The Poster Session will be held in conjunction with lunch on Friday, June 22. Posters are intended to complement Major and Mini workshops by providing a distinctive venue for novel techniques, pedagogical research, and new modalities on laboratory teaching.
Posters to be presented at ABLE 2018 are listed below alphabetically by the first author’s last name.
Protein Visualisation Practical Exercises Using Pymol in Multiple Year Levels of an Undergraduate Biochemistry Program
Shane Austin – University of West Indies, Cave Hill Campus
Using Pymol to aid student visualisation of proteins and protein stabilisation features is a powerful tool in teaching protein biochemistry. Pymol often helps students move from abstract concepts such as hydrogen bonds and salt bridges, to visualising how these bonds and other non-covalent features contribute to protein 3D structure and function. The practical exercises presented in this poster focus on building student’s competence using Pymol. In a second-year exercise, students are shown basic secondary features such as loops, sheets and helices. They explore how hydrogen bonds and other interactions contribute to these features and start to visualise unique features such as pi helices. While in a final year course exercise, students use Pymol as a tool to visualise the complex interactions between the various subunits of the oxidative phosphorylation machinery. Responses from students in the second-year course have been favourable over 2 years of running the practical. Most students are pleased with the exercises and find they reinforce the lecture content. While the advanced course practical has been run for one semester and has been received very favourably by biochemistry major students.
Directed Scientific Writing: Reinforcing Scientific Literacy Through the Laboratory Report
Alessandra Barrera and Shoshana Katzman – Georgia Gwinnett College
Scientific literacy is a fundamental competency for students in undergraduate biology courses, where students gain the ability to understand the scientific process an to communicate science to others. The generation of a laboratory report reinforces scientific literacy when students effectively: 1) procure relevant peer-reviewed literature and properly cite, 2) formulate a hypothesis based on previous research in the field, 3) interpret data and format results, and 4) evaluate the connection of the data to previously published work. To achieve this goal, separation of the lab report into a series of smaller assignments directed students through the expectations for the Introduction, Methods, Results, and Conclusions of the lab report. The lab report was further broken into paragraph-specific content to promote professional scientific writing. The series of assignments were assigned sequentially throughout the semester. Students received feedback before moving on to the next segment. This process allowed students more time to reflect upon and refine their assignment based on the feedback before the final submission of the report. The directed content assignments and the feedback process generated improved skills in understanding the process of scientific research, reading comprehension of scientific literature, and effectively and professionally communicating findings.
The Development of an Inquiry-Based Laboratory Module Exploring the Pathophysiology of Diabetes
Rachelle Belanger, Gregory Grabowski, and Gnanada Joshi – University of Detroit Mercy
Histotechnology is a commonly used tool in medical research, pathological testing, and pharmaceutical development. Given this, we designed an inquiry-based laboratory module that equips our students with knowledge of tissue sampling, processing and imaging so that they are ready for professional careers in the biomedical sciences. Treated rats were injected with streptozotocin (a known diabetagen that destroys pancreatic beta cells) while control rats were injected with buffer solution. Rats were sacrificed one week following treatment. Pre- and post-injection weights were compared following one week of treatment, as well as final blood samples for glucose analysis and insulin determinations using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Additionally, pancreatic tissue was collected and fixed in Bouin’s fixative. Paraffin embedded tissue was sectioned using a microtome, and hematoxylin/phloxine staining was performed by the students. The number of islet beta cells were compared between control and treated rats. Blood glucose measurements demonstrated that streptozotocin-treated rats had significantly higher blood glucose levels and lower beta cells numbers, while the ELISA tests indicated that treated rats had significantly lower blood insulin concentrations. Following this three-week laboratory module, students scored higher on competency tests and presented an individual poster with images and quantitative data analysis that included insulin concentrations, blood glucose levels, and histological images of pancreatic islets, in addition to beta cell quantification. Overall, students gained hands-on experience with hypothesis testing and an understanding of the pathology of diabetes.
Research Immersion Improves Outcomes for Underprepared Freshmen
Lawrence Blumer and Alexandra Peister – Morehouse College
Our implementation of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Science Education Alliance, Phage Hunters curriculum (www.seaphages.org) at Morehouse College differed from the implementations at other colleges and universities. We intentionally limited our enrollment to entering freshmen who were deemed underprepared to begin a biology major based on SAT scores. These students were not permitted to initially enroll in a traditional gateway survey-type biology course (BIO 111). Underprepared students were invited to apply for our Phage Hunters course to assess the effectiveness of this research immersion experience on their future success in BIO 111. Six cohorts (N=90) of Phage Hunters students have taken the gateway majors course permitting us to compare their academic performance to peers (N=45) who were similarly underprepared first-time freshmen but who did not participate in Phage Hunters, and to non-peers (N=182) all other students in the same gateway course. Phage Hunters students had a significantly greater pass rate (A,B,C grades) and a significantly lower withdrawal rate than did their peers. Compared to non-peers, Phage Hunters has a significantly lower withdrawal rate and no significant difference in pass rates. These findings indicate that an authentic research immersion experience can dramatically improve student outcomes for underprepared students and consequently improve freshmen student retention.
Lab Notebooks vs. Lab Discussions: Let’s Talk About That
Pam Connerly – Indiana University Southeast
Over the course of a semester, lab notebook writing and grading can become overwhelming. In an effort to lighten the load on both students and faculty, I announced that one lab notebook grade would be earned by participation in an in-class discussion. Students knew they would need to share their individual hypothesis from the lab we had completed and that they would need to actively contribute to the discussion to earn full points during the discussion. Students participated enthusiastically and the group discussion about the experiment got to a deeper level of understanding than that of a typical lab notebook entry. Concerns about uneven student preparedness and comprehension remain, but the discussion provided an additional benefit of building community in the class. The technique worked well in a fairly low enrollment upper-level Cell Biology course, but organized small groups having discussions and reporting back to the larger class could also be used.
Using Course Based Research in General Biology Laboratory to Explore the Biology of Invertebrates
John O. Drummond – Lafayette College
Struggling with the broad coverage of invertebrate biology covered in general biology laboratory, we immediately adopted an investigative laboratory presented by Saphida Migabo and Judith Guinan at the 2006 ABLE Conference at Purdue University. Since then, we have modified this laboratory into a course-based research experience infused with information literacy, statistical design, and information technology. This included more attention to primary literature, experimental design, and using and presenting science investigations. Assessments are ongoing but our impressions are overwhelmingly favorable. In this poster we present an overview of the project, describe the modifications made to the original laboratory, detail each of the infusions, discuss the assessments, and describe future directions for the laboratory.
Inquiry-based cell culture course improves student conceptual and practical understanding of biomedical research
Greg J. Eaton and Alison Krufka – Rowan University
To develop strong scientific thinking abilities in the context of cell biology experimentation, we have developed a laboratory-intensive undergraduate cell culture course for acquisition of a broad technical skill set along with inquiry skills necessary to conduct scientific research. The course engages in three student-driven inquiry modules. Module 1: Cell Proliferation introduces students to cellular proliferation and builds the foundational skills necessary to conduct more advanced cell culturing manipulations. Students learn how cells respond to environmental conditions including cell density, nutrient availability, and cell-substratum interactions. In Module 2: Cell Viability, students design and execute experiments to test influences on cell survival by assaying cell viability. In Module 3: Cell Differentiation, students investigate the multilineage differentiation capability (chondrogenic, osteogenic, adipogenic) of human mesenchymal stem cells derived from adipose tissue (AD-MSCs). This comparative analysis provokes the students to further explore the distinct requirements for various differentiation pathways and the existence of cell-specific biological signatures. To assess the students’ growth, we administered pre- and post-course surveys and conducted the Experimental Design Ability Test (EDAT). Our analyses show a positive effect on the students’ understanding of biomedical research, confidence in designing and conducting experiments, and confidence in presenting their conclusions from those experiments.
Learning Data Analysis Skills in Intro Biology Labs with R
Linda Forester – University of Rhode Island
Having students utilize data visualization and statistical analyses skills in introductory classes (with their own data) allows students to quickly develop an appreciation for digital skills. Our simple, step-wise introduction to the free, data analysis packages R and R-Studio was effective in encouraging students to feel that they can use a coding language program to analyze and graphically display their data.
Our approach
1) Students collect data in lab covering different biological concepts.
2) Students analyze their collected data using R.
(We used server-based access to RStudio, eliminating difficulties with installation on personal computers and allowing access anywhere.)
3) Each lab builds on previous R code.
Data analysis topics covered in one semester of Intro Bio:
– organize data (long vs wide format)
– create: boxplots, scatterplots, line graphs
– include and understand: error bars, t-test, best fit linear regression
Learning from the Trees: Incorporating Project Budburst in an Introductory Biology Laboratory
Deborah A. Lichti and Kristine Callis-Duehl – East Carolina University
While science programs across the country are moving to incorporate CURE courses, students must be prepared for the science investigative skills involved in CUREs. We developed a pre-CURE module for Undergraduates in their first year using the citizen science project, Project Budburst. During the ecology lab, student groups of four design a project that requires data collection from the field and the Budburst database. Each group develops a question based on tree phenology (e.g. first bud, leaf senescence) for Greenville, NC, and another location throughout the country incorporating one abiotic variable (e.g. temperature, rain fall). Students then collect local data and pull data from databases that meets their research question needs. The data are analyzed and graphs are developed using the provided R markdown files in RStudio. Finally, each group presented their findings with a group scientific poster and individual scientific paper. This allowed higher order thinking with the students learning how actual research occurs, and the trials and tribulations of working in groups, and collecting field- and web-based data. This poster will present the steps to setup this type of curriculum, lessons learned from the students as well as implementation for graduate teaching assistants.
Allele-Specific PCR of the Human ABO Locus
Michael Martin – John Carroll University
The ABO locus determines the most medically-important phenotype in humans, and genetics courses use it as a classic example of codominance. Previous work has focused on utilizing single nucleotide polymorphisms and linkage disequilibrium to differentiate among the five most common alleles, A1, A2, B, O1, and O2, in order to determine individual genotypes. This technique allowed us to use inexpensive restriction enzymes to produce restriction fragment length polymorphisms. In this study, we performed allele-specific PCR that was designed to amplify a single ABO allele. Two primers, differing only at the SNP, were paired with a common reverse primer in separate reactions in order to produce a product of unique length (when compared to the other allele-specific reactions). We have shown that A2, B, O1, and O2 alleles can be amplified with great specificity in a total of eight reactions to yield successful genotypic determination without the need for any restriction digests following amplification. This work will allow students to determine their genotype within two laboratory periods, and it is appropriate for students of all levels.
Using Independent Inquiry in a 1-Credit Biochemistry Lab to Improve Student Satisfaction and Interest in Research
Dana Morrone – Saint Louis College of Pharmacy
At the St. Louis College of Pharmacy, pre-professional students take a biochemistry course that includes a 1-credit laboratory component. In this lab, students are taught basic laboratory techniques in the first half of the semester by following scripted experimental protocols. In the second half of this 1-credit lab, students may use any of the equipment, reagents, and techniques covered in the first half to complete an independent project. For their independent project, students work in pairs and come up with their own question, hypothesis, experimental design and execution, data analysis, and manuscript. After completing the experiments, students are given a survey assessing their lab experience. Among the results, students indicate they found the independent project to be substantially more enjoyable, yet also more intellectually challenging. Further, compared with students earning high grades in the lecture component, lower achieving students reported a markedly greater change in their desire to do bench research as a result of the independent project. These results have surprised us and suggest that small, independent projects in lab courses may be one way to get weaker students engaged in the material and interested in research.
Plant Biology Lab: Investigating Ecosystems with Vegetation
Christina Mortellaro and Brandy Garrett Kluthe – Saint Peter’s University
The “Investigating Ecosystems with Vegetation” Lab will provide students the opportunity to actively engage in observational research. Students will practice field sampling techniques, interpret cover class results and coarse woody debris, and to utilize data collected to interpret the ecology of a specific ecosystem. In teams, students will sample from two areas, forest area and two outside of a forest cover area (open canopy). Cover class data and coarse woody debris (CWD) will be collected to understand ecosystems. The Daubenmire method will be used to collect cover class data: forbs, grasses, woody shrubs, and sedges. This tool is useful for a variety of educational levels because students can easily learn to identify classes of plants without species specific knowledge. The composition of the ground cover in a specific area can provide information about the specific ecosystem under investigation. This can include information about soil health, climate and other species that inhabit the sample area. Students will apply their findings to compare similar ecosystems in order to gather insight into the differences between them and to help monitor changing habitats. This lab can be adapted for an introductory course for both biology and non- biology majors or as an upper level biology course.
Comparing Two Model Plants for Use in an Introductory Biology Course: Wisconsin Fast Plants® and Poinsettia Hot Peppers
Vanessa Muilenburg – Hope College
Recently, we restructured our first-year introductory biology course into six modules. The focus of one of these modules is to understand plants at the organismal level. To achieve this goal in in a context that is relevant to our students’ futures, we specifically ask, “How will plants respond to elevated CO2?” Then, over the course of four weeks, we analyze stomatal density (week 1), photosynthetic/respiratory rates (week 2), foliar protein concentrations (week 3), and growth/resource allocation (week 4) of plants grown in high (800 ppm) and low (400 ppm) concentrations of CO2. During the first two offerings of the course we used Brassica rapa Fast Plants® as our model plant, but this past year used Capsicum annuum ‘Poinsettia.’ Here we compare the ease, cost, time, student/instructor feedback, and experimental results of these two plants in our introductory biology laboratory curriculum. There are positive and negative attributes regarding use of each species as our model plant. Poinsettia hot peppers require longer growth periods, more care, and more space per plant. However, we prefer Poinsettia hot peppers to Wisconsin Fast Plants because of their larger size, increased leaf area for experimentation, reduced cost of seeds, non-specialized media and fertilizer, statistically significant experimental results, and more enthusiastic response of our students and instructors.
Using Videos to Increase Teaching Assistants’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge and Preparedness
Kim Nath – Duquesne University
Teaching assistants (TAs) are often the sole source of instruction for undergraduate laboratory courses associated with a general biology course. The quality of instruction an undergraduate receives is dependent on the knowledge and preparedness of the TA. Although TAs are most likely to be graduate students who have taken general biology courses themselves, the breadth and depth of knowledge required to effectively teach a lab may be underdeveloped or lacking. Subject experts who teach the lecture portion of the course can be a valuable resource for providing educational content to reinforce concepts or fill knowledge gaps. A video of the subject expert, providing content specific to the lab, offers the TA a detailed source of educational material that can be viewed as many times as necessary and at their convenience. Much like using videos to flip the classroom for students, flipping the training for teaching assistants can have the same benefits. With little more than a smart phone and inexpensive video editing software, a repository of subject expert content can be created to provide teaching assistants a resource that will enable them to offer undergraduates a high quality educational experience.
A Simple Experiment that Reveals Overgrowth of Fungi as a “Side-Effect” of Antibiotic Use
Kathleen Nolan, Victoria Ruiz, Allen J. Burdowski, Kristen Caceres, and Onika Brown – St. Francis College
Students in the Biological Evolution course at St. Francis College noticed that the Luria –Bertani (LB)agar plates with and without ampicillin had become contaminated with mold after they were made and stored for two weeks in the refrigerator. We were supposed to use these plates for an antibiotic-selection experiment for E.coli but switched to an examination of the “contamination” instead. The LB plates plus ampicillin had more mold than the control LB plates, which puzzled us, until we read that this “overgrowth” was a side effect of the antibiotic. Ten white and 87 reddish brown colonies were found on the LB control plates, whereas 29 white and 112 reddish brown colonies were found on the LB + ampicillin plates. (p < 0.01 with a Chi-squared analysis.) The white colony size in mm average was slightly larger in LB control plates versus LB + amp plates (18 and 12 respectively) , but the reddish brown colony size average was approximately 7 mm in both. This experiment represents a simulation of what can occur in the body as a result of antibiotic use.
Science History to Improve Statistics Instruction in Introductory Biology Courses
Dhyaneswaran Palanichamy – Cornell University
In the past decade, advancements in automation, DNA sequencing, remote sensing, imaging etc., has rapidly increased the data in biology. Biologists of the future are required to be literate and innovative in statistical methods to make meaningful interpretations of big data. However, students who attend an introductory biology courses with no experience in statistics, often find it hard to grasp statistical concepts. In engineering, science history has been frequently used in physics labs to get students motivated about physics and prevent them from dropping out. This led us to hypothesize that inspiring students with science history of statistical methods could improve our statistics instruction in an introductory biology course. Phase-1 of our study was small scale (n=36), where we measured student understanding, interest and confidence in a scale of 1-10. Phase-2 was a large scale study (n=401), where we asked students regarding their perception of learning statistical methods in an introductory biology course and their thoughts on science history. This provided us with interesting insights into the student thought process when it comes to learning statistics and incorporating science history of statistical methods in an introductory biology course.
An Instructor Toolkit of Resources for Improving Student Success in Introductory Biology
Donna Pattison – University of Houston
Transforming a traditional lecture course to an active learning format can be daunting. Over the past six years, we developed a Comprehensive Student Success Program which resulted in an average 15% improvement over multiple semesters in our successful course completion rates for our Introductory Biology 1 and 2 courses (250-500 students). We have created a toolkit of tested hands-on activities, skits, and demonstrations for the lecture hall and supplemental peer-facilitated instruction. Our toolkit is freely available via a website that includes: (1) videos of skits, demonstrations, models to use in the lecture hall and instructor notes for implementing them, (2) model-building and problem solving activities designed specifically for peer led team learning sessions, (3) materials used in student advising (both training material for advisors and materials provided to students, (4) training modules for peer facilitators, (5) materials used in faculty professional development activities, and (6) videos of interviews in which our STEM graduates describe their undergraduate experiences and current careers.
Collaborative (Re)design of Ecology Lab Exercises
Corrie Pieterson, Dee Bolen, and Maria Miriti – The Ohio State University
In Autumn 2015 we participated in a graduate level seminar to develop new lab exercises and redesign existing labs for an upper-division Ecology course. Students in the seminar included current and recent graduate TAs in Ecology, and other GTAs with an interest in pedagogy. The seminar was co-taught by two faculty members who were concurrently teaching the Ecology lecture and supervising the lab instruction. The seminar group first examined curricular goals and objectives for the Ecology course, then individuals and small groups identified specific labs to develop or revise to address these objectives. Each week, GTAs presented an overview of their lab to the seminar group and obtained feedback to further refine the lab. In some cases, the labs were implemented in that semester’s Ecology course, providing an additional source of feedback for refinement. The labs were then made available for instructional teams in future terms. This approach benefitted Ecology students and instructors, and also provided a valuable professional development opportunity for GTAs in the seminar. We present our approach as a method for collaborative design of teaching materials, discuss specific labs developed through the seminar, and suggest ways that other departments could adopt this method for their courses.
Basic Data Summary and Analysis Module for an Ecology Laboratory Course
Robert Smith – Lycoming College
Many contemporary topics in ecology are highly quantitative or use of large-scale (temporal or spatial) datasets (i.e., ‘big data) to examine ecological patterns and processes. Experiential learning that incorporates large datasets requires students have an understanding of reasonably simple and effective approaches for data summary and analysis. In addition, similar approaches can be used to more efficiently summarize small datasets. While statistical programs, such as R, are likely more powerful, Microsoft Excel can be an adequate tool that is familiar to students. I present a module covered at the beginning of a 2nd year undergraduate ecology course. The module is designed to introduce students to data summary and analysis techniques used throughout the course. The focus is on several broadly useful techniques in Excel for data summary and analysis: basic excel functions, pivot tables, the ‘vlookup’ function (for relating databases), etc. The main focus is as an introduction to the laboratory portion of the course, but a secondary goal is to introduce concepts of data quality control for performing ecological research. The module ends with a summary for how to use some of these techniques for calculating student grades in the class.
Mentorship for Developing Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs): The CUR Mentorship for Integrating Research into the Classroom (MIRIC) Program
Michael Wolyniak – Hampden-Sydney College
The life science education community has responded to the recommendations of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Vision and Change document with several initiatives designed to improve the way in which undergraduates learn science. These initiatives have often taken the form of one-time workshops that generate awareness of and interest in developing authentic research experiences for undergraduate STEM classrooms. However, they have been less successful with respect to generating the sustainable change necessary to bring real reform to undergraduate science education. The Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) Biology Division is creating the Mentorship for Integrating Research Into the Classroom (MIRIC) program to provide a means for members with an interest in developing improved and sustainable active learning techniques to gain experience in this style of teaching through close, long-term interaction with a veteran teaching mentor. In our pilot studies, we collected qualitative and quantitative data based on participant interviews and coding videos of student and instructor actions during classroom activity (Smith et al., 2013), respectively, that suggest that MIRIC/MALT mentorships have made positive gains in promoting sustainable active learning techniques among participants.