2023

Student-Led DBER and Teaching Practice in Introductory Biology Courses

Eric Hastie and Lauro Ott, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill


The UNC Biology Department recently introduced BIOL 295: Educational and Social Research in Biology. BIOL 295 is overseen by Drs. Laura Ott and Eric Hastie (Directors of the Carolina Biology Education Research Lab: https://cberlab.com/) and provides authentic inquiry experiences through development, implementation, and assessment of traditional classroom, online asynchronous, and wet lab-based modules. Our goals with 295 is to mentor undergraduates in the creation of active learning, student-centered modules on a variety of topics that can be shared. These curricular interventions are generally for first year or second year students enrolled in large-enrollment courses and are implemented to increase STEM retention by allowing students to develop their science identity and research self-efficacy, which have been shown to promote academic success, retention, and persistence of diverse students in STEM. Two of our projects that were developed in Fall 2023 were tested in early Spring 2024 and the students are analyzing the data now as well as preparing posters and manuscripts for submission. One project focus on helping introductory cell and molecular biology students understand gene and mRNA structure using Legos while the other focused on helping introductory biology students understand enzyme biology using a 3D printed model.

Making the Invisible Visible:  An interactive online tool to develop visual literacy about DNA

L. Kate Wright and Dina Newman, Rochester Institute of Technology

Project Goal:  The overall goal of this research project is to help students develop skills in visual literacy and promote learning about topics in Molecular Biology.  To accomplish our goal we will create an interactive, online tool that allows for exploration of DNA at different levels of abstraction and scale.    

Biologists use a variety of symbols and shapes, such as lines, letters, and ladders, to represent and communicate about concepts in molecular biology. The DNA Landscape framework (Wright et al., 2022) categorizes these different representations in a 3-by-3 matrix to show variation in representations across scale (nucleotide, gene, and chromosome) and abstraction (very abstract, elements of shape and abstraction, and literal shape). To appropriately interpret and use these varied representations, students need to develop skills in visual literacy.  With the help of a game design student, we designed a gamified version of the DNA landscape to help users navigate across the DNA Landscape and build visual literacy skills.  One level of the video game involves sorting falling images into buckets as a method of building recognition of varied representations at different scales.  This level is somewhat reminiscent of the video puzzle game “Tetris”; as users sort correctly, pieces will fall faster and faster. The second level of the game uses a teeter-totter balance to emphasize equivalence in scale across representations.  Users must quickly select two equivalent images to place on either side of a teeter-totter (Figure 1).  An incorrect pairing of an image of a “heavier” gene with an image of a “lighter” nucleotide on the opposite side of the balance catapults the nucleotide out of the frame.  The third level of the game brings in elements of “whac-a-mole”, in which several DNA representations pop up simultaneously, and users have to quickly decide which of them doesn’t belong and need to be “whacked” with a hammer.   This aspect of the game allows users to practice comparing to find conceptual (not superficial) similarities or differences between representations.  Together, the digitized and gamified DNA Landscape provide students opportunities to learn conventions of scientific diagrams that are often not explicitly discussed during biology courses, develop visual literacy skills in molecular biology, and assedss their understanding of the many different representations of DNA.  Future work will involve focus group observations and interviews with game testers.  Long-term goals include development of a plan for widespread dissemination.

Biology Career Videos: Increasing the visibility of diverse scientific career pathways through counterstereotypical scientist role models

Monica P Montoya, Florida State University

Scientists featured in traditional undergraduate educational resources often do not
reflect the diverse identities and backgrounds of contemporary scientists. Importantly,
there are gaps in the degree to which they match the identities of students interacting
with these resources. Compounded with these limitations is a lack of resources where
students can learn about the diverse career pathways that are possible with a degree in
science. We are designing educational videos that highlight diversity in career pathways
and identities within the scientific community by centering scientists’ voices and stories.
Our educational videos will be paired with teaching materials that address standard
course goals for undergraduate biology instruction and lesson plans that guide students
through career exploration. We will partner with faculty at various institutions to test the
efficacy of our educational videos using pre- and post- assessments that evaluate
students’ understanding of diverse careers and pathways in biology and enhanced
relatability of counterstereotypical scientist role models observed in the teaching
materials.

An example of a classroom activity that can be paired with an educational career video featuring the scientist.