A. Niraula, Vasudha Sundaravaradan, Rebecca M. Price
Throughout history, biomedical advancements have alleviated suffering worldwide and significantly advanced human well-being. As researchers and educators, we are well-familiar with the painstakingly slow and meticulous process of science, some of which culminates in a life-saving therapy or a revolutionary cure. Ivermectin, the drug hailed for treating river blindness and filariasis across the globe, is one such feat of scientific discovery. However, Ivermectin has lately been falsely purported to treat COVID-19, endangering the lives of millions who have taken to self-medication. Worse even, the drug has been weaponized to undermine vaccines, which are our only solution out of this pandemic. The popularity of Ivermectin among large swaths of people is a somber lesson on the need to bridge the gap between science and the public, and to incorporate science education into our curricula. In this lesson, students learn how Ivermectin treats parasitic illnesses but does not treat COVID-19, how politically-motivated scientific misinformation has jeopardized people’s lives, and how lack of proper oversight of scientific papers has fueled the Ivermectin crisis. Through active learning techniques to foster quantitative skills and critical analysis, student-driven activities and discussions, and readings and reflections, this lesson aims to empower students to apply science literacy and education in their daily lives.
{"title":"Good Drug, Bad Practice: Tackling the Ivermectin Fiasco","authors":"A. Niraula, Vasudha Sundaravaradan, Rebecca M. Price","doi":"10.24918/cs.2023.17","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24918/cs.2023.17","url":null,"abstract":"Throughout history, biomedical advancements have alleviated suffering worldwide and significantly advanced human well-being. As researchers and educators, we are well-familiar with the painstakingly slow and meticulous process of science, some of which culminates in a life-saving therapy or a revolutionary cure. Ivermectin, the drug hailed for treating river blindness and filariasis across the globe, is one such feat of scientific discovery. However, Ivermectin has lately been falsely purported to treat COVID-19, endangering the lives of millions who have taken to self-medication. Worse even, the drug has been weaponized to undermine vaccines, which are our only solution out of this pandemic. The popularity of Ivermectin among large swaths of people is a somber lesson on the need to bridge the gap between science and the public, and to incorporate science education into our curricula. In this lesson, students learn how Ivermectin treats parasitic illnesses but does not treat COVID-19, how politically-motivated scientific misinformation has jeopardized people’s lives, and how lack of proper oversight of scientific papers has fueled the Ivermectin crisis. Through active learning techniques to foster quantitative skills and critical analysis, student-driven activities and discussions, and readings and reflections, this lesson aims to empower students to apply science literacy and education in their daily lives.","PeriodicalId":72713,"journal":{"name":"CourseSource","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69329465","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ayuni W. Ratnayake, Cindy Naw, Karolyn R. Keir, Aarthi Ashok
Write-to-learn (WTL) assignments have been used in a variety of disciplines to encourage conceptual learning and critical thinking in undergraduate education. These assignments focus on facilitating rather than assessing learning. Conversely, write-to-communicate (WTC) assignments ( e.g., lab reports and exams), often with the goal of assessing learning, are more commonly employed in foundation STEM courses. We developed a WTL assignment that focuses on promoting curiosity driven learning, critical thinking, and metacognition; skills that promote students’ scientific literacy through writing. We integrated theoretical frameworks for scientific literacy, that include the sub-constructs of third space , authenticity , and multiple discourse as well as science as a human endeavour , and metacognition and self-direction (1, 2) to develop this 3-part WTL assignment. In this assignment, students first select a topic of interest and write freely on their current understanding of the topic (Part 1). They then develop a research question based on their writing and seek answers to their question from published literature (Part 2). Finally, they reflect on their overall experience with the WTL process and propose further avenues of investigation for their research topic (Part 3). Student feedback suggests that they enjoyed the WTL process and their overall satisfaction with the structure of the assignment was high. As we continue to evolve the assignment based on student feedback, we are gratified that students reported high self-efficacy with regard to future writing as a result of participating in this assignment. We recommend use of this type of WTL assignment in large, introductory STEM courses, so as to facilitate rather than simply assess students’ learning.
{"title":"Facilitating Scientific Literacy Through Writing: A Write-to-Learn Assignment for Large Introductory Undergraduate Biology Courses","authors":"Ayuni W. Ratnayake, Cindy Naw, Karolyn R. Keir, Aarthi Ashok","doi":"10.24918/cs.2023.26","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24918/cs.2023.26","url":null,"abstract":"Write-to-learn (WTL) assignments have been used in a variety of disciplines to encourage conceptual learning and critical thinking in undergraduate education. These assignments focus on facilitating rather than assessing learning. Conversely, write-to-communicate (WTC) assignments ( e.g., lab reports and exams), often with the goal of assessing learning, are more commonly employed in foundation STEM courses. We developed a WTL assignment that focuses on promoting curiosity driven learning, critical thinking, and metacognition; skills that promote students’ scientific literacy through writing. We integrated theoretical frameworks for scientific literacy, that include the sub-constructs of third space , authenticity , and multiple discourse as well as science as a human endeavour , and metacognition and self-direction (1, 2) to develop this 3-part WTL assignment. In this assignment, students first select a topic of interest and write freely on their current understanding of the topic (Part 1). They then develop a research question based on their writing and seek answers to their question from published literature (Part 2). Finally, they reflect on their overall experience with the WTL process and propose further avenues of investigation for their research topic (Part 3). Student feedback suggests that they enjoyed the WTL process and their overall satisfaction with the structure of the assignment was high. As we continue to evolve the assignment based on student feedback, we are gratified that students reported high self-efficacy with regard to future writing as a result of participating in this assignment. We recommend use of this type of WTL assignment in large, introductory STEM courses, so as to facilitate rather than simply assess students’ learning.","PeriodicalId":72713,"journal":{"name":"CourseSource","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69329716","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
As biology becomes more data driven, teaching students data literacy skills has become central to biology curriculum. Despite a wealth of online resources that teach researchers how to use R, there are few that offer practical laboratory-based exercises, with teaching resources such as keys, learning objectives, and assessment materials. Here, we present a modular set of lessons and lab activities to help teach R through the platform of RStudio. Both software applications are free and open source making this curriculum highly accessible across various institutions. This curriculum was developed over several years of teaching a graduate level computational biology course. In response to the pandemic, the class was shifted to be completely online. These resources were then migrated to GitHub to make them broadly accessible to anyone wanting to learn R for the analysis of biological datasets. In the following year, these resources were used to teach the course in a flipped format, which is the lesson plan presented here. In general, students responded well to the flipped format, which used class time to conduct live coding demos and work through challenges with the instructor and teaching assistant. Overall, students were able to use these skills to practice analyzing and interpreting data, as well as producing publication quality graphics. While the modules presented range from very basic, doing simple summary statistics and plotting, to quite advanced, where R is integrated onto the command line, teachers should feel free to pick and choose which elements to incorporate into their own curriculum.
{"title":"Learning R for Biologists: A Mini Course Grab-Bag for Instructors","authors":"Amanda D. Clark, L. Stevison","doi":"10.24918/cs.2023.12","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24918/cs.2023.12","url":null,"abstract":"As biology becomes more data driven, teaching students data literacy skills has become central to biology curriculum. Despite a wealth of online resources that teach researchers how to use R, there are few that offer practical laboratory-based exercises, with teaching resources such as keys, learning objectives, and assessment materials. Here, we present a modular set of lessons and lab activities to help teach R through the platform of RStudio. Both software applications are free and open source making this curriculum highly accessible across various institutions. This curriculum was developed over several years of teaching a graduate level computational biology course. In response to the pandemic, the class was shifted to be completely online. These resources were then migrated to GitHub to make them broadly accessible to anyone wanting to learn R for the analysis of biological datasets. In the following year, these resources were used to teach the course in a flipped format, which is the lesson plan presented here. In general, students responded well to the flipped format, which used class time to conduct live coding demos and work through challenges with the instructor and teaching assistant. Overall, students were able to use these skills to practice analyzing and interpreting data, as well as producing publication quality graphics. While the modules presented range from very basic, doing simple summary statistics and plotting, to quite advanced, where R is integrated onto the command line, teachers should feel free to pick and choose which elements to incorporate into their own curriculum.","PeriodicalId":72713,"journal":{"name":"CourseSource","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69329889","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Despite increased awareness of the lack of equity and inclusion in the STEMM classroom, lessons on DEI topics are treated as separate to the scientific curriculum being taught. Rarely are intentional reflections and conversations on the lack of representation integrated into the lessons themselves. This lesson, titled “Discovery and Invention”, was developed to guide students through an exploration of the history of a topic—in this case, fermentation—followed by reflections and discussion on the culture of science and how it highlights certain individuals over others. Reflections allow students to explore and discuss their own scientific self-identity and sense of belonging in science. This fermentation lesson was designed to be integrated into a unit introducing students to microbial ecosystems, but it can be adapted for other topics as well, to suit the instructor’s needs
{"title":"Discovery and Invention: A Reflection on Representation in Science","authors":"Fátima Sancheznieto, Lauren Lucas, C. Theisen","doi":"10.24918/cs.2023.13","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24918/cs.2023.13","url":null,"abstract":"Despite increased awareness of the lack of equity and inclusion in the STEMM classroom, lessons on DEI topics are treated as separate to the scientific curriculum being taught. Rarely are intentional reflections and conversations on the lack of representation integrated into the lessons themselves. This lesson, titled “Discovery and Invention”, was developed to guide students through an exploration of the history of a topic—in this case, fermentation—followed by reflections and discussion on the culture of science and how it highlights certain individuals over others. Reflections allow students to explore and discuss their own scientific self-identity and sense of belonging in science. This fermentation lesson was designed to be integrated into a unit introducing students to microbial ecosystems, but it can be adapted for other topics as well, to suit the instructor’s needs","PeriodicalId":72713,"journal":{"name":"CourseSource","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69329899","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The mathematical modeling of populations utilizing field-collected demographic data is an important component of lab curricula in a variety of undergraduate biology lab courses. During the global pandemic brought about by the SARS-CoV-2 virus in 2020, we successfully converted an in-person lab on demographic population modeling to a lab that could be run remotely. We used a Google Earth Web Project to simulate a population study of the Northern Spotted Owl. In the simulation, students collected both demographic and mark-recapture data, based on surveying images of Northern Spotted Owls as they navigated four different wildlife transects. After conducting the survey, students used the data to determine population size using the mark-recapture method, derived a life table, calculated the net reproductive rate, and used the information to assess the current management plan for the population studied. Here we outline the lesson and provide materials required to duplicate the lab or to use Google Earth to create a similar simulation centered around a different species in any location around the globe.
{"title":"Population Ecology of the Northern Spotted Owl","authors":"S. Streich, John M. Basey","doi":"10.24918/cs.2023.30","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24918/cs.2023.30","url":null,"abstract":"The mathematical modeling of populations utilizing field-collected demographic data is an important component of lab curricula in a variety of undergraduate biology lab courses. During the global pandemic brought about by the SARS-CoV-2 virus in 2020, we successfully converted an in-person lab on demographic population modeling to a lab that could be run remotely. We used a Google Earth Web Project to simulate a population study of the Northern Spotted Owl. In the simulation, students collected both demographic and mark-recapture data, based on surveying images of Northern Spotted Owls as they navigated four different wildlife transects. After conducting the survey, students used the data to determine population size using the mark-recapture method, derived a life table, calculated the net reproductive rate, and used the information to assess the current management plan for the population studied. Here we outline the lesson and provide materials required to duplicate the lab or to use Google Earth to create a similar simulation centered around a different species in any location around the globe.","PeriodicalId":72713,"journal":{"name":"CourseSource","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69329945","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cellular respiration is a daunting topic for many students in introductory biology courses. Students are challenged at conceptual and factual levels, since instruction covers multiple metabolic pathways occurring across different cellular compartments, involving abstract energy and electron transfers through diverse chemical reactions. Lecture-based instruction may clearly convey details of cellular respiration to students, but the complexity of this topic suggests alternative, active learning strategies may improve student comprehension and retention. I designed an original board game as a teaching tool for cellular respiration, targeted at improving learning outcomes for advanced high school, introductory undergraduate
{"title":"An Original-Design Board Game to Increase Student Comprehension of Cellular Respiration Pathways","authors":"Matthew B. Parks","doi":"10.24918/cs.2023.6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24918/cs.2023.6","url":null,"abstract":"Cellular respiration is a daunting topic for many students in introductory biology courses. Students are challenged at conceptual and factual levels, since instruction covers multiple metabolic pathways occurring across different cellular compartments, involving abstract energy and electron transfers through diverse chemical reactions. Lecture-based instruction may clearly convey details of cellular respiration to students, but the complexity of this topic suggests alternative, active learning strategies may improve student comprehension and retention. I designed an original board game as a teaching tool for cellular respiration, targeted at improving learning outcomes for advanced high school, introductory undergraduate","PeriodicalId":72713,"journal":{"name":"CourseSource","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69330007","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Biology students’ understanding of statistics is incomplete due to poor integration of these two disciplines. In some cases, students fail to learn statistics at the undergraduate level due to poor student interest and cursory teaching of concepts, highlighting a need for new and unique approaches to the teaching of statistics in the undergraduate biology curriculum. The most effective method of teaching statistics is to provide opportunities for students to apply concepts, not just learn facts. Opportunities to learn statistics also need to be prevalent throughout a student’s education to reinforce learning. The purpose of developing and implementing curriculum that integrates a topic in biology with an emphasis on statistical analysis was to improve students’ quantitative thinking skills. Our lesson focuses on the change in the richness of native species for a specified area with the aid of iNaturalist and the capacity for analysis afforded by Google Sheets. We emphasized the skills of data entry, storage, organization, curation and analysis. Students then had to report their findings, as well as discuss biases and other confounding factors. Pre-and post-lesson assessment revealed students’ quantitative thinking skills, as measured by a paired-samples t test, improved. At the end of the lesson, students had an increased understanding of basic statistical concepts, such as bias in research and making data-based claims, within the framework of biology.
{"title":"Outside the Norm: Using Public Ecology Database Information to Teach Biostatistics","authors":"Carl Tyce, Lara K. Goudsouzian","doi":"10.24918/cs.2023.38","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24918/cs.2023.38","url":null,"abstract":"Biology students’ understanding of statistics is incomplete due to poor integration of these two disciplines. In some cases, students fail to learn statistics at the undergraduate level due to poor student interest and cursory teaching of concepts, highlighting a need for new and unique approaches to the teaching of statistics in the undergraduate biology curriculum. The most effective method of teaching statistics is to provide opportunities for students to apply concepts, not just learn facts. Opportunities to learn statistics also need to be prevalent throughout a student’s education to reinforce learning. The purpose of developing and implementing curriculum that integrates a topic in biology with an emphasis on statistical analysis was to improve students’ quantitative thinking skills. Our lesson focuses on the change in the richness of native species for a specified area with the aid of iNaturalist and the capacity for analysis afforded by Google Sheets. We emphasized the skills of data entry, storage, organization, curation and analysis. Students then had to report their findings, as well as discuss biases and other confounding factors. Pre-and post-lesson assessment revealed students’ quantitative thinking skills, as measured by a paired-samples t test, improved. At the end of the lesson, students had an increased understanding of basic statistical concepts, such as bias in research and making data-based claims, within the framework of biology.","PeriodicalId":72713,"journal":{"name":"CourseSource","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134884288","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The demographic representation of scientists featured in biology curricular materials do not match that of the undergraduate biology student population or of the U.S. population. In this lesson, we promote awareness of inequity in science through an exercise that encourages students to think about who is depicted as scientists in science curricular materials—specifically, biology textbooks. After a brief lecture on the scientific method, students read an excerpt from the introduction of a peer-reviewed publication that provides background information on the importance of representation in science. Next, students collect data from their own biology textbook about the representation of scientists who possess different identities and make a table depicting their results. Then, students fill in predictive graphs about demographic representation over time with respect to scientist identities including perceived gender and race/ethnicity. Students compare their predictions with the results from the peer-reviewed article and discuss the implications of the results. Finally, students apply their new knowledge by designing an experiment that would examine representation of an alternative scientist identity, such as age. Students conclude by answering questions that gauge their knowledge of the scientific method. This activity uses a peer-reviewed publication as well as authentic data generated by the student to increase ideological awareness and teach societal influences on the process of science. Primary Image: Many stacked textbooks. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Downloaded from Wikimedia Commons on May 30, 2023 by authors.
{"title":"Evaluating Representation in Science Through a Peer-Reviewed Research Study","authors":"Cissy J. Ballen, Abby E. Beatty, Enya Granados","doi":"10.24918/cs.2023.41","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24918/cs.2023.41","url":null,"abstract":"The demographic representation of scientists featured in biology curricular materials do not match that of the undergraduate biology student population or of the U.S. population. In this lesson, we promote awareness of inequity in science through an exercise that encourages students to think about who is depicted as scientists in science curricular materials—specifically, biology textbooks. After a brief lecture on the scientific method, students read an excerpt from the introduction of a peer-reviewed publication that provides background information on the importance of representation in science. Next, students collect data from their own biology textbook about the representation of scientists who possess different identities and make a table depicting their results. Then, students fill in predictive graphs about demographic representation over time with respect to scientist identities including perceived gender and race/ethnicity. Students compare their predictions with the results from the peer-reviewed article and discuss the implications of the results. Finally, students apply their new knowledge by designing an experiment that would examine representation of an alternative scientist identity, such as age. Students conclude by answering questions that gauge their knowledge of the scientific method. This activity uses a peer-reviewed publication as well as authentic data generated by the student to increase ideological awareness and teach societal influences on the process of science. <em>Primary Image:</em> Many stacked textbooks. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Downloaded from <a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Many_Old_books.jpg\">Wikimedia Commons</a> on May 30, 2023 by authors.","PeriodicalId":72713,"journal":{"name":"CourseSource","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136003156","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
From an experiential, hands-on perspective, the Developmental Biology Laboratory is easily amenable to a wide range of undergraduate-friendly experiments. Thus, pivoting to a virtual laboratory during the COVID-19 pandemic required significant reconfiguring to capture the essence of student-driven experiments. The innovative laboratory activity described here was inspired by the nuggets of truth contained within many of the mythological origin stories. Students were asked to propose a logical developmental process that could lead to a specific mythological creature. In this article, the mythology-based developmental biology activity is described, including its inspiration, instructions and support for the students, and sample work.
{"title":"The Developmental Origins of Mythology: A Pandemic-Inspired Innovative Developmental Biology Laboratory Exercise","authors":"Laura A Dyer","doi":"10.24918/cs.2023.21","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24918/cs.2023.21","url":null,"abstract":"From an experiential, hands-on perspective, the Developmental Biology Laboratory is easily amenable to a wide range of undergraduate-friendly experiments. Thus, pivoting to a virtual laboratory during the COVID-19 pandemic required significant reconfiguring to capture the essence of student-driven experiments. The innovative laboratory activity described here was inspired by the nuggets of truth contained within many of the mythological origin stories. Students were asked to propose a logical developmental process that could lead to a specific mythological creature. In this article, the mythology-based developmental biology activity is described, including its inspiration, instructions and support for the students, and sample work.","PeriodicalId":72713,"journal":{"name":"CourseSource","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69329646","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jyothi Kumar, Fabio Gomez-Cano, S. W. Hunt, Serena G Lotreck, Davis T Mathieu, McKena L. Wilson, T. Long
Technologies like next-generation sequencing, proteomics, and high-throughput phenotyping have transformed the way we do biology. There is a continued need for scientists with computational skills to analyze biological data while understanding the underlying biological concepts. The Integrated training Model in Plant And ComputaTional Sciences (IMPACTS) is an interdisciplinary training program that trains doctoral students to employ computational and data science approaches to address grand challenges in plant biology. The first course in the curriculum, Foundations in Computational Plant Science , focuses on fundamental knowledge in computational and plant science through group learning and peer instruction while using real-world data. The lesson plan described here was developed by the 2019 cohort of IMPACTS trainees (authoring cohort) as part of a subsequent course on STEM teaching and learning. The authoring cohort collaborated to identify a gap in the Foundations curriculum and applied their learning about evidence-based instructional design to develop and subsequently teach the lesson in the next iteration of the course (2020). The lesson plan’s goal was to develop students’ abilities to apply dictionaries and functions as core tools in computational science to answer biological questions. The 2020 cohort that completed the lesson reported confidence in being able to effectively apply dictionaries and functions and provided feedback about modifications to improve lesson efficacy. This feedback was incorporated in the iterative version of this lesson. This lesson is designed to help bridge the gap between computer scientists and biologists by teaching them interdisciplinary concepts using real-world data.
{"title":"Central Dogma, Dictionaries, and Functions: Using Programming Concepts to Simulate Biological Processes","authors":"Jyothi Kumar, Fabio Gomez-Cano, S. W. Hunt, Serena G Lotreck, Davis T Mathieu, McKena L. Wilson, T. Long","doi":"10.24918/cs.2023.24","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24918/cs.2023.24","url":null,"abstract":"Technologies like next-generation sequencing, proteomics, and high-throughput phenotyping have transformed the way we do biology. There is a continued need for scientists with computational skills to analyze biological data while understanding the underlying biological concepts. The Integrated training Model in Plant And ComputaTional Sciences (IMPACTS) is an interdisciplinary training program that trains doctoral students to employ computational and data science approaches to address grand challenges in plant biology. The first course in the curriculum, Foundations in Computational Plant Science , focuses on fundamental knowledge in computational and plant science through group learning and peer instruction while using real-world data. The lesson plan described here was developed by the 2019 cohort of IMPACTS trainees (authoring cohort) as part of a subsequent course on STEM teaching and learning. The authoring cohort collaborated to identify a gap in the Foundations curriculum and applied their learning about evidence-based instructional design to develop and subsequently teach the lesson in the next iteration of the course (2020). The lesson plan’s goal was to develop students’ abilities to apply dictionaries and functions as core tools in computational science to answer biological questions. The 2020 cohort that completed the lesson reported confidence in being able to effectively apply dictionaries and functions and provided feedback about modifications to improve lesson efficacy. This feedback was incorporated in the iterative version of this lesson. This lesson is designed to help bridge the gap between computer scientists and biologists by teaching them interdisciplinary concepts using real-world data.","PeriodicalId":72713,"journal":{"name":"CourseSource","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69329672","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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