Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education最新文献

{"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}

{"title":"Metacognitive mapping: developmental biology students struggle with higher-order cognitive skills in multiple course formats.","authors":"Wendy Aquino Nunez, Meadow C B Scott, Dyan E Morgan","doi":"10.1128/jmbe.00139-24","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.00139-24","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Reflective assignments are a powerful tool in undergraduate STEM courses to promote student metacognition and give instructors and researchers a view of that process. We were interested in understanding student challenges in our developmental biology course, so we used reflective assignments to uncover these challenges and also add to our understanding of student metacognition in upper-level courses. We used structural and initial coding and themed student responses. Then, we were able to compare results across two different course formats. We also compared these analyses with student performance on weekly formative assessments and completed item analysis. Our analyses suggest that students struggle the most with application. Notably, student responses did not differ in an asynchronous online class versus a high-flex in-person class. We also surveyed students (<i>n</i> = 162) on their use and perceived value of the metacognitive assignments for further comparison to other studies of upper-level student metacognitive regulation. Results indicate a strong majority of students completed more than half of the assignments, found the assignments beneficial to their learning, and used the opportunity to plan study time. Overall, we find that upper-level college students have accurate metacognitive knowledge, allowing them to identify challenging topics and cognitive skills, and have acquired the metacognitive regulation tools to develop study plans when prompted by a reflective assignment.</p>","PeriodicalId":46416,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education","volume":" ","pages":"e0013924"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144019963","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":"Increasing inquiry and collaboration: a faculty and undergraduate curricular intern partnership to redesign a cell biology laboratory course.","authors":"Louise E O Darling, Sarah Pociask, John W Goss, Julie A Roden","doi":"10.1128/jmbe.00190-24","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.00190-24","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Recent trends in undergraduate biology education include incorporating more inquiry/research-focused experiments into laboratory courses as a way to engage students and promote persistence in science. However, many faculty members face constraints in redesigning curricula, including a lack of time for course development. In addition, some undergraduate students find it difficult or intimidating to identify a first independent research position. We describe our experience working with student curricular interns to redesign a cell biology laboratory to be more inquiry-based. Students enrolled in the redesigned course felt that their course research experience was authentic and self-reported improvement in many fundamental scientific skills. Moreover, participating in the redesign project had positive effects on our curricular interns' experiences by exposing them to independent research, pedagogical design, and near-peer teaching. Thus, we believe that developing ways to introduce inquiry-based learning into curricula as a collaborative effort with undergraduate curricular interns has benefits for enrolled students, curricular interns, and faculty. We encourage other undergraduate science faculty to consider this model as they revise their courses.</p>","PeriodicalId":46416,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education","volume":" ","pages":"e0019024"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144024208","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 identities predict classmate and instructor fear of negative evaluation among undergraduates in large-enrollment introductory biology courses.","authors":"Katelyn M Cooper, Carly A Busch, Sara E Brownell","doi":"10.1128/jmbe.00191-24","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.00191-24","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Undergraduate biology students describe fear of negative evaluation (FNE), defined as a sense of dread associated with being unfavorably evaluated in a social situation, as negatively affecting their experiences in active learning courses. Yet, few studies have examined who is prone to experiencing FNE, the severity and duration of FNE, and whether the effects of FNE are experienced equally among undergraduates. To address these gaps, we surveyed 494 undergraduates enrolled in active learning introductory biology courses about their FNE as it relates to students in their courses (classmate FNE) and to their instructor (instructor FNE). Students reported higher instructor FNE than classmate FNE. Using linear regressions, we found that women and nonbinary students, persons excluded based on ethnicity or race (PEERs), continuing-generation college students, LGBTQ+ students, and non-native English speakers had higher instructor FNE than their respective counterparts. PEER students also had higher classmate FNE than white students. Women, nonbinary, and PEER students were more likely than men and white students to report a greater negative impact of FNE on their abilities to articulate their thoughts about science in class. This work highlights the importance of reducing FNE with the intent to create more equitable active learning biology classrooms.</p>","PeriodicalId":46416,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education","volume":" ","pages":"e0019124"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144040317","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":"Cultural incorporation of the Kirby-Bauer method in introductory microbiology lab.","authors":"Ashley McCarley, Caryl Ann Becerra","doi":"10.1128/jmbe.00014-25","DOIUrl":"10.1128/jmbe.00014-25","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>With rising antibiotic resistance, researchers are exploring sourced pharmaceuticals from local plant materials. One avenue is medicinal plants used in Indigenous communities. California State University, Channel Islands (CSUCI), is built on unceded Chumash land, affording collaboration with local Chumash communities to steward the land's natural and cultural ancestry. Utilizing plant extracts derived from California plant species, we developed an exercise incorporating the local cultural heritage and Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion assay (KB assay). In this exercise, students discuss impacting antibiotic resistance and the role of holistic discovery in creating new pharmaceuticals, examining cultural and familial teachings as a source of scientific/academic inquiry. Students then perform KB assays using plant extracts alongside antibiotics, interpret zones of inhibition for each disk, and compare them to susceptibility cutoffs provided by their lab manual and Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI). While most plant extracts proved ineffective against bacterial strains, students engaged in a novel method for a standardized microbiology technique. Using plants accessed from local environments expands the exercise to various regions, utilizing local flora or ingredients in their classrooms.</p>","PeriodicalId":46416,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education","volume":" ","pages":"e0001425"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12020814/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143721446","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Faculty rewards from course-based undergraduate research experiences (CURE) in biochemistry.","authors":"Ana Maria Soto, John E Weldon, Stephen P Hancock","doi":"10.1128/jmbe.00165-24","DOIUrl":"10.1128/jmbe.00165-24","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) courses. These courses provide research opportunities for many more students than are typically exposed to traditional independent research experiences, including women, historically underrepresented groups in science, and non-traditional students. However, the benefits for faculty who teach CURE courses have been less well documented, potentially discouraging faculty from offering such courses. Reports describing the benefits faculty can accrue from developing and teaching CURE courses could incentivize more faculty to develop CURE courses. In this perspective article, we summarize the implementation of three biochemistry CURE courses, highlighting some of the benefits faculty may experience. We also propose some points to consider when designing CURE courses with realistic expectations for a semester-long research experience to provide a framework for instructors who are considering their own CURE development.</p>","PeriodicalId":46416,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education","volume":" ","pages":"e0016524"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12020793/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142980370","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Engaging short film activity that supports learning, science identity, and nature of science comprehension.","authors":"Amanda L Molder, Emily Howell, Sarah Goodwin, Shannon Behrman, Stephanie Mathews","doi":"10.1128/jmbe.00227-24","DOIUrl":"10.1128/jmbe.00227-24","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Improving perceptions of students' science identities and their understanding of the nature of science (NOS) are important learning goals for undergraduate biology students. Previous research has observed that students who reflect on personal histories and research narratives of diverse scientists experience positive changes in their own science identities and understanding of the nature of science, respectively. However, these stories were in written or mixed media formats (e.g., podcasts, TED talks). Here, we explore whether such stories in nonfiction film, an immersive storytelling medium, could also serve as an intervention in positively affecting these outcomes. The focus of our curricular intervention is two short films that explore personal histories and research narratives: Decoding Ancestral Knowledge and CRISPR Apostle. We assigned students (<i>N</i> = 286) in a large, asynchronous, online general microbiology course to watch Decoding and CRISPR at distinct times in the semester. Immediately after watching each film, students took a survey with closed- and open-response questions designed to measure content knowledge, science identity, and NOS learning. We analyzed quantitative responses using descriptive statistics and open-ended responses using a computational textual analysis method of structured topic modeling. Results indicate that watching the films had a considerable impact on content knowledge as well as students' perceptions of scientists, self-identification as scientists, and understanding of NOS. Interestingly, there were some differences between the films on the degree of impact on science identity as well as the types of emergent themes for science identity and NOS. These results suggest that science nonfiction films with personal histories and research narratives can be useful tools in supporting these student outcomes. We describe in this article how to access these free materials, including the films, and also suggest possible modifications.</p>","PeriodicalId":46416,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education","volume":" ","pages":"e0022724"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12020790/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143701756","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}