Supporting Student Competencies in Graph Reading, Interpretation, Construction, and Evaluation.

Graphs are ubiquitous tools in science that allow one to explore data patterns, design studies, communicate findings, and make claims. This essay is a companion to the online, evidence-based interactive guide intended to help inform instructors' decision-making in how to teach graph reading, interpretation, construction, and evaluation within the discipline of biology. We provide a framework with a focus on six instructional practices that instructors can utilize when designing graphing activities: use data to engage students, teach graphing grounded in the discipline, practice explicit instruction, use real world "messy" data, utilize collaborative work, and emphasize reflection. Each component of this guide is supported by summaries of and links to articles that can inform graphing practices. The guide also contains an instructor checklist that summarizes key points with actionable steps that can guide instructors as they work towards refining and incorporating graphing into their classroom practice and emerging questions in which further empirical studies are warranted.

Students' Emotions, Perceived Coping, and Outcomes in Response to Research-Based Challenges and Failures in Two Sequential CUREs.

The ability to navigate scientific obstacles is widely recognized as a hallmark of a scientific disposition and is one predictor of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics persistence for early-career scientists. However, the development of this competency in undergraduate research has been largely underexplored. This study addresses this gap by examining introductory students' emotional and behavioral responses to research-related challenges and failures that occur in two sequential research-based courses. We describe commonly reported emotions, coping responses, and perceived outcomes and examine relationships between these themes, student demographics, and course enrollment. Students commonly experience frustration, confusion, and disappointment when coping with challenges and failures. Yet the predominance of students report coping responses likely to be adaptive in academic contexts despite experiencing negative emotions. Being enrolled in the second course of a research-based course sequence was related to several shifts in response to challenges during data collection, including less reporting of confusion and fewer reports of learning to be cautious from students. Overall, students in both the first and second courses reported many positive outcomes indicating improvements in their ability to cope with challenge and failure. We assert that educators can improve research-based educational courses by scaffolding students' research trials, failures, and iterations to support students' perseverance.

Genomics of Environmental Salmonella: Engaging Students in the Microbiology and Bioinformatics of Foodborne Pathogens.

We have developed and implemented an undergraduate microbiology course in which students isolate, characterize, and perform whole genome assembly and analysis of Salmonella enterica from stream sediments and poultry litter. In the development of the course and over three semesters, successive teams of undergraduate students collected field samples and performed enrichment and isolation techniques specific for the detection of S. enterica. Eighty-eight strains were confirmed using standard microbiological methods and PCR of the invA gene. The isolates' genomes were Illumina-sequenced by the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition at the FDA and the Virginia state Division of Consolidated Laboratory Services as part of the GenomeTrakr program. Students used GalaxyTrakr and other web- and non-web-based platforms and tools to perform quality control on raw and assembled sequence data, assemble, and annotate genomes, identify antimicrobial resistance and virulence genes, putative plasmids, and other mobile genetic elements. Strains with putative plasmid-borne antimicrobial resistance genes were further sequenced by students in our research lab using the Oxford Nanopore MinIONTM platform. Strains of Salmonella that were isolated include human infectious serotypes such as Typhimurium and Infantis. Over 31 of the isolates possessed antibiotic resistance genes, some of which were located on large, multidrug resistance plasmids. Plasmid pHJ-38, identified in a Typhimurium isolate, is an apparently self-transmissible 183 kb IncA/C2 plasmid that possesses multiple antimicrobial resistance and heavy-metal resistance genes. Plasmid pFHS-02, identified in an Infantis isolate, is an apparently self-transmissible 303 kb IncF1B plasmid that also possesses numerous heavy-metal and antimicrobial resistance genes. Using direct and indirect measures to assess student outcomes, results indicate that course participation contributed to cognitive gains in relevant content knowledge and research skills such as field sampling, molecular techniques, and computational analysis. Furthermore, participants self-reported a deeper interest in scientific research and careers as well as psychosocial outcomes (e.g., sense of belonging and self-efficacy) commonly associated with student success and persistence in STEM. Overall, this course provided a powerful combination of field, wet lab, and computational biology experiences for students, while also providing data potentially useful in pathogen surveillance, epidemiological tracking, and for the further study of environmental reservoirs of S. enterica.

"Where's My Mentor?!" Characterizing Negative Mentoring Experiences in Undergraduate Life Science Research.

Undergraduate research experiences in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields are championed for promoting students' personal and professional development. Mentorship is an integral part of undergraduate research, as effective mentorship maximizes the benefits undergraduates realize from participating in research. Yet almost no research examines instances in which mentoring is less effective or even problematic, even though prior research on mentoring in workplace settings suggests negative mentoring experiences are common. Here, we report the results of a qualitative study to define and characterize negative mentoring experiences of undergraduate life science researchers. Undergraduate researchers in our study reported seven major ways they experienced negative mentoring: absenteeism, abuse of power, interpersonal mismatch, lack of career support, lack of psychosocial support, misaligned expectations, and unequal treatment. They described some of these experiences as the result of absence of positive mentoring behavior and others as actively harmful behavior, both of which they perceive as detrimental to their psychosocial and career development. Our results are useful to mentors for reflecting on ways their behaviors might be perceived as harmful or unhelpful. These findings can also serve as a foundation for future research aimed at examining the prevalence and impact of negative mentoring experiences in undergraduate research.

"Seeing" Data Like an Expert: An Eye-Tracking Study Using Graphical Data Representations.

Given the centrality of data visualizations in communicating scientific information, increased emphasis has been placed on the development of students' graph literacy-the ability to generate and interpret data representations-to foster understanding of domain-specific knowledge and the successful navigation of everyday life. Despite prior literature that identifies student difficulties and methods to improve graphing competencies, there is little understanding as to how learners develop these skills. To gain a better resolution of the cognitive basis by which individuals "see" graphs, this study uses eye tracking (ET) to compare the strategies of non-science undergraduates (n = 9), early (n = 7) and advanced (n = 8) biology undergraduates, graduate students (n = 6), and science faculty (n = 6) in making sense of data displays. Results highlight variation in how individuals direct their attention (i.e., fixations and visual search patterns) when completing graph-based tasks as a function of science expertise. As research on the transition from novice to expert is crucially important in understanding how we might design curricula that help novices move toward more expert-like performance, this study has implications for the advancement of new strategies to aid the teaching and learning of data analysis skills.