Student-generated videos (SGVs) are gaining popularity and have been increasingly incorporated into undergraduate curricula in many disciplines. Through the creation of their own educational digital videos, students learn course content and transferrable skills. However, the use of SGVs in anatomy and physiology (A&P) is virtually…

My thesis work is focused on conceptual and epistemic learning and characterizing the environments in which this learning takes place. Earlier studies conducted by the Stowe group explored how instructional practices, instructional emphasis, and assessment emphasis relate to student outcomes in general and organic chemistry courses. Student…

An undergraduate online course on Applied Biochemistry and Molecular Biology was developed through different formats of case study that included lecture, class discussion, small-groups discussion, and individual work. Cases covering health, biotechnology, agriculture, and other issues were developed or adapted from the literature to reach the…

This study assessed the impact of an "active learning" strategy employed alone or in combination with traditional lectures on the learning of mammalian physiology by undergraduate students. The study investigated the impact of three teaching strategies, namely (1) traditional lecture, (2) group discussion alone, and (3) combination of…

Physiology students grapple with large amounts of subject content and hence memorize facts to pass examinations. In parallel, students display limited critical-thinking and creative skills, integration abilities, and/or a deeper engagement with subject content. This study aimed to assess the feasibility of introducing active learning methods…

Delivering Anatomy & Physiology (A&P) labs online became necessary in the spring of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For four semesters (Summer 2020 through Summer 2021), our A&P1 and A&P2 labs were instructed in a virtual format. Each lab session included a one-hour synchronous session led by teaching assistants followed by…

Active learning yields better learning outcomes than traditional, lecture-based teaching. Common approaches in large lecture courses are activating elements during the lectures and warm-up activities using online learning environments. However, implementing warm-up exercises, on which students work on by themselves makes formative feedback…

Calls to bring interdisciplinary content and examples into introductory science courses have increased, yet strategies that involve course restructuring often suffer from the need for a significant faculty commitment to motivate change. Minimizing the need for dramatic course reorganization, the structure, reactivity, and chemical biology…

Human anatomy has usually been taught in a didactic fashion in colleges and universities. However, recent calls from United States governmental agencies have called for the transformation of undergraduate life sciences education to include active learning in the classroom. In addition, high structure courses have been shown to increase student…

The work presented here is the summary of a 3 year study that aimed to uncover how students' perception of science changes with the chance to participate in a mini-conference that is incorporated into the biochemistry lecture course. Students were asked to work in groups of 2 or 3 and research a topic that is related to the material covered in…

To make our general education biology course for nonmajors more relevant and engaging, we recently implemented an instructional approach featuring collaborative, active-learning exercises. The primary point of interest in this study was the impact of the exercises on students' grades, particularly those students who struggle on tests. Expectedly,…

Incorporation of active learning into large lecture classes is gaining popularity as a pedagogical method due to its known benefits in helping learning outcomes. A more recent active learning technique that has emerged is the flipped classroom. In this study, we investigated the effects of incorporating a "partial-flip" into an…

The author describes the principal findings of a survey study looking at student perceptions of a new form-based approach to reflective journaling. A form-based journal assignment was developed for use in introductory lecture courses and tested over a two-year period in an Honors General Chemistry course for engineers with a total of 157…

This article describes the conversion of a lecture-based molecular biology course into an active learning environment in a studio classroom. Specific assignments and activities are provided as examples. The goal of these activities is to involve students in collaborative learning, teach them how to participate in the learning process, and give…

Podcasts covering essential first-semester general chemistry laboratory techniques and central concepts that aid in experimental design or data processing were prepared and made available for students to access on an as-needed basis on iPhones [arrow right] or iPod touches [arrow right]. Research focused in three areas: the extent of podcast…