Promoting student interest in plant biology through an inquiry-based module exploring plant circadian rhythm, gene expression, and defense against insects.

We present a weeklong curricular module for high school biology students that promotes knowledge of phytohormones, the circadian clock, and the Central Dogma. The module, which relies on easily accessible items and requires minimal space, integrates a hands-on experiment that guides students through replicating research examining circadian entrainment in postharvest cabbage from groceries. This work found that plants have cyclical, circadian expression of genes that produce phytohormones, and that such cyclical expression influences herbivory by caterpillars. Such cyclical patterns were found in plants both in situ and in postharvest cabbage. This work thus provides an ideal platform to shape student conceptions of circadian rhythms, gene expression, and plant herbivory by having students use light timers to entrain postharvest cabbage to alternating light and dark cycles and then measuring herbivory in these plants. The results should replicate previous work and demonstrate less herbivory when both plant and caterpillar are entrained to the same light and dark cycles since the expression of phytohormones involved in plant defense will be greatest when caterpillars are active. The module then concludes with a discussion of gene regulation and how this influences phytohormones. This module was field tested at four public schools, reaching over 600 students, and we present data demonstrating that the module led to learning gains and likely increases in interest in plant biology and self-efficacy.

Variations in Student Approaches to Problem Solving in Undergraduate Biology Education.

Existing research has investigated student problem-solving strategies across science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; however, there is limited work in undergraduate biology education on how various aspects that influence learning combine to generate holistic approaches to problem solving. Through the lens of situated cognition, we consider problem solving as a learning phenomenon that involves the interactions between internal cognition of the learner and the external learning environment. Using phenomenography as a methodology, we investigated undergraduate student approaches to problem solving in biology through interviews. We identified five aspects of problem solving (including knowledge, strategy, intention, metacognition, and mindset) that define three qualitatively different approaches to problem solving; each approach is distinguishable by variations across the aspects. Variations in the knowledge and strategy aspects largely aligned with previous work on how the use or avoidance of biological knowledge informed both concept-based and nonconcept-based strategies. Variations in the other aspects revealed intentions spanning complete disengagement to deep interest with the course material, different degrees of metacognitive reflections, and a continuum of fixed to growth mindsets. We discuss implications for how these characterizations can improve instruction and efforts to support development of problem-solving skills.

Exploring pathways to food science careers in Southern California: A case study in food science career development.

Southern California is a diverse region that is home to a high concentration of food science companies, with an increasing demand for additional food scientists and technologists to join this workforce. Despite this abundance of food science companies and the high demand for jobs, there is currently a shortage in the number of qualified food scientists and technologists in the region. This shortage is also observed within higher education, with declining enrollments in the food science graduate and undergraduate programs across Southern California. Here, we conduct a case study to explore the factors that influence students from Southern California to pursue or not pursue careers in food science. We surveyed both undergraduate and graduate students currently enrolled in food science as well as industry professionals in the region to determine sources of knowledge about the discipline, and motivations and barriers for pursuing careers in food science. We also surveyed high school educators in the region to gain additional perspectives on how food science is being introduced at the secondary level, if at all. Our results demonstrate that many students and high school educators are not knowledgeable about career options within food science and that students who are pursuing food science largely report similar motivations for pursuing the discipline as those currently working in the food science industry. We conclude by discussing implications for the food science education community within Southern California and beyond.

Investigating the Influence of Assessment Question Framing on Undergraduate Biology Student Preference and Affect.

Nearly all undergraduate biology courses rely on quizzes and exams. Despite their prevalence, very little work has been done to explore how the framing of assessment questions may influence student performance and affect. Here, we conduct a quasi-random experimental study where students in different sections of the same course were given isomorphic questions that varied in their framing of experimental scenarios. One section was provided a description using the self-referential term "you", placing the student in the experiment; another section received the same scenario that used classmate names; while a third section's scenario integrated counterstereotypical scientist names. Our results demonstrate that there was no difference in performance throughout the semester between the sections, nor were there differences in students' self-reported stress and identity. However, students in all three sections indicated that they most preferred the self-referential framing, providing a variety of reasons that suggest that these variants may influence how well a student reads and processes the question. In addition, our results also indicate that the framing of these scenarios can also have a large impact on some students' affect and attitude toward the question. We conclude by discussing implications for the biology education research community and biology instructors.

Neutral theory and beyond: A systematic review of molecular evolution education.

Molecular evolution-including the neutral theory of molecular evolution-is a major sub-discipline of evolution and is widely taught in undergraduate evolution courses. However, despite its ubiquity, there have not been any previous attempts to compile and review the molecular evolution education literature. Here, we draw upon the framework proposed in a past literature review examining the broader evolution education landscape to conduct a literature review of papers related to molecular evolution education, classifying the contributions of such papers to evolution pedagogy as well as evolution education research. We find that there remains very limited coverage of molecular evolution in the education literature, with existing papers focusing primarily on providing new instructional modules and strategies for teaching molecular evolution. Our work suggests several areas of critical need as well as opportunities to advance evolution education and evolution education research, including compiling instructional goals for the sub-discipline, developing validated assessments, and investigating student thinking related to molecular evolution. We conclude by providing general strategies, advice, and a novel curricular activity for teaching molecular evolution and the neutral theory of molecular evolution.

Reading Primary Scientific Literature: Approaches for Teaching Students in the Undergraduate STEM Classroom.

Teaching undergraduate students to read primary scientific literature (PSL) is cited as an important goal for many science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) classes, given a range of cognitive and affective benefits for students who read PSL. Consequently, there are a number of approaches and curricular interventions published in the STEM education literature on how to teach students to read PSL. These approaches vary widely in their instructional methods, target student demographic, required class time, and level of assessment demonstrating the method's efficacy. In this Essay, we conduct a systematic search to compile these approaches in an easily accessible manner for instructors, using a framework to sort the identified approaches by target level, time required, assessment population, and more. We also provide a brief review of the literature surrounding the reading of PSL in undergraduate STEM classrooms and conclude with some general recommendations for both instructors and education researchers on future areas of investigation.

Insight from Biology Program Learning Outcomes: Implications for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment.

Learning goals and objectives are a key part of instruction, informing curricular design, assessment, and learning. These goals and objectives are also applied at the programmatic level, with program learning outcomes (PLOs) providing insight into the skills that undergraduate biology programs intend for their students to master. PLOs are mandated by all major higher education accreditation agencies and play integral roles in programmatic assessment. Despite their importance, however, there have not been any prior attempts to characterize PLOs across undergraduate biology programs in the United States. Our study reveals that many programs may not be using PLOs to communicate learning goals with students. We also identify key themes across these PLOs and differences in skills listed between institution types. For example, some Vision & Change core competencies (e.g., interdisciplinary nature of science; connecting science to society; quantitative reasoning) are highlighted by a low percentage of programs, while others are shared more frequently between programs. Similarly, we find that biology programs at 4-year institutions likely emphasize PLOs relating to computational skills and research more than at 2-year institutions. We conclude by discussing implications for how to best use PLOs to support student learning, assessment, and curricular improvements.

Characterizing First-Year Biology Majors' Motivations and Perceptions of the Discipline.

Understanding why students choose to major in biology provides important insight into the motivations of biology majors. It is similarly important to investigate how biology majors perceive the discipline, including associated activities, such as independent research, which can influence students' interests in the field and likelihood to persist in science, engineering, technology, and math. However, there has been little work done examining biology student motivations and perceptions, particularly at non-research-intensive universities or after the COVID-19 pandemic started. To address this gap, we surveyed the first-year cohort of biology majors at a private, comprehensive university. We found that students largely reported choosing the major because of interest in the field and/or the fact that the major would prepare them for specific careers. We also found that students had skewed conceptions of several major subdisciplines of biology (ecology and evolution; cell and molecular biology; and anatomy and physiology). Finally, most students reported not knowing what independent research is or presented naive conceptions of research. Our work offers a characterization of how first-year students at our university perceive the discipline, and we conclude by discussing changes that our program has made to address these results as well as implications for instructors and biology administrators.

Exploring physiology instructors' use of core concepts: pedagogical factors that influence choice of course topics.

The physiology core concepts are designed to guide instructors in undergraduate physiology courses. However, although past work has characterized the alignment of physiology programs with the core concepts, it is unclear to what extent these core concepts have influenced instructors' pedagogical decisions or how represented these core concepts are across physiology courses. We surveyed undergraduate physiology instructors to determine their familiarity with the core concepts, the impact of the core concepts on their teaching, as well as the alignment of their courses with these core concepts. Instructors report predominantly relying on textbooks and past syllabi of their courses as resources that influence their instructional decisions on which topics to include in a course. However, many instructors report reorganizing their physiology courses in subsequent iterations or reducing the number of concepts covered to allow more time for critical thinking and active learning. In addition, we find that the majority of instructors indicate that they are not knowledgeable about the list of physiology core concepts and that the influence of these core concepts is limited even for those who report familiarity with the list of core concepts. Finally, we find that instructors report uneven coverage of physiology core concepts in their courses, with some core concepts ubiquitous while others are sparsely covered. We conclude by discussing implications of our work for the physiology education community and call for the continued development of resources to support new physiology instructors and the need to promote coverage of certain core concepts in physiology courses.NEW & NOTEWORTHY The physiology core concepts are a critical resource for undergraduate physiology instructors. Despite this, little past work has investigated the impact of these core concepts across institutions. We find that most instructors are unfamiliar with these core concepts and instead rely on other resources when developing and revamping their physiology courses. We also identify uneven coverage of the core concepts in the curriculum and offer implications for the physiology education community.

Student Motivations and Barriers toward Online and In-Person Office Hours in STEM Courses.

Office hours are one of the most common support mechanisms found in courses. Despite the prevalence of office hours in life sciences classes, there has been little investigation of how science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) students perceive office hours, particularly at non-research intensive universities or other institutions where a majority of students attend office hours. We surveyed more than 500 students, representing most life sciences majors at a comprehensive university, to investigate their motivations and barriers for attending office hours. We then compared instructors' perceptions to students' conceptions of office hours. We identified key themes in student and instructor comments using inductive, grounded theory, finding that students view a more limited range of benefits for office hours than instructors. Students likewise cited a larger number of barriers for attending than instructors perceived. In addition, while there were minimal differences in rates of office hours attendance and perception of office hours based on key demographic factors, we identify areas where students of different class years and gender perceive differences, suggesting areas of future research. Finally, we explored students' views of in-person versus online office hours, providing insight for instructors to better reach all students.

Setting college students up for successInclusive Teaching Kelly A. Hogan and Viji Sathy West Virginia University Press, 2022. 272 pp.

A pair of researchers outline strategies for ensuring that postsecondary courses are inclusive.

Characterizing Biology Education Research: Perspectives from Practitioners and Scholars in the Field.

Biology education research (BER) is a recently emerging field mainly focused on the learning and teaching of biology in postsecondary education. As BER continues to grow, exploring what goals, questions, and scholarship the field encompasses will provide an opportunity for the community to reflect on what new lines of inquiry could be pursued in the future. There have been top-down approaches at characterizing BER, such as aims and scope provided by professional societies or peer-reviewed journals, and literature analyses with evidence for current and historical research trends. However, there have not been previous attempts with a bottom-up approach at characterizing BER by directly surveying practitioners and scholars in the field. Here, we share survey results that asked participants at the Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER) annual meeting what they perceive as current scholarship in BER as well as what areas of inquiry in the field that they would like to see pursued in the future. These survey responses provide us with information directly from BER practitioners and scholars, and we invite colleagues to reflect on how we can collectively and collaboratively continue to promote BER as a field.

Promoting Academic Integrity and Student Learning in Online Biology Courses.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an abrupt shift in biology courses, with many transitioning to online instruction. This has led to an increased concern about academic integrity and cheating in online courses. Here, I draw upon the peer-reviewed literature to provide evidence-based answers to four questions concerning cheating and online biology courses: (i) What types of cheating are prevalent with the shift to online instruction? (ii) Should instructors make assessments open book and open notes? (iii) How does cheating occur in biology lab courses? (iv) Finally, what strategies can biology instructors take to uphold academic integrity with online learning? I frame these answers not only around academic integrity but on the potential impacts on student learning and discuss some strategies that may not only deter cheating but also promote greater student learning.

Instructor Strategies to Alleviate Stress and Anxiety among College and University STEM Students.

While student stress and anxiety are frequently cited as having negative effects on students' academic performance, the role that instructors can play in mitigating these challenges is often underappreciated. We provide summaries of different evidence-based strategies, ranging from changes in instructional strategies to specific classroom interventions, that instructors may employ to address and ameliorate student stress and anxiety. While we focus on students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, the strategies we delineate may be more broadly applicable. We begin by highlighting ways in which instructors can learn about and prepare to act to alleviate stress and anxiety. We then discuss how to better connect with students and build an inclusive, equitable, and empowering classroom environment. When coupled with strategies to change student evaluation and assessment, these approaches may collectively reduce student stress and anxiety, as well as improve student performance. We then discuss the roles that instructors may play in empowering students with skills that improve their time management, studying, and approach toward learning, with an eye toward ensuring their success across all their academic endeavors. We conclude by noting areas in which further research is needed to determine best practices for alleviating student stress and anxiety.

Student perceptions of an inquiry-based molecular biology lecture and lab following a mid-semester transition to online teaching.

The transition to online learning in spring 2020 was abrupt for both students and instructors. While many instructors moved to asynchronous classes, some institutions relied more heavily on synchronous online courses. Here, we evaluate student perceptions of an inquiry-based molecular biology lecture and lab course following this transition by comparing student survey responses from spring 2019, when the lecture and lab were fully in person, to spring 2020, when the lecture and lab started in person before transitioning to a synchronous online format. Students were asked to identify the main factors that supported their learning in lecture and lab, characterize the main barriers to learning in those courses, and discuss their preference of having an inquiry-based lab or a traditional "cookbook" lab with pre-determined answers. We coded these responses and provide one of the first studies to examine the impact of this online transition on student perceptions of learning in an inquiry-based molecular biology lecture and lab course.

Using primary literature on SARS-CoV-2 to promote student learning about evolution.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has caused widespread deaths, illnesses, and societal disruption. I describe here how I pivoted a discussion-based senior biology capstone course to include a multiweek module surrounding one primary literature paper on the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 and the subsequent scientific discourse about the paper. Using a gradual reveal of the paper following the CREATE method (consider, read, elucidate, and think of the next experiment), I challenged students to learn new evolutionary principles and critically analyze the data surrounding the evolution and transmission of SARS-CoV-2 presented in the paper. I also provide general advice for implementing this module in future courses.

A "Choose-Your-Own" Classroom-Based Activity That Promotes Scientific Inquiry about RNA Interference.

RNA interference (RNAi), the process that results in the degradation of a target gene's mRNA, is a fundamental part of eukaryotic gene regulation and is also an important molecular technique that allows for experimental manipulation of gene expression without altering DNA sequences. Despite the importance of RNAi, there have been relatively few lecture-based activities designed to teach about the consequences of this process and counter common misconceptions. I present here an inquiry-based activity that is centered around a "choose your own experiment" design where students generate hypotheses and critically evaluate their ideas by choosing several simulated experiments. The activity presents students with one of the original puzzling observations, the discovery that triggering overexpression of a given gene in a flower resulted in an opposite change in phenotype than expected, and the subsequent discovery that there was a dramatic decrease of that gene's mRNA, that sparked the discovery of RNAi. Students then propose a molecular mechanism for these results before using a limited budget of funding to simulate their choice of experiments. Simulated results are provided for these experiments, and students must work together to interpret and discuss these results before deciding on the next experiment. I provide a guide for instructors on how to implement this activity, with suggestions on how to vary the activity to fit different class sizes as well as an abbreviated version for instructors who are short on time. Finally, I include an aligned assessment so that instructors may check student learning about the impacts of RNAi.

Genomic data reveal a loss of diversity in two species of tuco-tucos (genus Ctenomys) following a volcanic eruption.

Marked reductions in population size can trigger corresponding declines in genetic variation. Understanding the precise genetic consequences of such reductions, however, is often challenging due to the absence of robust pre- and post-reduction datasets. Here, we use heterochronous genomic data from samples obtained before and immediately after the 2011 eruption of the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle volcanic complex in Patagonia to explore the genetic impacts of this event on two parapatric species of rodents, the colonial tuco-tuco (Ctenomys sociabilis) and the Patagonian tuco-tuco (C. haigi). Previous analyses using microsatellites revealed no post-eruption changes in genetic variation in C. haigi, but an unexpected increase in variation in C. sociabilis. To explore this outcome further, we used targeted gene capture to sequence over 2,000 putatively neutral regions for both species. Our data revealed that, contrary to the microsatellite analyses, the eruption was associated with a small but significant decrease in genetic variation in both species. We suggest that genome-level analyses provide greater power than traditional molecular markers to detect the genetic consequences of population size changes, particularly changes that are recent, short-term, or modest in size. Consequently, genomic analyses promise to generate important new insights into the effects of specific environmental events on demography and genetic variation.