Past Seminars

From Learning Objectives To Exam Questions: Examining How Changes In Framing Can Influence Students’ Attitudes and Learning

Dr. Jeremy Hsu
Chapman University

Thursday, January 18, 2024

Location: 1205 Natural Sciences Building Auditorium

10 - 11am
Q and A until 11:30am

Hosted by: Claire Meaders (cmeaders@ucsd.edu)

Learning objectives, quizzes, and exams are common across STEM courses. However, there has been little work done examining how students think about learning objectives and how the wording of such learning objectives may influence students’ attitudes, motivation, and learning in class. Similarly, quizzes and exams are ubiquitous in STEM courses, but there has also been a paucity of past work investigating how the framing of such questions may impact students’ reading and processing of the question as well as their attitudes. In this talk, we will explore how students conceptualize learning objectives and discuss ways instructors can use learning objectives to support student learning. We will then explore how different wordings of the same learning objectives and exam questions can play major roles in influencing students’ attitudes and motivations and examine how instructors can apply these findings to their classes.

Scalable Success: Use of Near-Peer Mentors to Promote STEM Student Academic Performance

Dr. Eduardo Gonzalez and Dr. Mike Wilton
University of California – Santa Barbara

Friday, December 8th, 2023

Location: 3201 Tata Hall, Kavli Auditorium

10 - 11am
Q and A until 11:30am

Hosted by: Katie Petrie (kpetrie@ucsd.edu)

Mentorship is an effective strategy to promote postsecondary STEM student academic success and retention. However, as undergraduate STEM enrollment continues to increase, faculty-student mentorship at large, public universities is not a scalable approach. Here we describe the positive impacts of near-peer mentorship approaches which leverage upper-division biology students to provide support to first- and second-year majors at the University of California.

Achieving Institutional Change in Teaching Practices

Dr. Carl Wieman
Nobel Prize Laureate, Physics (2001)
Stanford University

Friday, November 3, 2023

Location: 3201 Tata Hall, Kavli Auditorium or Zoom

Zoom Meeting ID: 951 7535 7612

10:00 AM - 11:00 AM

Navigating a Changing Teaching Landscape: Approaches and Advice From BioSci Faculty

Keefe Reuther, Melinda Owens, Justin Meyer

Tuesday, November 7, 2023

Location: Muir Biology Building, Room 1138

9:30 AM - 10:50 AM

Melinda Owens and Justin Meyer will share approaches and perspectives from flipping their courses in fall 2023. Keefe Reuther will guide you through step by step workflow to quickly modify and generate assessment questions that can easily be uploaded to Canvas.

Imagining New Possibilities in STEM: Ecosystem Impacts on STEM Identity

Dr. Desiree Forsythe
Postdoctoral Fellow
Chapman University

Friday, May 19, 2023

10:00 AM - 11:00 AM (A Q and A discussion with Dr. Forsythe will take place immediately following the talk.)
Host: Claire Meaders

Ungrading: A Primer

Dr. Celeste Leander
Professor of Teaching
Department of Botany
University of British Columbia

Thursday, May 4, 2023

2:00 PM - 3:00 PM (A roundtable discussion with Dr. Leander will take place immediately following the talk.)
Host: Lisa McDonnell

"It's completely erasure": Exploration of experiences of transgender, nonbinary, gender nonconforming, and questioning students in biology courses

Dr. Sarah Eddy
Assistant Professor
Biology and the STEM Transformation Institute
Florida International University

Friday, April 21, 2023

10:00 AM - 11:00 AM (A roundtable discussion with Dr. Eddy will take place immediately following the talk.)
Host: Katie Petrie

Examining Undergraduate Thinking in Science using AI-based Evaluation of Constructed Responses

Dr. Kevin Haudek
Associate Professor, Teaching
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Michigan State

Friday, March 24, 2023

10:00 AM - 11:00 AM (A roundtable discussion with Dr. Haudek will take place immediately following the talk.)
Host: Claire Meaders

What Inclusive Instructors Do

Dr. Tracie Addy
Associate Dean of Teaching and Learning
Center for the Integration of Teaching, Learning and Scholarship Lafayette College

Friday, March 10, 2023

10:00 AM - 11:00 AM (A 30 min extended Q&A discussion with Dr. Addy will take place immediately following the talk.)
Host: Claire Meaders

Stimulating Metacognition and Self-Regulated Learning: the Effects of Getting Students to Monitor Learning

Dr. Jenny Knight
Associate Professor
University of Colorado, Boulder

Friday, January 20, 2023

10:00 AM - 11:00 AM (A workshop and discussion with Dr. Knight will take place immediately following the talk.)
Host: Jack Reddan

Aligning Teaching Values and Assessment Practices with Scalable Specifications Grading

Renée Link, Ph.D.
Professor of Teaching
University of California, Irvine

Friday, November 18, 2022

10:00 AM – 11:00 AM (A workshop and discussion with Dr. Link will take place immediately following the talk.)
Host: Melinda Owens

Challenges, Obstacles and Considerations for Establishing STEM Diversity Programs at Predominately White Institutions

Starlette M. Sharp
Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellow
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Friday, October 28, 2022

10:00 AM – 11:00 AM (A roundtable discussion with Ms. Sharp will take place immediately following the talk.)
Host: Melinda Owens

Using Religious Cultural Competence in Biology Education

M. Elizabeth Barnes, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Biology Department
Middle Tennessee State University

Friday, May 27, 2022

10:00 AM – 11:00 AM (a roundtable discussion with Dr. Barnes will follow)
Host: Katie Petrie

Students may learn (even) more than they think!
Effortful deliberate practice in the classroom

Louis Deslauriers, Ph.D.
Department of Physics
Harvard University

Friday, April 29, 2022

10:00 AM – 11:00 AM (a roundtable discussion with Dr. Deslauriers will take place immediately following the talk.)
Host: Katie Petrie

How Undergraduates Use Metacognition to Learn on Their Own and in Small Groups

Julie Dangremond Stanton, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Cellular Biology
University of Georgia

Friday, March 4, 2022

10:00AM – 11:00AM (a roundtable discussion with Dr. Stanton will take place immediately following the talk.)
Host: Claire Meaders

Learning from Orchestras: Implementation of an Anonymized Faculty Search

Enrique M. De La Cruz, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair of Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry
Yale University

Friday, January 21, 2022

10:00AM – 11:00AM (a roundtable discussion with Dr. De La Cruz will follow)
Hosts: Stanley Lo and Melinda Owens

Challenges and opportunities for students with disabilities in evolving learning environments: active learning, online instruction, and undergraduate research

Logan Gin, Ph.D.
School of Life Sciences
Research for Inclusive Science Education (RISE) Center
Arizona State University

Friday, November 12, 2021

10:00AM – 11:00AM (a roundtable discussion with Dr. Gin will take place immediately following the talk, until 11:30AM)
Host: Melinda T. Owens

Strategies for Teaching Inclusively as the Pandemic Continues

Kelly A. Hogan, Ph.D.
STEM Teaching Professor
Department of Biology
Associate Dean of Instructional Innovation
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Friday, October 15, 2021

10:00 AM – 11:00 AM (a roundtable discussion with Dr. Hogan will follow)
Host: Claire Meaders

But is it really “just” science? Engaging critical race theory to unpack racial oppression with implications for Black student science engagement

Terrell Morton, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
College of Education
University of Missouri

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

9:00 AM – 10:00 AM PT
Host: Stanley Lo
In conjunction with the Society for the Advancement in Biology Education Research (SABER) Striving for Racial Justice in Academic Biology Seminar Series

The importance of interaction-oriented practices in enhancing online student success

Di Xu, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
School of Education
University of California, Irvine

Friday, December 4, 2020

10:00 AM – 11:00 AM PT (a roundtable discussion with Dr. Xu will follow)
Host: Melinda Owens

The influence of humanizing education to broadening participation in STEM careers

Mica Estrada, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Institute for Health & Aging
University of California, San Francisco

Thursday, February 4, 2021

11:00 AM – 12:00 PM PT
Host: Corinne Moeller

Revisiting the classics: Integrating cognition into traditional models of formative assessment

Erika Offerdahl, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
School of Molecular Biosciences
Washington State University

Friday, March 5, 2021

10:00 AM – 11:00 AM PT (a roundtable discussion with Dr. Offerdahl will follow)
Host: Lisa McDonnell

Systemic disadvantages for LGBTQ professionals in STEM

Erin Cech, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor and Associate Graduate Director
Department of Sociology
University of Michigan

Thursday, March 18, 2021

9:00 AM – 10:00 AM PT
Host: Stanley Lo
In conjunction with the Society for the Advancement in Biology Education Research (SABER) Striving for Racial Justice in Academic Biology Seminar Series

Diversifying Both Ends of the STEM Pipeline Requires Institutional Change

Susan Wessler, Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor
Neil and Rochelle Campbell Presidential Chair for Innovation in Science Education,
Department of Botany and Plant Sciences,
University of California, Riverside
Home Secretary, US National Academy of Sciences

Friday, May 7, 2021

10:00 AM – 11:00 AM PT (a roundtable discussion with Dr. Wessler will follow)
Host: Susan Golden