2017 Short Presentations
View the Conference Schedule at a Glance here
This session format is designed for presentations that enhance understanding of key concepts, or project activities that feature effective ideas and approaches. Presentations are 20 minutes followed by 10 minutes of Q&A. The schedule below is tentative, changes may occur.
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Evolution in Action |  |
Ecology and Earth Systems Dynamics |
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Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services |  |
Structure and Function |
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Human Dimension |
Friday Short Presentations
| Friday | Room A3 | Room A5 | Room A6 |
| 9:00 AM |
Reardon: Teaching Chi-Square Analysis using Wisconsin Fast Plants
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| 9:45 AM |
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Schlupp: Cornerstone: student research and active learning from a Faculty Perspective |
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Saturday Short Presentations
Friday, October 20th 9:00 – 9:30 AM
Authentic inquiries in large ecology classes using Christmas Bird Count and National Land Cover data
Ben Wu, Texas A&M University; Xavier Jaime, Texas A&M University
Thematic Track: Discover Data, Investigate Data, Inform with Data
Intended Audience: Undergraduate: Lower Division
Concepts: Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Structure and Function, Human Dimensions
Competencies: Apply the process of Science, Communicate and Collaborate with other disciplines, Use quantitative reasoning
Description: Share the design, implementations, and assessment of a web-based authentic inquiry project using spatial-temporal data from Christmas Bird Count (CBC) and National Land Cover Database (NLCD) and explore the participant’s effective ways to enhance the pedagogy and facilitate adaptations in diverse institutions.
Learning Objectives
Through the presentation and discussions, the participants will be able to
(1) Describe and critique the course-based pedagogy of web-based authentic inquiries using CBC and NLCD datasets,
(2) Evaluate the assessments associated with the authentic inquiries (rubric, Calibrated Peer Review, and student feedback survey), and
(3) Explore potential adaptation for their own courses.
Concepts or Teaching Skills Participants Will Gain –
– Design, implement, and assessment of web-based authentic inquiries for engaging lower-division students in discovering, investigating and informing with data
– Collaborative learning and formative assessment using Calibrated Peer Review
– Blended approaches for enhancing student understanding of the scientific process
– Using rubric of scientific report to guide and assess student learning
– Direct and indirect assessment of student learning using surveys and evaluation of reports using rubric
Methodology and Materials
Individual students select an upland bird species based on their interest, explore and share the biology and ecology of the bird using information at www.allaboutbirds.org, and visually explore the spatial and temporal pattern of the bird’s abundance and land cover using data and tools in Data Basin (www.databasin.org). They then develop research hypothesis and sampling design, retrieve and analyze relevant data from customized CBC and NLCD datasets, interpret results and develop a research report guided by a rubric, conduct Calibrated Peer Review, and revise their reports based on peer feedback and self-evaluation. Both formative and summative assessments were used to facilitate and assess student learning, using direct and indirect measures with pre/post assignments, surveys, and evaluation of reports using a rubric.
Digging Deeper with Data: Using an Online Mentoring Platform to Help Students Argue from Evidence
Catrina Adams, Botanical Society of America
Thematic Track: Investigate Data, Inform with Data
Intended Audience: Grades 9-12, Undergraduate: Lower Division
Concepts: Structure and Function
Competencies: Apply the process of Science, Use quantitative reasoning
Description: To share insights and resources developed during the NSF-funded Digging Deeper project with a wider audience, especially scaffolding resources that help students frame data during independent or small group investigations, argue from evidence, and use data effectively in communicating their results.
Learning Objectives: Participants will learn new techniques, tips, and templates to try with their own students, and may decide to participate in the free PlantingScience online mentoring program with their own students in the future.
Concepts/Teaching Skills: How to scaffold students as they collect, interpret and argue from data.
Methodology: Sharing resources, interactive discussion of selected student/mentor dialog around data.
Teaching Chi-Square Analysis using Wisconsin Fast Plants
Ryan Reardon, Jefferson County International Baccalaureate
Thematic Track: Inform with Data
Intended Audience: Grades 9-12
Concepts: Structure and Function
Competencies:
Description: Wisconsin fast plants are an elegant model for learning patterns of inheritance, and are an accessible tool for developing students’ science practices. It takes just over 48 hours and two class sessions dedicated to data collection and data analysis to uncover how monogenic traits assort independently lead to a variety of recombined phenotypes. Students have the opportunity to perform the Chi Square test of independence and analyze data from this statistical test to support or refute a generalizing hypothesis.
Learn how to build inexpensive growth chambers from materials available at grocery and hardware stores to germinate Wisconsin Fast Plants. By analyzing the phenotypes of F2 seeds from both monohybrid crosses (purple stem vs. green stems) and dihybrid crosses (purple stem/tall plant vs. green stem/dwarf plant), students can develop computational thinking, quantitative analysis, and scientific arguments focused on fundamental genetics concepts.
Materials: available on PlantingScience website.
URL: https://plantingscience.org
Friday, October 20th 9:45 – 10:15 AM
Cornerstone: student research and active learning from a Faculty Perspective.
Ingo Schlupp, University of Oklahoma
Thematic Track: Discover Data
Intended Audience: Undergraduate: Lower Division, Undergraduate: Upper Division
Concepts: Evolution in Action, Structure, and Function
Competencies: Apply the process of Science
Description: As part of curriculum reform and based on perceived student needs the Biology Department at OU created a new course providing realistic research experience for Undergraduate Students. The course has now been taught several times and I will share the experiences of Faculty in teaching it. I will also report on what mechanisms we have developed to keep the Faculty community intact. Furthermore, I will present qualitative data on the Student experience. Finally, I will discuss mistakes made during the creation and implementation of Cornerstone.
Discovery and learning of everyday biodiversity using iNaturalist-driven bioblitzes and campus inventories
Lena Struwe, Rutgers University; Natalie Howe, The College of New Jersey
Thematic Track: Discover Data, Investigate Data, Inform with Data
Intended Audience: Grades 9-12, Undergraduate: Lower Division, Undergraduate: Upper Division
Concepts: Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Structure and Function, Human Dimensions
Competencies: Apply the process of Science, Communicate and Collaborate with other disciplines, Tap into the interdisciplinary nature of science, understand the relationship between Science and Society
Description: We will present the novel use of student-driven inventories and discovery activities with the aid of the free iNaturalist website and app to enhance learning as well as produce research data that can be used by students in self- and teacher-designed projects through formal and informal learning. At Rutgers University (New Jersey, USA), we have implemented this in projects such as Personal Bioblitz, the Flora and Fauna of Rutgers Campus, and customized research activities. The iNaturalist tool provides easy upload of photos, geotagging, and identification of species and access to a global community of expertise. Students that participate in iNaturalist interact, get feedback and learn. The Personal Bioblitz is a yearly event that invites many types of students to record all living species they see during 75 days (24/7, globally) to treat ‘species blindness’ and encourage learning about the plants, critters, and other organisms wherever they are. It includes an optional competitive element (who can see most?). The Flora and Fauna of Rutgers University is an ongoing project exploring all biodiversity on the property of the University and autogenerates species lists. Students have downloaded all or selected data from both projects and use this to develop research questions on topics such as invasive species, trees, etc. Data is quality-coded, dated, and geo-tagged so suits spatial and temporal studies exceptionally well for campus learning and locally designed projects. We will provide participants with guidelines on using the iNaturalist app for classroom projects in high schools or colleges or for local or regional bioblitzes. We will describe how we recruit participants, how we structure the projects, and how we use social media to build interest throughout the project timeline. We will also show how students can use iNaturalist data to practice quantitative analysis and data visualization.
Testing the Edge Effect with Drop Trap Data and the Shannon’s and Simpson’s Diversity Indices
Paul Strode, Fairview High School
Thematic Track: Discover Data, Investigate Data, Inform with Data
Intended Audience: Grades 9-12, Undergraduate: Lower Division
Concepts: Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Human Dimensions
Competencies: Apply the process of Science, Understand the relationship between Science and Society, Use quantitative reasoning
Description: The NGSS stresses that by graduation students should have a keen understanding of how human activities like habitat destruction and pollution affect biodiversity. Of course, one option is for us to simply tell students what we already know about biodiversity through the past and current scientific inquiry. However, a more authentic approach is to have students design observational studies that test these claims. Arthropods are the most successful animal species on the planet. Indeed, there are more extant arthropod species than all other animal species combined and arthropod species have adapted to nearly every environment, including terrestrial environments in both rural and urban settings. For the last five years in my biology classes, students have been using drop traps to test the effect of a habitat edge (edge effect) on the species richness and diversity of arthropods behind our school. The drop traps consist of 16 oz (~475 ml) plastic cups filled three-fourths with a 5% ethylene glycol (antifreeze) solution and placed into holes dug in the soil. Students place the traps in two linear transects, one transect along the mowed edge of a grassy area, and the other transect within the grassy area. Each student group is in charge of monitoring one or two of the drop traps. Students collect the drop trap data weekly for three weeks, organize and identify their data taxonomically on white sheets of paper, photograph their data, and share their data with their classmates on a Google Document. The drop trap data are then analyzed with the Shannon’s and/or Simpson’s Diversity Indices and the two habitats are compared. The edge effect is just one of many phenomena that students can test with drop traps. This activity combines ecology, diversity, human effects, classification, and data analysis all in one.
Saturday, October 21st 9:20 am – 9:50 AM
Attracting and Retaining Minority Students to Natural Resources Through Ethnobotany
Sunshine Brosi, Frostburg State University; Erica Duda, Frostburg State University
Thematic Track: Inform with Data
Intended Audience: Undergraduate: Lower Division
Concepts: Human Dimensions
Competencies: Understand the relationship between Science and Society
Description: Ethnobotany focuses on intercultural proficiency including cultural sensitivity, communication skills, openness to cultural diversity, and global mindedness. This creates a comfortable and engaging learning environment for minority students. Ethnobotany programs, when embedded in place-based projects or field courses, engage minority students through relevancy in their lives and highlight potential careers that benefit communities and value their cultural traditions. At Frostburg State University in rural Western Maryland, I coordinate an Ethnobotany program with an embedded Biology minor. Graduation rates are 41% female and 22% African American or Hispanic. Alumni are currently employed within state natural resources programs, with the Bureau of Land Management, and at graduate schools in forestry. I also instruct courses in a 2-year Ethnobotany certificate program through a rural college in Alaska with 67% Alaskan Native students. I have also developed several field-based courses designed to teach forestry through the lens of culture. A blended short-term course taught in Cherokee, North Carolina focuses on the scientific method to solve sustainability issues for materials for artisan basketry. I also teach a freshman-level pathway to STEM Ethnobotany course in rural villages in Alaska with students from diverse geographic locations. This course has been taught in Scammon Bay, Kotzebue, and Bethel and brings students from Hawaii, Cherokee, rural Appalachia, and Baltimore for a cultural exchange with Alaskan natives. All of these courses have been evaluated using the Research in the Integrated Science Curriculum (RISC) surveys. Course activities allow for interaction with Indigenous cultures on applied scientific problems while maintaining key cultural relevance. Emphasizes people as part of the natural world with legacies of sustainable and adaptive management incorporating local traditional ecological knowledge assists in attracting and retaining diverse students to the service of natural resource management.
BIOMAAP: Biology Students Math Anxiety and Attitudes Program
Arietta Fleming-Davies, QUBES; Radford University; Jeremy Wojdak, Radford University
Thematic Track: Investigate Data
Intended Audience: Grades 9-12, Undergraduate: Lower Division, Undergraduate: Upper Division
Concepts: Other Content Area (please specify)
Competencies: Apply the process of Science, Use modeling and simulation, Use quantitative reasoning
Description: The current quantitative reasoning skills of our students, and their willingness to engage with new quantitative content, can be key roadblocks in using research data in the undergraduate biology classroom. Students’ mathematics anxiety and lack of confidence can lead to decreased performance, in a cycle where students with negative math experiences are then reluctant to engage with new quantitative content, leading to further negative experiences. Fortunately, explicit strategies to increase student comfort with quantitative content can help students successfully engage with authentic research data. Much of the recent biology education reform has emphasized conveying the value of quantitative skills to our students (i.e. the central role computation, statistics, and modeling play in modern scientific discovery), in the hopes that this will increase student motivation. However, student motivation is not dependent solely on valuing the task. The other key component is expectancy: how likely am I to succeed at this task?
In this workshop, participants will experience a variety of short, easily adaptable materials to address mathematics attitudes in biology students by increasing students’ expectations of success. These materials were developed for the NSF-funded Biology Students Math Anxiety and Attitudes Program (BIOMAAP). The general approaches include fostering a growth mindset, using metacognition (thinking about their own process of doing the math) to refine student efforts, avoiding stereotype threat, and developing foundational numeracy skills. We will also provide a brief background on the different approaches and current evidence of their effectiveness. The materials are targeted at introductory undergraduate biology courses, but are not content-specific and are thus appropriate for a range of undergraduate and high school biology courses. Materials include both out-of-class and in-class activities that can be led by an instructor or peer mentor, and actively engage students in reducing their own mathematics anxiety and improving their attitudes toward mathematics.
Harnessing the Power of Digitized Natural History Collections in the Classroom
Molly Phillips, iDigBio/University of Florida; Anna K. Monfils, Central Michigan University
Thematic Track: Discover Data, Investigate Data
Intended Audience: Grades 9-12, Undergraduate: Lower Division, Undergraduate: Upper Division
Concepts: Ecology and Earth Systems Dynamics, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Evolution in Action, Structure, and Function
Competencies: Apply the process of Science, Tap into the interdisciplinary nature of science, Understand the relationship between Science and Society, Use quantitative reasoning
Description: Authors: Molly Phillips, Shelley James, Elizabeth Ellwood, Anna Monfils, Gil Nelson, Kari Harris, Matthew Collins, Kevin Love, and Deborah Paul
Recent national and global digitization initiatives have led to a resurgence of interest in natural history collections (NHCs), the data they contain, and the potential in using specimen data to address large-scale questions related to global change, patterns of biological diversity, invasive species, and emerging pathogens. This influx of attention in our collections, their online databases, big data and data literacy, and the changing skills required to manage the data housed within NHCs begs that we re-examine the role of biodiversity data in training the next generation of scientists.
Some instructors with direct access to collections have long utilized natural history specimens and associated data in their courses, but some colleges and universities do not have local collections available. Besides an isolated trip to a museum, most high school teachers would not consider natural history collections when looking for STEM resources. Now that specimen data are increasingly accessible online through iDigBio (www.idigbio.org) and other sources (e.g., GBIF, BISON, VertNet), the barrier to exploring specimens, their data, and associated media have been removed. However, there are still many barriers, ranging from limited awareness of the resources to a poor understanding of data use, which may be preventing educators from using natural history data in their classrooms.
In this presentation, we will demonstrate how educators can easily access NHC data, provide examples of its use in high school and undergraduate classrooms, share best practices for data use, and ways to incorporate citizen science into educational programs that help digitize natural history collections. Available open source resources will be shared along with an explanation of how to become involved in the growing biodiversity education community.