Mobile Learning Anytime, Anywhere
Pssst, do you want a free iPod? Sure, but what's the catch? You must use it to learn! Some educational institutions are taking the leap to mobile learning (m-learning) by giving out free iPods. For example, Abilene Christian University gave iPods or iPhones to freshman students and developed 15 Web applications specifically for the mobile devices. Free iPod Touches were handed out to newly hired math and science teachers at a technology training workshop at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Duke University's Digital Initiative program lends iPods to students and staff, or sells them at about a third of the market pri...
Source: Eye on Education - January 23, 2013 Category: Biology Authors: Oksana Hlodan Source Type: news
Forging a 21st Century Model for Undergraduate Research
Not all biology students get to experience scientific research firsthand, but the National Genomics Research Initiative (NGRI) is working to change that, says its director, Tuajuanda Jordan. "The goal is to support educators and improve the number and quality of 21st century scientists," Jordan says. The NGRI is the first initiative to spring from Howard Hughes Medical Institute's (HHMI) new Science Education Alliance (SEA).
At present, a competitive application process determines which institutions become part of NGRI. The goal is to make the experience readily available to all who are interested within the next few years...
Source: Eye on Education - January 23, 2013 Category: Biology Authors: Susan Musante Source Type: news
Expanding the Understanding of Evolution
Originally designed for K–12 teachers, the Understanding Evolution (UE) Web site (www.understandingevolution.org) is a onestop shop for all of a teacher's evolution education needs, with lesson plans, teaching tips, lists of common evolution misconceptions, and much more. However, during the past five years, the UE project team learned that another group of educators uses it, too. "It became clear to us that there was a significant number of undergraduate faculty using it," says Judy Scotchmoor, assistant director of Education and Public Programs at the University of California Museum of Paleontology. So, she and her...
Source: Eye on Education - January 23, 2013 Category: Biology Authors: Susan Musante Source Type: news
Upgrading Undergraduate Biology Education
On many campuses throughout the country, undergraduate biology education is in serious need of an upgrade. During the past few decades, the body of biological knowledge has grown exponentially, and as a research endeavor, the practice of biology has evolved. Education research has also made great strides, revealing many new insights into how students learn and producing effective teaching strategies. But the practice of undergraduate biology education does not reflect these advances. For many students, biology continues to be a laundry list of topics, countless new words and diagrams to memorize, and cookbook experiments t...
Source: Eye on Education - January 23, 2013 Category: Biology Authors: Susan Musante Source Type: news
Teaching Biology for a Sustainable Future
This report also states the need to prepare future biologists to work collaboratively "to address complex and increasingly interdisciplinary problems."
Many of these problems, such as those caused by climate change, the lack of a sustainable food supply, or reliance on nonrenewable energies, stem from years of shortsighted practices that will negatively affect future generations' quality of life. Sustainable solutions must take into account environmental, economic, and social implications, says David Hassenzahl, founding dean and professor at Chatham University's School of Sustainability and the Environment in Pittsburgh, ...
Source: Eye on Education - January 23, 2013 Category: Biology Authors: Susan Musante Source Type: news
Motivating Tomorrow's Biologists
"How do you make the biology we teach as exciting as the biology that we do?" was the challenging question posed by V. Celeste Carter to participants at the National Academy of Sciences convocation, "Thinking Evolutionarily: Evolution Education across the Life Sciences," held in October. Carter, program director at the National Science Foundation, and others at the convocation discussed the converging efforts to improve biology education, to better motivate students, and to integrate evolution across learning experiences.
Simply regurgitating the biological knowledge generated by the scientific community or conducting "coo...
Source: Eye on Education - January 23, 2013 Category: Biology Authors: Susan Musante Source Type: news
Making Biology Relevant to Undergraduates
Terry R. McGuire always assumed that his students understood the relevance of their biology coursework to their lives outside the classroom, and he expected their grades to fall along a normal bell curve. But when he returned from a professional development experience in 2002, his life as a professor was forever changed.
McGuire, who teaches genetics at Rutgers University, had attended a Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities (SENCER; www.sencer.net) Summer Institute. On his return, he began to make small shifts in his teaching approach, sharing course-relevant current events and assigning "one-mi...
Source: Eye on Education - January 23, 2013 Category: Biology Authors: Susan Musante Source Type: news
Community Colleges Giving Students a Framework for STEM Careers
Over the coming decade, our country will need one million more science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professionals than was originally projected. That is the conclusion of a February 2012 report, Engage to Excel: Producing One Million Additional College Graduates with Degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/pcast-engage-to-excel-final_2-25-12.pdf), presented to President Obama by the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).
The report stresses the importance of exciting early on students who are potenti...
Source: Eye on Education - January 23, 2013 Category: Biology Authors: Susan Musante Source Type: news
Collaborations Grow through the Introductory Biology Project
When Elena Bray-Speth, assistant professor of biology at Saint Louis University, presented her case study on the evolution of fur color in mice, little did she know that someone in the audience had developed a case on the very same topic. That person was Jim Smith, principal investigator (PI) of Evo-Ed (http://lbc.msu.edu/evo-ed), a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded project that currently houses four evolutionbased case studies. "Elena and I met just after her session and I showed her our cases," said Smith, who is a professor in the Lyman Briggs College and the Department of Entomology at Michigan State University....
Source: Eye on Education - January 23, 2013 Category: Biology Authors: Susan Musante Source Type: news
Discovering the Biology Education Research Community
When Sarah Eddy began work on her doctoral thesis, she assumed that her main contribution would relate to her field of study—behavioral ecology and the sexual selection of salamanders—but one of her more significant discoveries had nothing to do with amphibians and everything to do with what was going on in the classroom. As a graduate teaching assistant at Oregon State University, she realized how important it was to her to see students truly improve their learning. "It was in trying to figure out how to help students achieve more that I discovered education research literature," she explained. Many biologists...
Source: Eye on Education - January 23, 2013 Category: Biology Authors: Susan Musante Source Type: news
Discovering the Biology Education Research Community
When Sarah Eddy began work on her doctoral thesis, she assumed that her main contribution would relate to her field of study—behavioral ecology and the sexual selection of salamanders—but one of her more significant discoveries had nothing to do with amphibians and everything to do with what was going on in the classroom. As a graduate teaching assistant at Oregon State University, she realized how important it was to her to see students truly improve their learning. "It was in trying to figure out how to help students achieve more that I discovered education research literature," she explained. Many biologists...
Source: Eye on Education - January 11, 2013 Category: Biology Authors: Susan Musante Source Type: news
