Teaching & Learning Initiatives, Summer 2008

College's Teaching Innovations Featured at American Society for Microbiology Meetings

The College’s teaching and learning efforts were featured in several presentations at  recent American Society for Microbiology (ASM) meetings. ASM is the oldest and largest single life science membership organization with 43,000 members worldwide.  Ann Smith, Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics, gave an invited talk at the ASM General Meeting held in Boston June 1 – 5. The presentation, entitled “Assessing Student Understanding of Host Pathogen Interactions using a Concept Inventory” showed the development of a concept inventory that measures student learning gains and represented the work of the of the Host Pathogen Interactions teaching community, which consists of 17 research and teaching faculty from the Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics.

Before the General Meeting, the Education Board of ASM hosted a Conference on Undergraduate Education (ASMCUE) held at Endicott College in Beverly, Massachusetts with an attendance of 325 biology educators from around the world.  Patty Shields (Dept. of CBMG), Beth Parent (Dept. of Biology), and Laura Cathcart (Dept. of CBMG) all gave presentations on teaching innovations. Presentation titles and co-authors were:

  • Learning Basic Microbiology Laboratory Skills through an Authentic Project (Laura Cathcart and Ann Smith). This presentation showed how standard protocols can be taught in the context of authentic microbiology problems, such as identifying life from extraterrestrial environments. 
  • Kent, Shields, HigginsTeaching in Science: a Prep Course for Teaching Assistants
    (Brett Kent, Patty Shields, William Higgins (pictured from l to r), and Kaci Thompson and Gili Marbach-Ad). This presentation focused on the revised course for new graduate teaching assistants, a collaborative effort between the Departments of Biology, Entomology and Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics, that aims to give teaching assistants the conceptual basis and support they need to be effective teachers.
  • Incorporating Scientific Literature Assignments into a Cell Biology Course (Beth Parent, Gili Marbach-Ad, and Kaci Thompson). This presentation highlighted a new method for teaching students in BSCI 330 (Cell Biology and Physiology) to comprehend and analyze the primary scientific literature.

In addition to these presentations focusing on specific teaching innovations within the college, Spencer Benson of the Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics and Director of the campus Center for Teaching Excellence gave an ASMCUE symposium presentation entitled “Assessment: Rubrics, Surveys, Taxonomies.”

HHMI Undergraduate Science Education Grant Funds New Curriculum Development Projects

Three curriculum development projects were recently funded in an internal competition funded by our Undergraduate Science Education grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. These projects aim to enhance the undergraduate curriculum by focusing on themes that run through our course
sequences, and they will do so by drawing together teams of research faculty, instructional faculty, postdoctoral fellows and graduate students.

The projects and their leaders are:

  • Todd CookeThe Implementation of BIO 2010 Reform in the Introductory Physics Sequence for BSCI Students (led by Todd Cooke (pictured), Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics, and Joe Redish, Department of Physics) - This effort aims to increase the biological relevance of the introductory physics taken by biological sciences majors by increasing its emphasis on biological applications and examples.

 

  • Pam LanfordInfusing the Life Sciences Curriculum with Science Information Literacy (led by Pam Lanford (pictured), Department of Biology) - This project, which involves collaboration between faculty in the College of Chemical and Life Sciences, the College of Education and the University Libraries, will help students across the life sciences curriculum hone their scientific communication skills and become adept users of scientific information, including online resources.

  • Educational Videos for Undergraduate Biology Courses (led by Patty Shields, Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics) - This project will result in the development of several short videos that use informal demonstrations and humor to clarify important biological concepts that often are misunderstood by biology students. The videos will be adaptable for use in a variety of freshman and sophomore level biology courses.

These new projects, which will be implemented over the upcoming academic year, are part of an ongoing effort to ensure that our undergraduate curriculum keeps pace with the rapid developments in science and science education. Previous HHMI curriculum projects have resulted in national
recognition for our efforts, including publications in peer-reviewed science education journals and NSF grant funding.