Welcome to our first online survey. We call our surveys “Where Are We?” because they are designed to provide us all with a sense of where we stand as a community. This first survey focuses on teaching evolution.
The process is simple. You respond to a series of 10 questions (it should only take about 5 minutes). We will compile the data and share it back to the community for discussion. No individual data will be shared but we can all learn something in the process.
The “Where Are We? Evolution Survey” will be open until March 16th and then we will post a new survey and begin looking at the evolution data.
We hope you will join us – because it won’t work without you. Please feel free to comment on the process, suggest topics for future surveys and provide feedback in the comment space at the bottom of the page.
cforms contact form by delicious:days
BioQUEST has had the pleasure of collaborating with many interesting projects over its 20+ year history. We are developing a series of Partner Project Profiles to share some of that richness with the broader community. For this profile we spoke with Judy Scotchmoor (Project coordinator), and Anna Thanukos (Project assistant and author) of Understanding Science. This profile interview was conducted via e-mail over several days in February 2009.
In a nutshell, what is Understanding Science and why should faculty teaching undergraduate biology be aware of it?
Understanding Science is a fun and freely accessible online resource that communicates what science is and how science really works. In addition to basic content on these topics, we provide tools and strategies for teachers at all grade levels to reinforce the nature of science throughout their science teaching. Research suggests that even college students fail to understand basic characteristics of the nature and process of science. The Understanding Science website can help undergraduate faculty better prepare their students to become scientifically-informed decision makers, more thoughtful scientists, and pro-science citizens who view science as an exciting, interesting, and inherently valuable human endeavor. We have an undergraduate teachers’ lounge that provides many tools to help faculty with this effort.
Can you identify 1 or 2 specific resources that are popular or that you would recommend to faculty teaching introductory biology?
Ahhh… that one is super easy! Understanding Science has developed a Teachers’ Lounge for each grade span, including
one for undergraduate faculty. There, faculty will find a growing number of resources. We recommend several introductory activities that can set the tone for the semester by presenting an accurate and engaging perspective on what science is really about:
- Mystery boxes: Uncertainty and collaboration Students manipulate sealed “mystery” boxes and attempt to determine the inner structure of the boxes, which contain a moving ball and a fixed barrier or two. The nature and sources of uncertainty inherent in the process of problem-solving are experienced. The uncertainty of the conclusions is reduced by student collaboration.
- How scientific is it? (50kb pdf) Students are given six knowledge statements and asked to rank them according to how scientific they feel the statements are. A group discussion ensues. This activity is adapted from Scharmann et al. 2005.
- Amazon fly This short activity quickly engages the participants in the process of developing testable hypotheses. Students come up with multiple hypotheses to explain a set of observations and figure out how to test these hypotheses. The activity is appropriate for small or large group discussion that could take place during a lecture.
Where do you get your material? How can faculty help out or provide input?
Our text and graphics are all original. We have an extraordinary team: Anna Thanukos, primary author; Josh Frankel, webmaster (and cartoonist); and Dave Smith (graphic artist). However, the determination of WHAT to include has been the result of in depth communication with all members of our
Advisory Boards. Our advisors have reviewed and re-reviewed each word and image included. This has been a highly collaborative effort! Now we are adding additional materials that include profiles, case studies, and teaching resources. We welcome contributions from others and suggestions for other resources that would be useful! As for input, we are very interested in finding out how the resources are being used and how they can be improved, so any feedback would be terrific. You can contact us directly or
leave a suggestion on our website.
You haven’t mentioned the Science Flowchart. I think the BioQUEST Community is going to be very interested in it. Can you say something about it?
The Science Flowchart is a new, and much more accurate, way to represent the process of science than the usual presentation of the 5-step Scientific Method. You can explore an
interactive version of the flowchart and access
multiple versions of the flowchart to support your teaching. The Science Flowchart is helpful in conveying the true process of science because it emphasizes science’s nonlinearity, the unpredictability of scientific investigations, the role of the scientific community, and the benefits that scientific knowledge can offer us. Not only is the Science Flowchart a more accurate representation of the process of science, it’s much more exciting too! We think that students will be inspired (and perhaps surprised) by the flexibility of the process of science and the role that creativity plays in science.
Who should folks contact if they have comments, questions or suggestions?
Please feel free to contact:
Editor’s Note:
I really appreciate Judy and Anna taking the time to do this interview. After their enormous success with
Understanding Evolution it was exciting to see the University of California Museum of Paleontology receive National Science Foundation support to take on the nature of science. I was excited to be asked to play a role on their advisory board and it has been a great experience. Their
Undergraduate Faculty Lounge is just getting off the ground, but I think it can play an important role in how we explicitly address scientific processes in our classrooms and labs. I’m a big fan of the poster sized version of the science flowchart which you can download
here.
If you have suggestions for projects that we should profile or other comments please add them below or send them via email to
bioquest@beloit.edu.
Tony Weisstein (Truman State University) just returned from the IUBS BioEd 2009 meeting in New Zealand and shares his take on the meeting in this post. The meeting had significant BioQUEST representation with John Jungck (Beloit College) and Pete Lockhart (Massey University) co-chairing the meeting, Ethel Stanley (Beloit College) and Tony leading sessions.
A Report from BioEd 2009
The International Union of Biological Sciences’ annual educational meeting, BioEd 2009, was held in Christchurch, New Zealand, from Feb. 12-15. These dates were chosen to coincide with the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth, and 2009 also marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin of Species. The conference’s theme, Evolution in Action, was thus highly appropriate.
Caption: The All Blacks, New Zealand’s national rugby team, performing a haka. Credit: Murrayfield7
The conference opened with a powhiri, a traditional Maori welcome featuring a ritual challenge, singing, and feats of agility. Several brave participants also volunteered to take part in a haka or posture dance, with greatly entertaining results. After cutting a birthday cake and pulling crackers for Darwin, participants had the opportunity to see the premiere of the play “Collapsing Creation,” about the challenges Darwin faced in publishing his theory.
Conference participants represented a unique balance between evolution research and teaching: high school biology teachers comprised about 25% of the participants. Sessions on preparing teachers for evolution education and Darwinian medicine helped bridge this divide, interweaving insights from current research with new pedagogical strategies. For example, an overview of human settlement patterns in the Pacific based on genetic and archeological data (Elizabeth Matisoo-Smith, Allan Wilson Centre, New Zealand) might be followed by a lesson plan for speciation in which students conduct experiments that directly challenge their own naïve views of unchanging species (Lee Traynor, Leibniz University, Germany). This mix of topics led to some fascinating teatime and dinner discussions on methods for bringing current research into the classroom and engaging students in active and collaborative learning.
Caption: Pete Lockhart, Ethel Stanley, Tony Weisstein and Holly Gaff (Old Dominion University) pose with the Darwin Cake. Credit: John R. Jungck.
The four plenary lectures were also well chosen to span a diversity of topics while representing the organization’s international character. Presentations included Darwin’s systematics work on barnacles (John Buckenridge, RMIT University, Australia), strategies for adapting primary literature for classroom use (Anat Yarden, Weizmann Institute, Israel), evolution education and the nature of science (Douglas Futuyma, SUNY, USA), and sexual selection in the evolution of human mating systems (Alan Dixson, Victoria University, New Zealand). The conference wrapped up with the play “Unnatural Selection”, performed by four very talented New Zealand high school students, and a preview of October’s IUBS meetings in Cape Town, South Africa.
Several high school teachers in attendance mentioned how much they enjoyed the opportunity for in-depth conversations with researchers, and many research-oriented participants equally appreciated the ideas for new teaching strategies. In response to this demand, the organizers established a blog to help maintain the collaborations begun at the conference. The conference also highlighted one other challenge common to many international societies, including SMB: the language barrier. The IUBS has taken an excellent first step by linking their website and associated materials to a web-based translator. Given the international nature of such conferences, any additional strategies for facilitating multilingual presentations could greatly enhance the experience for speakers and participants alike.
Dr. Anton E. Weisstein
Biology Department
Truman State University
weisstae@truman.edu
http://www2.truman.edu/~weisstae/
Editor’s Note:
Thanks to Tony for sharing this meeting wrap-up. The following links have more information:
BioEd 2009 – the meeting website.
The Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology & Evolution – hosted meeting (they will have links to the meeting resources posted soon).
The International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS) – sponsored and organized meeting. IUBS is a non-governmental, non-profit organization, established in 1919 that promotes international and interdisciplinary cooperation in biological sciences research.
This report was originally written for publication in the Society of Mathematical Biology Newsletter edited by Holly Gaff. Thanks to Tony and Holly for making it available for posting here as well.
You can find our original posting on the meeting here.
Please continue reading for information on the following events and opportunities:
- ASM/JGI Bioinformatics Institute: Incorporating Bioinformatics Research in Undergraduate Education
- Science Faculty with Education Specialties Project
- Workshops on Active Learning with Video Analysis
- Live Webcast of “Evolution in Extreme Environments” Symposium
This information is being provided through the BioQUEST blog but you should contact the individual projects (see embedded links below) for additional information.
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ASM/JGI Bioinformatics Institute: Incorporating Bioinformatics Research in Undergraduate Education
Washington, DC, March 10-13, 2010
Application Deadline: November 15, 2009
Are you thinking about introducing bioinformatics into your curriculum?
At the ASM/JGI Bioinformatics Institute you will:
- LEARN to understand, interpret, and use molecular sequence information to solve problems and effectively teach it to your students.
- START to understand the underpinnings of BLAST – how the program works, and how to incorporate it.
- DISCOVER tools involved in weak-pattern searches and other protein analysis tools, comparative genomics, and evolutionary analysis.
- CONNECT to other faculty who are using bioinformatics in their classrooms.
For more information visit
http://www.facultyprograms.org/page02a.shtml
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Science Faculty with Education Specialties Project
We are a group of Science Faculty with Education Specialties (SFES) interested in identifying other SFES across the nation. While all college and university science faculty are education specialists in some regard, we define SFES here as individuals who either: 1) have been specifically hired in science departments to specialize in science education, OR 2) have transitioned to a role as a science faculty member focused on issues in science education after their initial hire.
If you are an SFES or think you might be an SFES, please complete our brief, 3-5 minute survey at the link below.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/National-SFES-Search
Beyond a national research study of SFES, our long-term goals are to foster a national SFES professional community and to promote cross-disciplinary SFES conversations.
Sincerely,
Seth Bush, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
Nancy Pelaez, Purdue University
James Rudd, California State University, Los Angeles
Michael Stevens, California State University, Stanislaus
Kimberly Tanner, San Francisco State University
Kathy Williams, San Diego State University
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Workshops on Active Learning with Video Analysis
January 5-7, 2010 in Orlando, Florida
July 12-16, 2010 in Portland, Oregon
Summer, 2011 at Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, NY
http://livephoto.rit.edu/workshops/
Video analysis is the use of video as a scientific measurement tool. Students find active learning with video capture and analysis both educational and compelling.
These NSF-funded workshops are for university and college faculty interested in using digital video analysis in student research, lectures, tutorials, homework assignments, and laboratories. They will cover techniques for making measurements in areas such as mechanics, thermodynamics, wave propagation, electricity, magnetism, and optics. Participants can apply these techniques in both chemistry and biology. Curricular materials and video clips will be provided to participants. Follow-up sessions and on-line communication will allow participants to share videos, activities and ideas for teaching.
There will be no tuition or fees for these workshops. Room and board for faculty and instructional staff from US institutions will be provided, and those with demonstrated need who teach under-represented students may apply for partial travel stipends.
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Live Webcast of “Evolution in Extreme Environments” Symposium
Friday, November 13th, from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm, MST
Are you interested in evolution, but unable to attend this year’s National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT) conference in Denver? Would you and your students like to learn more about evolution in “extreme environments”, such as high altitude, in the deep-sea, or in caves? If so, you will be excited to learn that for the first time, the annual NABT Evolution Symposium will be accessible via a free, live webcast on Friday, Nov. 13th from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm, MST.
For full program information, including speaker names, talk titles and times, and the link to view the live webcast, please visit
http://www.nescent.org/NABT09Webcast.php
In addition, all of the talks will be recorded and placed on NESCent’s website for free access after the conference.
I can’t believe the workshop is over… a week passed so quickly and there was so much more that I wanted to accomplish! BioQUEST can’t thank Harry Richards, Program Manager for SCALE-IT, enough for arranging and participating in our curriculum development workshop at NIMBioS. It is definitely on my short list for best workshops ever!
Even though the our curriculum workshop has concluded, our materials live on! At this workshop we had a number of participant projects that pulled together bioinformatics, structural biology and mathematical biology to explore diverse topics like the Asian flush, HIV, and tasmanian devil. In addition, participants shared about their own projects as well as told us about their favorite sites and we captured it all for others to benefit from!
If you missed this workshop, but would like to attend another please checkout our calendar of upcoming events to find a workshop or presentation close to you!
Word cloud courtesy of wordle.net
So, you can take this question literally and answer it with the wikipedia definition. However, the best description I have found describing a blog is by Andy Carvin at the PBS Teachers blog. As a jumping off point I have excerpted the beginning of his post here:
May 22, 2006
What Exactly is a Blog, Anyway?
by Andy Carvin, 12:01PM
If you don’t know what a blog is, you’re not alone; according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, nearly two-thirds of Internet users don’t have a good idea of the meaning of “blog.” In case you fall within this group, you’re in luck, though – you’re looking at a blog right now.
But this is just a website, right? Yeah, I get that a lot. On several occasions while doing workshops with both educators and non-educators, people have asked me if blogs are just websites. Yes, it’s true, blogs are a type of website, but there’s more to it than that.
continue reading Andy Carvin’s post …
So what is the “more”?
- Blogs Offer Independence AND Togetherness
- An online content management system – such as the WordPress platform that we are using – frees up daily dependence upon a web developer, designer or administrator. The software installs in — no kidding — 5 minutes. You can update your own content and post media such as images, video, slideshows, and podcasts with minimal effort.
- Multiple people can share in the maintenance of the blog. No need for multiple copies of expensive HTML editing software, FTP’ing files, and worrying about over-writing each other’s versions of the document.
- Blogs come in hundreds of different flavors
- Whether you start with the “classic” or “default” themes that come pre-installed or select from the many, many, many freely available themes, you can change the look and feel of your blog with a touch of a button. For example, compare three of our blogs: SCOPE, Summer2009 and BioQUEST.org.
- Many enjoy the built-in features that allow for a very visual presentation of your content, while others enjoy its ability to maintain a public diary which invites and supports a dialog with its readers.
- Some enjoy the fact that Wordpress (the most prevelent blog software) is an open-source (i.e. community) project which invites people to create plugins to add features. We are currently using plugins that do things like support forms (e.g., Where Are We? Evolution Survey) and automated page translation (just click on one of the flags near the top of the page).
These are just some of the “more” that bioquest.org is trying to take advantage of. Please take the time to tell us what you think about what we are doing by sharing a comment on this page!
Next time we will share some information about how to find your way around in a blog. All that dynamic content requires some new surfing strategies.
Judy Scotchmoor – Project Manager, 
Anna Thanukos – Project Assistant, 
