and computer-based Modeling
Northwestern University== these plus more

Modeling Across the Curriculum

Investigating Long-Term Science Learning Through Exploration of Models
BEAGLE: Simulated Evolution
A Suite of Models for Investigating Evolution, Adaptation, and Natural and Artificial Selection