Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education最新文献

{"title":"Learning microbiology and virology from the cinema.","authors":"Oliver Schildgen, Jan Smetana, Jan Ehlers, Kathrin Dreckmann","doi":"10.1128/jmbe.00096-25","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.00096-25","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In this report, an alternative approach to teach virology and microbiology-related topics is presented. The teaching approach is suitable to overcome the learning fatigue of students who were tired from media reporting on viruses during the COVID-19 pandemic or were less motivated for the discipline.</p>","PeriodicalId":46416,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education","volume":" ","pages":"e0009625"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144121103","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":"BRAKE the OUTBREAK: a free online simulation helps students learn about vaccination, social distancing, R, and herd immunity.","authors":"Jessica Albert, Amanda Nouwens, Rena Ahn, Anna Muller, Kait Raffensperger, Grace Nguyen, Tristan Wisont, Anastasia McConachie, Parveet Mundi, Margaret Fitzgibbon, Nathaniel Kremer-Herman, Robert Rutherford","doi":"10.1128/jmbe.00062-25","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.00062-25","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p><i>Brake the Outbreak</i> (BTO) is a free, online simulation of infectious outbreaks designed for educational use. A student using the simulation chooses a disease, vaccination percentage, social distancing rates, and other inputs. BTO then visually displays the resulting outbreak as it proceeds, including summary data, such as incidence and prevalence. BTO also shows emergent results like reproductive rate (R), which can be used to determine and test the herd immunity threshold (HIT) of the outbreak. BTO has been tested in the undergraduate microbiology classroom, where results suggest its use can enhance the learning of epidemiological content.</p>","PeriodicalId":46416,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education","volume":" ","pages":"e0006225"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144112161","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":"Maximizing science communication skills in a primary scientific literature-based cancer biology course: practical implementation methods.","authors":"Kristen C Johnson","doi":"10.1128/jmbe.00057-25","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.00057-25","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Integrating primary scientific literature into Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) curricula enhances critical thinking, scientific literacy, and communication skills but presents challenges due to complex terminology and data interpretation barriers. To address these challenges, a scaffolded journal club approach was implemented in a Cancer Biology course. The course utilized Hypothes.is web-based annotations, methods presentations, figure annotations, and structured discussions to promote active engagement with the literature. Additionally, integrated science communication assignments-including written, graphical, and video abstracts-provided diverse opportunities for students to develop scientific literacy. This structured approach is designed to facilitate comprehension, encourage proactive learning, and foster confidence in engaging with primary scientific literature. Student feedback highlighted improved ability to dissect research articles, enhanced presentation skills, and increased enjoyment of scientific reading. The journal club model and science communication assignments offer a replicable framework for enhancing primary scientific literature engagement across various STEM disciplines and educational levels.</p>","PeriodicalId":46416,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education","volume":" ","pages":"e0005725"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144017441","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":"Insights from an instructional team model focused on formative assessment with the support of learning researchers.","authors":"Patricia Moreira, Paul Blowers, Lisa Elfring, Vicente Talanquer","doi":"10.1128/jmbe.00043-25","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.00043-25","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Formative assessment is a key instructional practice for implementing evidence-based teaching, with research demonstrating its potential to enhance student learning. However, conducting formative assessments in large college classrooms with hundreds of students poses significant challenges, particularly in noticing, interpreting, and addressing students' thinking in real-time. To address these challenges, we designed, implemented, and studied a specialized instructional team model (ITM) consisting of the instructor and a team of learning assistants (LAs), including a dedicated learning researcher (LR). The LR plays a central role in supporting formative assessment by collecting and interpreting evidence of student understanding in large classroom settings. Over 7 years, the ITM influenced the teaching practices of 44 instructors, 48 LRs, and 974 LAs across 21 departments and eight colleges at our institution, positively impacting the learning experiences of more than 20,000 undergraduate students. Through this work, we learned that meaningful and productive engagement in formative assessment requires long-term training for both learning assistants and instructors. This training should focus on developing their ability to elicit, notice, interpret, and respond to student thinking. These key lessons are informed by insights from three stakeholder groups: learning researchers (LRs), participating instructors, and the management team. This perspective aims to inform Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) educators and researchers interested in advancing formative assessment through the support of specialized instructional teams.</p>","PeriodicalId":46416,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education","volume":" ","pages":"e0004325"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144019961","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 freely available gel electrophoresis laboratory manual and course materials.","authors":"R Telfah, K Patrick, J L Shultz","doi":"10.1128/jmbe.00021-25","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.00021-25","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>A laboratory manual and supporting material have been developed that use 14 different problems to illustrate basic gel electrophoresis concepts and to reinforce the scientific method. This material is appropriate for those interested in science in general or biology in particular and was specifically designed for implementation at the second-year level at a 4-year university or at a technical college. In order to maximize reliability, all labs use an inexpensive size standard, and most use a simple gel preparation protocol. This course has a low consumables cost per student, per term of approximately $20. A PDF of the complete manual and instructor materials is available from the author. Inexpensive, bound color lab manuals (standard and large print) are also available. Instructor materials include a detailed weekly schedule, 31 PowerPoint slides, answers to lab questions, and an assessment bank of 86 questions.</p>","PeriodicalId":46416,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education","volume":" ","pages":"e0002125"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144045842","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":"Sketchy understandings: drawings reveal where students may need additional support to understand scale and abstraction in common representations of DNA.","authors":"Crystal Uminski, L Kate Wright, Dina L Newman","doi":"10.1128/jmbe.00070-25","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.00070-25","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Visual representations in molecular biology tend to follow a set of shared conventions for using certain shapes and symbols to convey information about the size and structure of nucleotides, genes, and chromosomes. Understanding how and why biologists use these conventions to represent DNA is a key part of visual literacy in molecular biology. Visual literacy, which is the ability to read and interpret visual representations, encompasses a set of skills that are necessary for biologists to effectively use models to communicate about molecular structures that cannot be directly observed. To gauge students' visual literacy skills, we conducted semi-structured interviews with undergraduate students who had completed at least a year of biology courses. We asked students to draw and interpret figures of nucleotides, genes, and chromosomes, and we analyzed their drawings for adherence to conventions for representing scale and abstraction. We found that 77% of students made errors in representing scale, and 86% of students made errors in representing abstraction. We also observed that about half of the students in our sample used the conventional shapes and symbols to represent DNA in unconventional ways. These unconventional sketches may signal an incomplete understanding of the structure and function of DNA. Our findings indicate that students may need additional instructional support to interpret the conventions in common representations of DNA. We highlight opportunities for instructors to scaffold visual literacy skills into their teaching to help students better understand visual conventions for representing scale and abstraction in molecular biology.</p>","PeriodicalId":46416,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education","volume":" ","pages":"e0007025"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144041614","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":"Applying the mentor mindset to undergraduate and graduate student teaching assistant professional development in a laboratory course.","authors":"Mark A Sarvary, Mitra Asgari, Frank R Castelli, Joseph M Ruesch","doi":"10.1128/jmbe.00049-25","DOIUrl":"10.1128/jmbe.00049-25","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Practitioners of the mentor mindset in academic settings maintain high standards while providing strong support in and outside the classroom. They encourage the growth mindset by being motivating and transparent, reducing stress, and providing feedback that can help intellectual growth. The mentor mindset is the foundation of the professional development program for undergraduate and graduate student teaching assistants in the largest introductory biology course at Cornell University (Investigative Biology). The professional development program helps these teaching assistants gain pedagogical skills that they can immediately apply in the inquiry-based laboratory course. They provide feedback to each other and help with course improvement. Due to this professional development program, they are equipped with pedagogical and mentoring skills that allow them to do more than just teach the course material. The collaboration among the different groups (undergraduate teaching assistants, graduate teaching assistants, course instructors, and students) mutually benefits everyone. While each group has different reasons for being part of this learning community, they support each other in reaching their goals with the shared mission of developing a high-quality and supportive learning environment. Professional development for undergraduate and graduate teaching assistants must keep their incentives, motivations, and goals in mind and help them collaborate. This article discusses the development of this program over the past two decades and shares the resources to help instructors build similar programs using the mentor mindset.</p>","PeriodicalId":46416,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education","volume":" ","pages":"e0004925"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144050787","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":"Student perceptions of supports and barriers for transferring quantitative reasoning in introductory biology lab courses.","authors":"Joelle Prate, Jeremy L Hsu","doi":"10.1128/jmbe.00229-24","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.00229-24","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Quantitative reasoning is a critical skill in biology and has been highlighted as a core competency by <i>Vision and Change</i>. Despite its importance, students often struggle to apply mathematical skills in new contexts in biology, a process called transfer of knowledge. However, the supports and barriers that students perceive for this process remain unclear. To explore this further, we interviewed undergraduate students in an introductory biology lab course about how they understand and report the transfer of quantitative skills in these courses. We then applied these themes to the Step Back, Translate, and Extend (SBTE) framework to examine student perceptions of the supports and barriers to their knowledge transfer. Students reported different supports and barriers at each level of the transfer process. At the first step of the framework, the recognition level, students reported reflecting on previous chemistry, statistics, and physics learning as helpful cues to indicate a transfer opportunity. Others, however, reported perceiving math and science as separate subjects without overlap, causing a disconnect in their recognition of transferable knowledge. In the second level of the framework, students recall previous learning. Students reported repetition and positive dispositions toward science and math as supportive factors. In contrast, gaps of time between initial learning and new contexts and negative dispositions hindered recall ability. The final level of the SBTE framework focuses on application. Students reported being better able to apply previous learning to new contexts in the biology lab when they could relate their applied skills to \"real-world\" applications, external motivating factors, and future career goals. These students also reported proactively seeking outside resources to fill gaps in their understanding. Generating data in a lab setting was also mentioned by students as both a supportive factor of application when they felt confident in their answers and a hindrance to application when they felt unsure about its accuracy.</p>","PeriodicalId":46416,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education","volume":" ","pages":"e0022924"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144039962","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 undergraduate biology pedagogy course curriculum for instructional apprentices.","authors":"Clara L Meaders, Erilynn T Heinrichsen, Lisa McDonnell, Melinda T Owens, Jim Cooke, Stanley M Lo","doi":"10.1128/jmbe.00244-24","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.00244-24","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Undergraduate instructional apprentices, which include undergraduate teaching assistants, learning assistants, or supplemental instruction tutors, must develop skills in facilitating student discussions while ideally gaining a deeper understanding of how students learn. A formal pedagogy course accompanying these teaching experiences is a key component of training. However, there are limited resources available for a complete curriculum that can be adopted for pedagogy courses for undergraduate instructional apprentices. Here, we present a pedagogy course aimed at first-time biology undergraduate instructional apprentices (typically second-, third-, and fourth-year students). The course is designed for 10 hours of instruction and introduces students to multiple topics: (i) classroom community and how students learn, (ii) mindset, (iii) instructor immediacy and non-content talk, (iv) questioning strategies, (v) active and collaborative learning, (vi) academic integrity, (vii) equity, diversity, and inclusion in the classroom, (viii) the science of learning, (ix) teaching with technology, (x) metacognition and self-regulated learning strategies, and (xi) student feedback. This curriculum draws on resources for training learning assistants and expands on topics that may be more applicable for training teaching assistants. In this curriculum article, we present our course curriculum, materials, and evidence that this course supported growth in student pedagogical skills. The curriculum as a whole can be implemented for new course development, but each module or individual assignment can also be adapted to existing pedagogy courses.</p>","PeriodicalId":46416,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education","volume":" ","pages":"e0024424"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143988800","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":"Tools for coordinating measurement use in science education and training.","authors":"Fátima Sancheznieto, Christine M Pribbenow, Christine Pfund","doi":"10.1128/jmbe.00060-25","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.00060-25","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The improvement of existing science education interventions and the development of new ones requires cohesive, large-scale evaluation and testing that inform what works, for whom, and in what context. Systems approaches to design, implement, and evaluate interventions require knowledge, skills, and expertise in studying humans alongside the lived experiences and positionality of biological science leaders and practitioners who may not have the necessary social science background to do so. Developing a shared understanding of evaluation design and measurement use is an important component toward fostering interdisciplinary collaboration for the improvement of our education and training interventions. In this perspective, we argue that the coordinated use of common measures benefits individual interventions, as well as consortia and collaborative groups that make use of them. We provide examples of consortia and partnerships that make use of common measures within and across programs for evaluation and research. We then describe existing common measure tools and libraries that foster the coordination of common measures. Finally, we suggest next steps to improve tools for use by the broader science education and training research community.</p>","PeriodicalId":46416,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education","volume":" ","pages":"e0006025"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144039280","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}