Articles

Grading Options

Today I watched the 2022 Keynote Speaker for the Alternative Assessment Institute, David Buck. Their title was “Ungrading: A Road to Equity.” They mentioned that “ungrading is a pedagogical mindset (philosophy) that de-centers the control-based function of grades to create space for learning that’s divorced from stress. The learning process is centered, students display agency, […]
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Self-Assessment to Encourage Exploration of the Information Landscape

Marta Samokishyn and Victoria Tsonos from Saint Paul University presented at the Alternative Assessment Institute 2022 on Incorporating Alternative Assessment Methods. Saint Paul University is in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The presenters started by explaining that Saint Paul is a small bilingual Catholic university that offers all programs in English and French. The university has ~1,300 […]
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Communicating Science in the Classroom

The last plenary of ASMCUE 2022 was entitled “Communicating Science: Building Bridges not Barriers/Closing comments” and presented by Nancy Boury from Iowa State University. This was the last talk of ASMCUE. Boury teaches general microbiology, genetics, and biology as well as some advanced courses. Boury shared a quote from an introductory first-year biology course with […]
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Lessons and Resources from CourseSource

Tonight I watched the ASMCUE 2022 session entitled “Inspiring Evidence-Based Teaching Innovations in Biology Classrooms with the Journal CourseSource.” Jenny Knight, the Editor in Chief at the University of Colorado Boulder, presented this session about CourseSource. I attended this session live, and likely missed key information! There are 39 editors, 12 advisory board members, and […]
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Algorithms, Social Media Posts, and Students Searching for Evidence

Aarthi Ashok, professor at the University of Toronto, Scarborough, presented at ASMCUE 2022, a recorded microbrew about exploring the Canadian anti-vax movement. The session was entitled “Exploring the anti-vax movement – assignment design to promote scientific literacy and communication.” Students in Ashok’s class explored anti-vaccination stances on social media and providing supporting arguments. The University […]
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Following One Microbe through Metabolic Pathways

Tonight I started watching ASMCUE 2022 sessions. The first half-hour session I watched (I skipped the CourseSource one since I participated in that one and didn’t want to watch myself!) was entitled “Session. A storytelling approach to microbial metabolism: improving attitudes and functional knowledge.” Jake McKinlay is an Associate Professor at Indiana University. McKinlay teaches […]
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Preparing Scientific Bloggers?

Tonight I watched the ASMCUE 2022 microbrew entitled “Microbrew. Blogging about biotechnology: Replacing the term paper with an accessible writing style assignment.” Chadene Tremaglio and Michelle Kraczkowski, assistant professors at the University of Saint Joseph in CT were the presenters. Their attendee learning objective was to “gain a framework for a new project/paper assignment to […]
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Phenotypes and Science Communication

Tonight I watched the ASMCUE 2022 microbrew session by Daryn Stover entitled “Enhancing communication skills through discussion of primary literature and phenotypic variation.” Stover is at Arizona State at Lake Havasu and is a dedicated undergraduate campus. There are no dedicated research labs. There is a senior capstone experience and opportunities for internships. The BIO […]
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Verification of Tweets with Primary Literature Summaries

Dr. Judy Brown from Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, TN presented at ASMCUE 2022 a Microbrew session entitled “Using Social Media to Enhance Science Literacy.” The goals of the session that Brown shared were to share the framework for this assignment and ideas for implementation. Brown asked the participants: how much time do undergraduate students […]
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Discussion Forum Entry Ticket

Tonight I watched the ten-minute recorded ASMCUE 2022 session entitled “Using Interactive Discussions to Foster Scientific Literacy Skills.” Dr. Elise Mosser from Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Drexel designed this course for undergraduate and graduate students. The MIIM 541 Bacteria and Bacterial Infections emphasizes the evaluation and interpretation of primary and review articles about […]
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