Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education最新文献

{"title":"Implementing an undergraduate learning assistant model to foster engagement and professional development in microbiology courses.","authors":"Katriana A Popichak, Paige E Gruber, Erica L Suchman, Jennifer L McLean","doi":"10.1128/jmbe.00042-25","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.00042-25","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Integrating undergraduate learning assistants (ULAs) into high-enrollment science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses has been shown to enhance student engagement, yet the impact on ULAs themselves remains underexplored. This manuscript presents a field-tested framework for implementing and sustaining a structured ULA program in a General Microbiology course, offering a replicable model for educators seeking to enhance student learning and ULA professional development (PD). Over the past decade, this program has been refined to provide structured mentorship, leadership opportunities, and active involvement in both in-class and out-of-class activities. The ULA program fosters student engagement by incorporating active learning strategies such as iClicker questions, group exams, and flipped classroom exercises, ensuring a collaborative and supportive learning environment. At the same time, ULAs develop critical skills in communication, teamwork, assessment, and pedagogy, which align with key PD objectives. Faculty observations indicate that students who engage with ULAs exhibit increased conceptual understanding, participation, and peer collaboration. Likewise, anonymous ULA feedback highlights significant growth in teaching confidence, leadership, and academic preparedness. This article serves as a practical guide for educators by outlining a structured, adaptable curriculum, detailing strategies for faculty mentoring, and providing implementation best practices. While formal assessment of learning gains is ongoing, preliminary findings suggest that ULAs serve as valuable instructional assets while simultaneously benefiting from the experience. This dual impact underscores the importance of structured ULA programs in enhancing undergraduate education and preparing future educators and professionals.</p>","PeriodicalId":46416,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education","volume":" ","pages":"e0004225"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144276201","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Community college biology students' understanding of <i>Vision and Change</i> core concepts.","authors":"Noah A Courtney, Michelle K Smith, David Esparza","doi":"10.1128/jmbe.00211-24","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.00211-24","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The <i>Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education</i> report establishes a set of five core concepts that students should build an understanding of throughout college biology programs. While student conceptual understanding is well studied in 4-year contexts, there are minimal studies in community college contexts. Community colleges are unique: 38% of US college students are enrolled in them, many of whom identify as historically underrepresented in STEM. To better understand community college biology students' learning, we measured their understanding of the <i>Vision and Change</i> core concepts using the General Biology-Measuring Achievement and Progression in Science (GenBio-MAPS) assessment. By analyzing data from over 600 students attending nine different community colleges, we asked the following questions. (i) How do community college biology students perform across the five <i>Vision and Chang</i>e core concepts? (ii) Do institutional-, course-, and student-level variables contribute to variation in community college biology students' conceptual understanding? We found that students scored highest on Systems items and struggled the most with items about Information Flow. Furthermore, students generally scored lower on questions related to cellular and molecular biology and higher on questions related to ecology and evolution. While demographic factors explained minimal variance, we found that life science majors and students from dominant racial/gender identities scored significantly higher than those who did not identify similarly. We recommend areas for further research into community college biology students' conceptual understanding and implications for teaching practices that support their academic success.</p>","PeriodicalId":46416,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education","volume":" ","pages":"e0021124"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144276200","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Coupling discovery-based learning and apprenticeship research experiences: a novel undergraduate laboratory course model.","authors":"Sarah Damiani, Giorgio Freije, Adam D Rudner, Keith Wheaton, Lisa M D'Ambrosio","doi":"10.1128/jmbe.00073-25","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.00073-25","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Apprenticeship research experiences (AREs) provide undergraduate students with real-world opportunities to engage in authentic experiment-based research as integral members of the supervisor's laboratory team. While AREs have been proposed to support students' confidence and competencies in the laboratory, they can also present practical barriers for effective pedagogical and fair implementation in undergraduate programs. For example, as AREs are conducted in authentic research environments independent of a course context, they are often not equipped with the pedagogical structure and guided instruction to best support student learning. Moreover, students frequently compete to secure a limited number of ARE placements such as summer research positions, honors thesis students, or scholarship recipients. As a result, many students who aim to complete an ARE within their undergraduate degree may never receive the opportunity, raising questions of factors that may impact fair and impartial student eligibility for these research experiences. To address these barriers, our faculty developed an innovative undergraduate course that integrates a discovery-based training laboratory component and an ARE placement component directly within its structure. Here, we present the details of this unique course structure and provide practical resources and suggestions for implementation in similar laboratory courses in science-related undergraduate programs.</p>","PeriodicalId":46416,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education","volume":" ","pages":"e0007325"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144267595","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Breaking confirmatory spells by implementing research-integrated CUREs.","authors":"Jan A C Vriezen","doi":"10.1128/jmbe.00114-25","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.00114-25","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Differences in economic and social growth and academic equity, experiences, and opportunities have left an achievement gap in STEM for underprivileged students. Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) have attempted to answer these inequalities by leveling the playing field or by offering course-based research opportunities with minimal requirements for background knowledge. When we ask novel questions, more students get the experience of performing research, which lowers thresholds to pursue research and increases participation. Although the learning outcomes have been largely positive, there is a concern that many CUREs are still too scaffolded. In contrast, I propose to develop exploratory, hypothesis-driven CUREs that are integrated into ongoing research (riCURE). By using the opportunities created by the Tiny Earth CURE as a start, I designed exploratory courses that allow for interdisciplinary hypothesis development, yielding both improved educational outcomes as well as ongoing research dividends.</p>","PeriodicalId":46416,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education","volume":" ","pages":"e0011425"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144267594","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A discipline-specific pedagogical professional development graduate program fosters development of integrated scholars: an evaluation of the Future Undergraduate Science Educators (FUSE) program.","authors":"Marina L Ellefson, Mona M Monfared","doi":"10.1128/jmbe.00044-25","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.00044-25","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Here, we present a model for a decentralized, discipline-specific pedagogical professional development program for STEM PhD students interested in teaching and learning careers in higher education. The FUSE (Future Undergraduate Science Educators) program at UC Davis follows the structure of the University of California's Graduate Academic Certificate. FUSE scholars take 12 units of coursework, which span a variety of teaching-related topics, such as an introduction to Scientific Teaching, teaching portfolio development, and an authentic mentored teaching experience. By providing formal training in Scientific Teaching and offering a mentored teaching practicum, FUSE aims to decrease the time it takes between attaining a PhD and getting a teaching position. The FUSE program is unique in that it offers decentralized pedagogical training within the same academic unit in which students receive their research training. This positioning of FUSE has the potential to affect cultural change that elevates the value of teaching and integrated scholarship within the traditional graduate research training environment. Launched in Fall 2021, this program was designed to be modular and easily adaptable by other disciplinary units. This paper describes the process of developing the FUSE program, details of the program structure, and data on student perceptions of the value and impact of the program on their development of pedagogical, research, and professional skills. Student feedback on positive and negative aspects of the program was also collected. Student responses to closed-ended and open-ended questions revealed positive perceived impacts on the development of a wide range of pedagogical, career, interpersonal/personal, and research skills. The majority of students reported that the program had either no impact or a positive impact on their research productivity, supporting previous work that developing teaching expertise in graduate school does not oppose disciplinary research progress. The FUSE program serves as a model for an adaptable graduate curriculum in scientific teaching and evidence-based practices that fosters the development of integrated STEM scholars and takes advantage of the pedagogical expertise of teaching-focused faculty in research-intensive universities.</p>","PeriodicalId":46416,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education","volume":" ","pages":"e0004425"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144227180","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Assessing how a teaching professional development program for biology graduate students bolsters self-efficacy and shapes teaching perspectives.","authors":"Anisha S Navlekar, Nia Baker, Mackenzie Ghaemmaghami, Imani Obasi, Sochinenyenwa Onubogu, Cassandra O'Pry, Robert Posey, Jessica Tan, Karen Walulu, Joshua W Reid, Lisa B Limeri","doi":"10.1128/jmbe.00008-25","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.00008-25","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) teach undergraduates directly, and many are future faculty, making it particularly important for them to be trained in using evidence-based instructional practices. We implemented and assessed a teaching professional development program for 19 biology GTAs aimed to help them develop their teaching perspectives and improve their teaching self-efficacy. The program consisted of a pre-semester bootcamp of pedagogical workshops, mentoring sessions throughout the semester, crafting a teaching philosophy statement, and reflective peer teaching observation. We surveyed and interviewed students throughout the program to assess their growth and identify elements of the program that supported their growth. We found that participants' self-efficacy improved immediately following the pre-semester bootcamp, but these improvements did not persist throughout the semester. At the end of the semester, participants' teaching self-efficacy did not differ from GTAs in the department who did not participate in our program. Throughout the semester, our participants shifted toward the social reform perspective of teaching, which views good teaching as encouraging students to critically evaluate information and give them power to take social action to improve their lives. At the end of the semester, our participants more strongly endorsed the social reform perspective of teaching than GTAs who did not participate in our program. Our results suggest that pre-semester workshops supported novice GTAs before their class, but more sustained interactions may be needed for these boosts to persist. Our results also suggest that encouraging GTAs to reflect on what makes good teaching can help them solidify a coherent teaching perspective.</p>","PeriodicalId":46416,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education","volume":" ","pages":"e0000825"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144227181","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"What's troubling you? Examining how biology teaching assistants talk about teaching concerns.","authors":"Hillary A Barron, Lorelei E Patrick, Julie C Brown, Sehoya Cotner","doi":"10.1128/jmbe.00226-24","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.00226-24","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Undergraduate students in science classes are more engaged and demonstrate increased performance when instructional methods include authentic science practices and active learning strategies. Non-majors students (i.e., those enrolled in science classes to fulfill a degree requirement) typically receive instruction that is more lecture-based and prescribed, however, which contributes to disinterest, diminished self-expectations, and lower performance. Teaching assistants (TAs) often interact with undergraduate students more closely in science classes than faculty and thus could potentially have far-reaching impacts on these students. Therefore, understanding how TAs think about their science teaching and the concerns they have about their methods can lead to designing more effective TA professional development (PD). In this qualitative study, we explored TA written reflections and employed first- and second-cycle analysis techniques to identify themes reflecting TAs' perceptions of their science teaching and concerns for improvement. We found that TAs' concerns about their teaching centered on three themes: <i>subject-specific concerns</i>, <i>student-centered concerns</i>, and <i>delivery and presentation concerns</i>. Further, these concerns changed over time and varied across TA experience level. We offer insight into how TAs' teaching concerns evolve and discuss the implications of these insights for TA PD.</p>","PeriodicalId":46416,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education","volume":" ","pages":"e0022624"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144227182","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"An exploratory mixed-methods sentiment analysis of a social-emotional learning (SEL)-informed grant writing workshop in the biosciences.","authors":"Miroslav Suzara, Courtney Peña, Crystal Botham","doi":"10.1128/jmbe.00219-24","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.00219-24","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Grant writing is an important component of academic research success across disciplines, especially in the biosciences. It also tends to be an activity that is perceived with significant anxiety and stress. Typical grant writing training programs focus on the mechanical aspects of grant writing, but what is often left out of the conversation on how to support grant writers is the potential importance of the social and emotional factors related to grant writing training. To address this, we conducted a grant writing workshop that explicitly incorporated social-emotional learning (SEL) into its delivery. Through a comparative sentiment analysis, we used pre-post survey data (<i>n</i> = 31) to understand what effect the workshop had on participants' perceptions and attitudes toward grant writing. The survey analysis revealed that negative attitudes and perceptions about grant writing were proportionately reduced by 89% post-intervention, and positive attitudes increased proportionately by 143%. This mixed-methods study highlights the importance of incorporating SEL in grant writing support to combat the many challenges scientists face in the grant writing process.</p>","PeriodicalId":46416,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education","volume":" ","pages":"e0021924"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144217238","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Engaging social-emotional motivators to improve the grant writing experience: a workshop model for teaching scientific writing.","authors":"Courtney Peña, Miroslav Suzara, Crystal Botham","doi":"10.1128/jmbe.00065-25","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.00065-25","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Grant writing is an important skill that scientists must acquire in order to have successful careers as independent researchers. However, despite its importance, many scientists report that they do not enjoy grant writing because it is stressful, lonely, requires a lot of time and effort, and involves the possibility of rejection. As a result, many scientists have more negative associations with grant writing than positive ones. In this article, we offer a novel intervention in the form of a social-emotional learning (SEL)-informed workshop and accompanying handout for emerging scientists to build more positive associations with their writing. The approaches in this workshop intentionally leverage SEL motivators (such as scientific identity, sense of purpose, and community) to help grant writers overcome common challenges that accompany the writing process. A pre-post survey analysis of this workshop showed a shift from negative/challenge-focused attitudes and perceptions toward grant writing toward positive/process-focused ones after the workshop. This 1-hour intervention can be facilitated by research development professionals, lab leaders, or anyone teaching scientific writing for undergraduates, graduate students, and postdocs.</p>","PeriodicalId":46416,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education","volume":" ","pages":"e0006525"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144217239","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Development of the PeeR Investigators Mentoring Experiences in Research (PRIMER) program: a peer mentoring initiative to increase mentoring in CUREs.","authors":"Samuel H Neely, Raquel Meyer Nunes, Arlene Garcia, Charles Donate, Rocio Benabentos, Melissa McCartney, Jessica Siltberg-Liberles","doi":"10.1128/jmbe.00048-25","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.00048-25","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The PeeR Investigators Mentoring Experiences in Research (PRIMER) program was developed to enhance mentorship and support in Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) at our institution. This program leverages PRIMER's prior research experience in computational biology courses to mentor students in our bioinformatics-focused CUREs. PRIMERs guide students through research projects and provide tailored support in technical research tasks and scientific writing. They also provide mentoring to students through the research process and help them navigate the next steps in seeking out additional research experiences. PRIMERs, who consist of current undergraduates and recent graduates of our program, undergo training on engaging students in research, peer mentoring, and providing constructive feedback on written assignments. This study reports on the first iteration of the PRIMER program, evaluating its design and impact on the professional development of PRIMERs through focus groups and its effectiveness within our CUREs through student surveys. Findings indicate that PRIMERs developed valuable transferable skills, particularly in scientific communication, providing feedback, and peer mentoring. Students involved in the CUREs aligned with the PRIMER program reported that PRIMERs played an integral role in enhancing their learning experience, offering research support, and fostering a positive research environment.</p>","PeriodicalId":46416,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education","volume":" ","pages":"e0004825"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144188229","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}