Mini Workshops are 45-minute, drop-in sessions on Friday, June 20. Topics range from wet lab techniques to discussions on pedagogical research and practice. Abstracts are below, sorted by time of presentation.
SESSION I: 8:30 – 9:20am
Twenty Years of Inquiry-based Labs: Does it Work?
Kathy Nomme, University of British Columbia, Room: Klamath 5
Can 800+ first-year (freshman) students design and implement their own experiments in biology? You bet! Twenty years ago we developed a lab program where cohorts of 600 to 1,000 students are guided through an inquiry-based approach to answering biological questions. One of our central goals is “to develop and practice scientific thinking and to apply the scientific process”. In this 12-week lab course we guide our students to think like scientists. We have them by pose hypotheses, design and modify their own experiments, analyze and interpret their results in a biologically meaningful manner. We first introduce students to common organisms in the local environment and their responses to changes in the ecosystem. Students, working in small groups then design either a ‘measured-response’ or a ‘choice’ experiment. The students order equipment, materials and the necessary organisms to implement the experiment for two separate three-hour lab periods. Using basic statistics, the students determine whether their results show significant effects of their factor and provide a biological explanation of their results in both written and oral format. In this workshop we will outline how this course is delivered and provide participants with an opportunity to try one of the activities we use to introduce students to handling their animals and possible experimental procedures. Does it work? We will also share past and present student perceptions of the course as well as documented student gains in scientific thinking using experimental design and the interpretation of data concept inventories.
Fish Bowl Biomes: A Hands-on Approach to Teaching Climate and Climate Change
Rachel Jones, University of Wyoming, Room: Klamath 13
Non-major science students often have a difficult time conceptualizing how climate works and how it may change over time. There are few hands-on climate and climate change labs that are appropriate for non- major undergraduate students. We have developed a ‘fish bowl biome’ exercise to help students consider climate and how it may change in response to a variety of factors. At the beginning of this lab students hypothesize how climate differs in biomes around the globe, and then circulate around the lab to document temperatures from digital readings in 8 separate ‘fish bowl biomes’: marine, freshwater, polar desert, taiga, grassland, desert, rainforest, and city. We then modify some of the environments before discussing climate change in detail. Near the end of lab, students take final temperature readings and then graph their findings and develop conclusions prior to discussion. This exercise allows students to be actively learning to understand how climate works. It models the nature of science as they experiment to investigate climate and change over time.
Documenting Open Circulation in Ghost Shrimp
Marianne Niedzlek-Feaver, University of North Carolina, Room: Klamath 21
On of the favorite physiological distinctions made in most introductory biology classes is between open and closed circulatory systems. To illustrate the function of both, most courses usually rely on dissections. Closed circulatory systems often better survive preservation in models, such as the earthworm, than open systems in model species, such as crayfish. Students have difficulty finding the crayfish heart, let alone major vessels. It is almost impossible for them to document that major arteries end a short distance from the heart. To allow students to monitor open circulation, we use living specimens of species labeled as “ghost” or “glass” shrimp (Paleomonetes sp.) by suppliers. Students can not only easily monitor heart beating but also watch the fluid move from the heart into the short anterior or posterior artery. Participants will be provided with access to downloadable movies made by our students that they can use in their classrooms. If shrimps survive transport, it will also be possible to document open circulation under stereoscopes. We have kept these shrimp alive in good numbers in small tanks with minimal care for about a year. Although no attempt has been made to raise the young, a few larvae appear to escape the filters and develop into adults. A remaining problem seems to be in obtaining animals in good condition from suppliers, or even sending our own acclimated animals, so that they arrive in good condition.
How to Make Scientific Paper Reading Fun: Journal Club Style Role-playing as a Tool of Scientific Paper Dissection in Biology Laboratories
Mark A. Sarvary, Cornell University, Room: Klamath 33
Inquiry-based laboratories often require students to find and read primary literature on their own, build their knowledge on a certain topic and base their experiments on that background information they collected. Reading scientific papers also improve students’ science communication skills and their ability to write better lab reports. The major challenge is to have students understand a scientific paper, while reading it. To many students scientific jargon is a foreign language, and this workshop will discuss how to help students tackle the challenge of understanding their first scientific papers. Many lab courses ask students to present a paper, in a journal club style, but these presentations are dull, and often just repeat what is in the paper, instead of regurgitating that information. Role-playing is a powerful tool in teaching in social sciences and its application is endless in biology teaching. Attendees of this workshop will learn how to apply simple role-playing to science paper dissection, will take on three roles (discussion leader, data master and devil’s advocate) and learn how to assess students in these journal clubs. These paper dissection exercises emphasize teamwork, help students dissect papers in a fun way, and teach them about science communication.
NANSLO, A Fully Actualized Remote Science Teaching Lab
Paul (PJ) Bennett, Colorado Community College System, Room: Huestis 111
The North American Network of Science Labs Online (NANSLO) is an international collaboration between nine institutions in the United States and Canada. Currently in its third year, NANSLO is using open source licensing to construct a network of online, Internet controllable, real-time, teaching laboratories. NANSLO’s goal is to provide real-time operational access to challenging inquiry-based laboratory procedures run on high-quality scientific instrumentation to students outside traditional laboratory environments. NANSLO’s open-source inquiry-based laboratory procedures can be modified by instructors for any science course. Presently we offer experiments in first year biology, chemistry, and physics courses. Our two operational labs (North Island College in Canada and the Colorado Community College System in the United States) have a capacity of 67,200 student contact hours per year our third lab (Montana State University: Great Falls College in the United States) will add 19,200 student contact hours per year in fall 2014. At present most of our Biology labs center around the Nikon Eclipse Ci microscope with Prior robotic slide loaders. We have also developed Biology labs using ultraviolet/visible light spectrometers and pH meters. Which we are using for; enzyme catalysis and diffusion labs, and titrations and acid base labs respectively. This workshop will be presented in a computer lab where I will guide participants in accessing and using our Colorado based microscopes in real time. While the participants explore the use of our microscope I will lead them in a discussion of possible uses of this technology.
Helping Students Develop Strong Communication Skills: Clear Data Presentation and Effective Feedback
Seong Min Kim, University of California Irvine, Room: Huestis 112
Is it always easier said than done? For students who lack confidence presenting, it might be a lot easier for them to do an experiment than explain it. Effective communication is a key competency students must develop in order for them to actively participate in the scientific community. Unfortunately, students are often left to themselves to figure out how to convey technical and complex information effectively. What is even more challenging is for students to give constructive feedback that will help their peers improve their communication skills. The intent of this workshop is to demonstrate a hands-on activity that could help students learn how to organize and present data clearly, and give constructive feedback. This activity was developed by GAANN (Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need) fellows in the department of Developmental and Cell Biology at University of California, Irvine and was implemented before a journal club session with emphasis in helping the incoming graduate students in the department. The activity can be modified to target different audiences, such as undergraduate and graduate students. By working in groups to help improve a “messy” presentation, participants will be able to practice organizing and displaying research data, and sharing feedback with peers.
Identifying Potential Targets of Interesting microRNAs
Pavan Kadandale, University of California Irvine, Room: Huestis 129
Although only becoming prominent in the late 1990s, the world of gene regulation by micro-RNAs (miRs) is expanding at a dizzying rate, as we discover more about their relevance to health and disease. Today, miRs are being investigated as drug targets, as well as potential therapeutics for diseases ranging from cancer to jet lag! This lab module uses in silico approaches to identifying potential targets of specific miRs of interest. Along the way, students are exposed to primer design for PCRs, database mining, combining information from different data sets to make intelligent predictions, and the shortfalls of bioinformatics approaches in biology research. The primers designed in this module are then used in a wet lab module where students can actually test if their predictions for miR targets are borne out experimentally. All of the tools used in this module are available online for free, making this a very economical lab module to run. This is also a particularly exciting module since it incorporates an authentic research experience, potentially identify interesting miR targets that have not yet been discovered. At UCI, this module is being used in conjunction with the research laboratory of Dr. Irene Pedersen to actually identify novel targets of interesting miRs in human cell lines.
Making Research Papers Less Painful
Pam Connerly, Indiana University Southeast, Room: Huestis 130
I have successfully incorporated an intensive research paper assignment into my upper-level Cell Biology course at Indiana University Southeast for many years. The 8-12 page paper about an organelle or cellular structure of the student’s choosing requires a minimum number of primary articles as sources, and specifies that one primary source must be discussed in depth, with details about methods, results, and conclusions. Students come to the course with a wide range of experience and skill in paper writing. I have created multiple mini-assignments leading up to the full research paper including submitting the topic, an outline, an annotated bibliography, and a draft of at least two sections of the paper. These mini- assignments are due approximately every 2-3 weeks leading up to the final paper submission deadline.
Most students who take these mini-assignments seriously find them helpful in building up to their final paper. A recent revision of the paper assignment to be shorter in length seems to maintain the usefulness of assignment, while alleviating some of the anxiety for students and grading time for faculty. In this mini workshop, I will present details about my experiences with student research papers and lead a discussion with attendees on their techniques, reflections, and suggestions. I look forward to a broad discussion about making in-depth scientific literature research and culminating writing assignments a positive tool for learning biology.>
SESSION II: 11:00 – 11:50am
Practical Assessment of Basic Skills in High-Enrollment Biology Lab Courses
Aaron Coleman, University of California, San Diego, Room: Klamath 5
Authentic assessment in undergraduate biology courses should measure learning of widely applicable skills and concepts that benefit the student outside of the course in which that material is learned. This is particularly true in laboratory courses, which can provide the real-life, marketable skills required to engage in research and work in a laboratory setting. Practical assessment that directly tests physical laboratory skills, such as pipetting and microscope use, is widely accepted to be the most valuable measure in this regard. Despite the value of this approach, the logistical challenges involved can make lab practical assessment difficult to implement in a meaningful way. Lack of time, equipment, and feasible rubrics for measuring lab skills are problems that are compounded in high-enrollment lab courses with a low instructor to student ratio. We will present two lab practical exercises that measure routinely-used skills in the molecular biology laboratory. The first exercise assesses pipetting ability and dilution math, and the second assess the ability to use a microcentrifuge and work accurately with small pellets. Both of these exercises are currently used in our high-enrollment molecular biology and biochemistry lab course. They have been optimized to be high-throughput and easy to implement, while still providing valuable measures of these lab skills and being fun and engaging for the students. These exercises will be discussed in the broader context of expanding practical assessment use in undergraduate biology lab courses.
Testing the Waters: Things Are Not Always What They Seem!
Kathleen Nolan, St. Francis College, Room: Klamath 13
In this workshop, participants will see if they can differentiate tap from spring water. This then leads into a discussion of where our water supply comes from and its safety. This exercise has been successfully used for an Honors Current Water and Sustainability course, as well as in General Biology and Ecology courses. Remember: things are not always what they seem!
The Cost of Reproduction in Bean Beetles
Emily Boone, University of Richmond, Room: Klamath 21
The principle of allocation states that life histories of organisms are based on a series of trade-offs designed to maximize the overall fitness of an individual. In other words, if organisms use energy for one function such as reproduction then the amount of energy available for other functions is reduced. In juveniles of a species, energy is divided between survival and growth. Once the organism reaches sexual maturity however, those same energy resources must now be divided among survival, growth and reproduction. For many organisms, the cost of reproduction comes in the form of reduced longevity. The bean beetle, Callosobruchus maculatus is an ideal organism for examining reproductive costs because it only feeds during the larval stage. This lack of feeding as an adult means that the beetle will have a finite among of energy resources to draw on as it completes its lifecycle, making it an ideal organism for students to explore the costs of reproduction. This mini workshop will help you add a simple multi week physiology component to your repertoire of bean beetle labs.
Creating Celebrity Offspring: Understanding Allele Inheritance
Brianna Wright, University of Wyoming, Room: Klamath 33
Understanding the relationship among DNA, genes, chromosomes and alleles is challenging for most students at the undergraduate level. Connecting scientific concepts to material students care about and find relevant is especially difficult in a non-majors biology course. Here we share a lab activity that we developed for non-major students to be used in combination with a DNA/genetics wet lab or as an active learning exercise during lecture. This activity asks students to investigate the heredity of alleles from celebrity parents. Students are given facial photographs of a celebrity couple and table outlining the various facial genotypes presented. They are then asked to determine which alleles would contribute to their potential offspring, having to flip a coin in cases where parents are heterozygous for a trait. Students record their offspring genotypes and then assemble their child’s senior picture by cutting out the phenotypic traits from each parent and assembling them. Students then post their assembled photo in the front of the room, or electronically in a learning management system, for all to see. Students find this hilarious exercise engaging and relevant. This lab activity allows us to review inheritance concepts and ask new questions related to the hereditability of traits.
Group Formation to Support an Integrated Approach to the Study of Animal Diversity
Lara Gibson, Dalhousie University, Room: Huestis 111
In order to reinforce the idea that the study of animal diversity relates to all biology topics, I get my second year animal diversity students to self-identify based on their area of interest (either cell/ physiology, genetics/ developmental, evolution or ecology/ conservation). After they select a topic, four- member groups are assembled with one member from each topic area. Groups are given a real world problem related to one of the taxa (i.e. cnidarians or fish) and are asked to propose the next research steps. Subsequent labs relate to taxa discussed in lecture, starting with porifera and moving through to mammalia, and groups present their solutions and next steps at the start of the appropriate lab. This structure illustrates the importance of considering multiple lines of inquiry in addressing complex issues such as species invasion, habitat loss or population blooms. Attendees of this workshop will follow the same structure and work in groups to address the real world problems and create a short (2 minute) presenta tion
Image J
Debra Mauzy-Melitz, University of California Irvine, Room: Huestis 112
An Image is more than just a beautiful picture. For scientists, images contain a wealth of information. Image processing can complement many of the current biology laboratories. Image J is a free, easy to use image processing program, developed by the National Institutes of Health, widely used in research applications. Image J also supports standard imaging processing functions allowing students to crop, manipulate contrast or subtract background. Java plugins and macros have been developed by Image J users to expand the functionality of the program. Multiple tutorials as well as YouTube videos are available to help users. With almost every aspect of Image J. At the University of California Irvine, Image J is used in the Developmental and Cell biology labs to give students an appreciation for microscopic quantitative techniques. Students analyze their own images and images obtained from research. Measurements, conversion from pixels to micrometers, area determinations, density profiles, histograms and particle counts are typical Image J applications. This workshop will give participants hands-on opportunities to explore Image J capabilities and assess the usefulness of image J in instructional lab settings. Examples of student work as well as common errors will be discussed.
Incorporation of Writing Assignments into Large Introductory Biology Laboratory Courses.
Chris Garside and Jill Wheeler, University of Toronto, Room: Huestis 129
We use writing assignments as one way to assess students’ scientific literacy and understanding of the key concepts in our introductory laboratory courses. These large enrolment courses typically require over 20 teaching assistants per course. Numerous challenges can arise when working with such a large and diverse team of TAs. Written assignments necessarily introduce interpretation and encourage students to ‘think outside of the box’. Of primary concern is maintaining fairness and consistency in the grades awarded across TAs and in the effectiveness of the formative feedback provided by each TA. However, it can be difficult to prepare marking guidelines that promote consistency among TAs but still allow TAs sufficient flexibility to recognize and reward the independent thinking of students. Over numerous years, we have developed a process that addresses these challenges. Our approach has been to design marking rubrics, provide TAs with a strategy to grade the assignments, and to collectively grade samples of the assignment with the TAs (i.e., benchmarking). In this mini-workshop, we will discuss in detail how we accomplish each of these components and their relative merits. We will also provide some results of our pedagogical analysis of the implementation of these assignments.
Science Café: Make Dissemination of Science Fun!
Kathleen Gifford, Science Cabaret, Ithaca, NY; Room: Huestis 130
Scientific communication is a large part of the curriculum of many biology laboratory courses. However, the communication of science does not stop at writing lab reports and scientific papers. More and more inquiry-based labs take students further than hypothesis testing and paper writing, and students and instructors seek new venues to communicate science with a non-scientific audience. A Science café (sciencecabaret.org) has been established in Ithaca, NY in 2005, helping both Cornell and Ithaca College scientists disseminate science to the public. This workshop will discuss how to start Science Cafés on- and off-campus, what challenges presenters may face, and what makes a scientific presentation in a science café effective. Instructors can use these ideas to start their off-campus science cafes to bring the community closer to campus, or to start on-campus science cafes giving a forum to the students in the laboratory course to present their scientific discoveries to their peers. Dissemination of science to the public is very challenging to many scientists, so the earlier the students face this task, the better science communicators they will become. Attendees of this workshop will gain from the nearly decade-long experience of the curators, and have hands-on experience of preparing science café presentations.>
SESSION III: 1:30 – 2:20pm
Learning Evolution in the “Lecture” Room: Using Post-It® Notes Size Variation to Learn About Population Frequency Distributions
Lawrence Blumer, Morehouse College, Room: Klamath 5
One of the key underpinning concepts for learning how evolution occurs, is the mathematical and graphical description of populations as frequency distributions of individual phenotypes. Phenotypic variation, regardless of its cause (environmental or genetic) is best described in terms of a frequency histogram that is generally abbreviated by simply drawing the shape of the histogram across the range of the variation to be described. A frequency histogram of the existing phenotypic variation is necessarily the starting point for describing how a population may change as a consequence of natural selection, or any other cause for evolutionary change (mutation, genetic drift, or migration). Consequently, when students do not conceptualize the smooth curve of a frequency distribution as the actual representation of the numbers of individuals exhibiting each form (or categories) of a trait, subsequent discussions on how natural selection causes populations to change are undermined. An in-lecture activity using Post-It® Notes of different sizes permits students in small groups to quickly and easily create population frequency histograms, calculate population trait means, and evaluate the effects of selection. This activity takes very little time away from lecture and is very inexpensive. However, this activity makes population frequency histograms more concrete, and permits students to make the link between the shape of their Post-It® Note histograms and the more abstract smooth line frequency distributions that are used to describe the responses of populations to natural selection.
Demystifying Osmotic Potential, One Factor in the Plant Water Potential Equation
Rosemary Ford, Washington College, Room: Klamath 13
Water movement in plants depends on two energy-related factors: osmotic potential (the influence of solutes) and pressure potential (hydrostatic or turgor pressure). Pressure changes are easy for students to visualize as they can follow changes in the weights of potato cores that were immersed in increasing concentrations of sugar. In these solutions they become either more rigid as they take up water (increased hydrostatic pressure) or become limp with water loss (decreased hydrostatic pressure). Osmotic potential is a more difficult concept to understand. Here is a way to estimate the solute concentration in cell sap without needing an osmometer or measuring freezing-point depression. Plant tissue is pulverized to release a crude cell extract that is then centrifuged to remove cell debris and starch. The cell sap is stained with methylene blue as a visual indicator. A small drop of this extract is placed in the middle of tubes containing the concentrations of sorbitol (0 – 0.6 M). The extract will rise, sink, or hover where it was placed. The latter represents the isosmotic condition, which is representative of the cell’s osmotic potential (after converting concentration to MPa using the van’t Hoff equation). Students can use this method to compare the osmotic potential of various plant tissues (e.g. potato vs banana), monitor changes in osmotic potential during the fruit ripening process (green vs ripe banana), or construct a Höfler plot to illustrate osmotic and pressure potential differences in the various solutions.
Termites in Cow Pies: A Study of Symbiosis
William (Bill) Glider, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Room: Klamath 21
Termites are a complex group of social insects. Although termites have been associated mainly with damage, less than 10% of the species are actually pests. The hind gut of lower termites contains a high concentration of flagellated protozoa mixed in with bacteria, archaebacteria and fungi (primarily yeast). The termite hindgut and its symbionts form a microaerophilic ecosystem. A unique characteristic of the symbiotic protozoa is their ability to synthesize a group of enzymes (cellulases) which catalyze the digestion of cellulose. Although small amounts of cellulases are produced by the termite gut, the termites are highly dependent on the protozoa for the production of large enough quantities of the products of this digestion to sustain the termites. The end products of this digestion are used as nutrients by the termite as well as the other micoroganisms in the gut. Termites will be collected from cow dung (cow pies) imported from Western Nebraska. Wet mount squashes of the hind gut of the termites will be examined to identify the protozoa and the other symbionts living in the gut. An open ended discussion will follow the lab exercise focusing on the finer points of the termite-microorganism relationship. This lab exercise was initially used in a majors biology course taught at our field station. Variations of the exercise have been used in both majors and non-majors introductory biology courses on campus; employing both traditional and directed investigative approaches.
Use of Molecular Markers to Map a Trait in Arabidopsis thaliana
Jennifer Klenz, University of British Columbia, Room: Klamath 33
Genetic linkage mapping is initially taught to students in lectures using morphological traits. Many genetics lecture courses also introduce students to the idea of linkage mapping with molecular markers, but students struggle to understand that bands on gels are just another segregating phenotype used for linkage analysis. In this laboratory exercise students perform PCRs with a series of different mapped primers on small populations of Arabidopsis plants to map a mutation with an obvious visual phenotype to a physical location on a chromosome. The different primers tested amplify different SSLP (short sequence length polymorphism) alleles segregating in the F2 plants tested. The PCR results are easily visualized on agarose gels. Students are able to analyze their data and powerfully show where crossovers had to have occurred in the F1 parent to create the recombinants they observe in the F2. Students demonstrate an understanding of the interconnected concepts of meiosis, segregation, crossing over and linkage. In this workshop, participants will have an opportunity to analyze real student data to both estimate the location of the mutation on a specific chromosome and, tell the story of where specific crossovers occurred in the parents of some individual plants. By being able to do both these tasks participants will understand why this lab exercise works so well, not just to teach molecular markers, but to have students take ownership of the fundamental genetic principles we want them to know as biologists.
Integrating the Software Package “R” in Skill-based Introductory Biology Labs to Enhance Student Graphing Skills
Michael S. Berger, Washington State University – Vancouver, Room: Huestis 111
Students in introductory biology courses frequently lack basic skills that involve visual representation of data, such as graphing. I developed an introductory biology lab exercise that utilized the software package “R” as a learning tool to help students improve their graphing skills. Learning goals focused on: (1) understanding components used to construct an informative graph; (2) competency in the visual display of data; (3) learning how to use the software package “R.” The software package “R” is an open source script-based software package that can be used with a graphical user interface. The use of a script based software removes the “back-box” effect that can limit conceptual understanding of the components involved in the process of visually representing data. Students were introduced to “R” and provided with step-by-step tutorials that guided them through the process of generating graphs. I will present this graphing exercise and walk workshop participants through the process of actively engaging students in constructing an informative graph. Workshop participants will use a hands-on approach to learn the basic skills necessary to use the software package “R” in classroom setting. The skills developed in this exercise can be adopted for lower or upper division courses across many disciplines. I will present data and comments from a student survey that assessed the positive aspects and shortcomings of this skill-based exercise, so workshop participants will know what worked well and what did not work as well.
Use of HTML-based DNA Fingerprinting Simulations to Enhance Student Learning and Critical Thinking in Introductory Biology Courses
Betty L Black, North Carolina State University, Room: Huestis 112
The workshop will introduce an html5/JavaScript version of our popular Java applets on DNA “fingerprinting” which now will run on almost all platforms and operating systems, including Apple iPads. The two programs both generate RFLP banding patterns that require students to extend and apply what they have learned about biotechnology. One program contains DNA bands from four individuals, and the student must chose which three are family members and which one is unrelated. In the second program, DNA from a mother and three of her children are shown along with two potential fathers. Students must choose the father of each child or indicate that the real father is neither of these. Both programs indicate whether a student’s answer is correct, with additional attempts allowed for incorrect answers. The user the may request an unlimited number of new data sets as generated by an algorithm. Workshop members will work with both programs and learn how we use them as part of a longer exercise that includes Jeffrey’s first use of the RFLP method compared to current methods that are used to present courtroom evidence (CODIS). If time permits, an alternate activity will be presented using imaginary creatures whose social groupings resemble those of modern day lemurs. These simulations can be used in many ways, including online components of a laboratory, active learning exercises in the classroom, and web-based homework. Workshop participants may obtain the products immediately by download to their flash drive or later via a web link.
MTSI (Mid-Term Student Interview): An Intervention Process for Teaching Feedback
Kristen Miller, The University of Georgia, Room: Huestis 129
This mini-workshop will describe the development and use of the MTSI (Mid-Term Student Interview) as a means to gather mid-term student feedback about teaching practices and how they affect student learning. Although most higher education institutions give end-of-semester evaluations, the students who provide feedback do not directly benefit as they have completed the course and have moved on. At the same time, the instructor is left with feedback that can only be applied to future teaching assignments. The MTSI is a process by which a trained teaching consultant (also a non-biased third party) meets with a class approximately half way through a teaching term and through a short questionnaire and peer discussion, helps students to prioritize their struggles with their instructor’s teaching practices. The consultant then meets with the instructor for a consultation to review all feedback, using the meeting to focus on prioritized student issues. Preliminary data indicate that both instructors and students report benefits to using this process including better communication between and clarified expectations of instructors and students. This workshop will be interactive so that participants can discuss and share issues related to student evaluations of teaching, teaching preparation for instructors, and sustainability of the MTSI process.
Engaging Students in Thoughtful Lab Report Writing: Lessons from 49 Do-Overs
Janice Bonner, Notre Dame of Maryland University, Room: Huestis 130
An ongoing challenge for laboratory instructors is how to best deal with lab reports, especially in an introductory biology course. Many students enter college with little or no experience in this area and are overwhelmed by the number of details to which they should pay attention. The instructor must consider how many lab reports the student should write over a semester, how detailed the reports should be, and how to incorporate the opportunity for students to edit their work. This mini workshop will present ideas developed from 49 attempts to teach an introductory biology course—25 years of trying with one semester off for sabbatical. It will suggest ways to present lab reports to students, to develop rubrics that encourage thoughtful engagement by students in lab report writing and editing, and to simplify the grading process for the instructor. Contributions to the discussion from participants will be encouraged.
SESSION IV: 3:00 – 3:50pm
Modeling Diffusion
Greg Butcher, Centenary College of Louisiana, Room: Klamath 5
In order to expose students to mathematical modeling of biological processes and increase their understanding of diffusion, the following lab was developed for use in 100-level, majors/non-majors Biology and Neuroscience courses. Diffusion was selected as we’ve found that students often have a difficult time discarding misconceptions in the face of contradictory new information. The activity begins with generation of a modeled data set that predicts movement of dye molecules at an interface with a permeable gel. This greatly simplified model uses coin-flips to replicate the random movement of molecules into or away from the gel interface. The class results (240 data points per student) are collapsed into a single data set that is then used to predict the movement of real dye molecules over time. The modeled dataset is then compared to results obtained experimentally with gelatin and food coloring dye. As the model doesn’t account for all variables it inevitably deviates from the observable diffusion. This allows for class discussions about the strengths and weaknesses of mathematical models and fundamental properties of diffusion. Compared to a control class, which received traditional lecture/ lab materials, the described lab produced a significant increase in students’ understanding of the properties of diffusion that persisted for at least two months (until the end of the semester).
Construction of Phylogenetic Trees in a Non-Majors Biology Laboratory as a Means of Teaching Biodiversity
Brian Forster, Saint Joseph’s University, Room: Klamath 13
One of the challenges in teaching a general biology course to non-science majors in a lecture-lab setting is the topic of biodiversity. Students approach this topic by trying to remember facts about each organism, major division or phyla presented to them. Rather, the student does not try to make connections and see relationships between different groups of organisms. As a result, the student becomes overwhelmed and disengaged in the learning process. We have developed a laboratory-based exercise where students complete (and/or develop) a phylogenetic tree encompassing the organisms they encounter both in the lecture and laboratory. Students are assigned to complete the tree as they work through a series of biodiversity laboratories covering prokaryotes and the four kingdoms of Domain Eukarya. This activity was first assigned to the 95 students taking our Fall 2013 non-majors, lab-based general biology class. Students commented in end of semester surveys that the assignment was helpful when studying. On a scale of 1 through 5 (5 being the most useful), approximately 75% of these students ranked the usefulness of the activity a 4 or 5. We suggest that such an activity can be implemented and adapted for any general biology course offered to non-science majors.
Overcoming Challenges to Creating Large Enrollment Inquiry Based Introductory Labs
Dianne Jennings, Virginia Commonwealth University, Room: Klamath 21
Transitioning a traditional introductory biology lab to an inquiry-based lab can be challenging, but doing so in a large enrollment lab (~1500 students/year) with a limited budget can be daunting. We will present some of the key issues that we faced in the design of labs that (1) could be completed in three hours with up to 24 students, (2) involved the application of key concepts in an experimental format, (3) promoted critical thinking skills, (4) contained some scientific writing component weekly and (5) were not cost prohibitive. As our labs are taught by TAs or adjuncts we had the additional the challenge of implementing labs that were occasionally outside the TAs/adjuncts area of comfort/expertise. Rather than revamp the labs completely we have used a slower approach that allows our labs to evolve as our student population changes over time. We will share how we addressed some of the issues we faced through the design of online materials to help to prepare students for the labs, to work students through the components of writing a basic research paper and summaries of experimental results, to help create consistency across multiple lab sections, and to lighten the workload of the TAs/adjuncts. In addition, a discussion and demonstration of how we used simple and inexpensive materials to enable students to design group and individual experiments, to test samples experimental samples and analyze the resulting data, and to foster basic laboratory skills will be included.
Using Colored Pop-beads and 4-sided Dice to Simulate Genetic Drift
Douglas P. Jensen, Converse College, Room: Klamath 33
While most students can understand the process of genetic drift as it occurs in the founder effect and ecological bottlenecks, they often find the drift in random mating to be abstract and theoretical. I have developed a model of genetic drift using the pop-beads that are often utilized in chromosome manipulative exercises. In this model, students place a number of pop-beads, either individually or stuck in pairs into a container, their colors representing alleles. These represent a population of asexual organisms or of diploid sexually reproducing organisms, respectively. Students then blindly remove specified numbers of beads, which become the mating individuals of the population. To model an asexual population, the beads chosen reproduce to create the next generation of the population. To model a sexually reproducing population, students choose pairs of individuals and roll 4-sided dice to determine the outcome of each mating event. The change within a population may be followed for several generations. Instructors may change various parameters of the model to help students explore their impact on drift. Using this model, students can better understand the relationship between the probabilistic events of individual matings and the end results on the genetic diversity within a population of organisms.
Clickers in the Biology Lab: A Tool Used for More Than Just Taking Attendance
Ana Medrano, University of Houston, Room: Huestis 111
The University of Houston has a very large freshman student population and in order to meet the demand, we currently run 44 sections of Introductory Biology labs each semester. For the past two years we have been using clickers to assess students’ preparedness by running a quiz at the beginning of most labs. Our lab (clicker) quizzes are designed to test students on knowledge based in the prior lab (75%) and on their reading for the lab to be covered that day (25%). Clickers are used in the lecture hall portion of the Introductory Biology course as a way to increase the interaction among students and between students and the Professor. They are a great tool to take attendance in big 200 – 500 student classes, as well as a good method to assess the understanding of concepts. This has resulted a very effective and quick way to measure student performance in these courses. We are currently working on introducing activities that include the use of clickers, such as case studies, as part of a laboratory exercise. Here, participants will have an opportunity to practice using clickers as the students do in class. Examples of creative use of clickers will be provided with the participants playing the role of student. Participants will also have the opportunity to experiment in the software interface to see how clicker questions are built right into a PowerPoint slide show and how to manage the data on the backend of the process.
Mining the Genome of Callosobruchus maculatus, Bean Beetle, with a Little Help From Genetic Model Organisms
Marilee Ramesh, Roanoke College, Room: Huestis 112
The number of whole genome sequencing projects has increased rapidly as the technology has made sequencing at this level cheaper and easier to complete. The result has been a vast amount of raw data that could be used as fodder for inquiry-based student projects. A comparative genetic approach utilizes characterized genes from a model system as probes to search for similar genes in the genomes of less studied systems. I have developed a genetics laboratory exercise that mines genes involved in mating and life span in the bean beetles, Callosobruchus maculatus genome using previously characterized genes in Drosophila melanogaster as the initial probes. Students start with the primary literature to identify potential genes in D. melanogaster and collect those sequences from GenBank. Gene and protein sequences were used to probe the bean beetle genome for similar sequences. The identified sequence fragments were evaluated for validity as possible homologs. The approach can be applied to on-going genome sequencing projects, not requiring the project to be complete or annotated, thus, providing the students an opportunity to work with raw sequence data. This workshop will require participants bring their own probes as sequences and provide hands on opportunities to search the bean beetle genome with those probes.
Using Qualitative Data in Assessment: Data Collection, Analysis, and Theoretical Frameworks
Stanley Lo, Northwestern University, Room: Huestis 129
Assessment of student outcomes has received increasing attention in biology education in recent years. Qualitative data can provide detailed information about student learning that may not be accessible by quantitative data. This interactive workshop will engage audience in hands-on analysis of qualitative data that can be used to assess student learning. From these activities, participants will learn about sources of data and how to collect them, analyze and code data using two different approaches (deductive vs. grounded), and discuss the importance of reliability and validity. We will use sample data collected from free-response survey items that probe how students understand the purpose of undergraduate laboratory courses. This session is designed for both novices (i.e. someone who has considered using qualitative data but may be unsure of how to begin) and others who have had some experience with qualitative analysis. After this session, participants are expected to get a sense on how to approach the collection and analysis of qualitative data and to develop deeper understanding of qualitative analysis that is grounded in theoretical frameworks.
The Scientific Investigation Project – Teaching Students How Science Is Done
Amy Marion, New Mexico State University, Room: Huestis 130
Effectively teaching students how science is done can only be accomplished by assisting them in actually DOING science. To that end, I have developed a semester-long project in one of our introductory biology laboratory courses, which guides students from hypothesis formation through experimental design, data analysis, and ultimately an evaluation of the validity of the hypothesis. This Scientific Investigation Project allows students to conduct an investigation into factors that may be correlated with a human disease (cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or cancer) by evaluating data compiled by the CDC in their annual Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). The BRFSS is an annual telephone survey of adults in more than 500,000 random households to gather information about the prevalence of various diseases as well as personal behaviors and risk factors for these diseases. I have extracted the data from 1000 survey participants for 70 questions from the 2012 BRFSS data. Teams of students use this data to evaluate a hypothesis about the correlation between a risk factor and a particular disease. Through this project, students learn how to construct a testable hypothesis, design an effective method for data analysis, and consider the confounding factors that could influence the conclusion of their investigation. In this presentation I will describe the design of the project including how the data set was created, grade rubrics for the many project assignments, examples of students’ final reports, and a summary of student evaluations on the project.