Many STEM students are seeking the opportunity to conduct undergraduate research at some point in their academic career due to its many benefits. However, finding and securing a research position can be challenging, and may be more difficult for some students than others. In a recent publication in the International Journal of STEM Education, researchers interviewed undergraduates who were involved in undergraduate research and students who were not involved but interested in participating in research in order to compare their knowledge on finding and securing research positions at a research-intensive institution ( Cooper et al., 2021 ). How can students find research? Students who were interviewed said that they found research opportunities by talking with instructors, academic advisors, peers, or teaching assistants or by using online university resources. The study found that there were no differences between students who did research and students who wanted to do research in the ...

Most scientists agree that the theory of evolution is a foundational concept in understanding biology, yet it remains rejected by nearly half of the college student population ( Barnes & Brownell, 2018 ). With religious students making up a large percentage of the student body on college campuses across the United States, it is important to consider how the way we teach evolution may impact religious students as they integrate the scientific view of evolution with their religious beliefs. One influential factor in religious student acceptance lies in the debate of whether you can believe in God and still accept evolution. A new study has shown that the ability of religious students to perceive evolution as agnostic – not being able to say whether there is or isn’t a God- rather than atheistic – saying there is no God- increased their comfort in learning and understanding evolution and also increased their acceptance of evolution. Bridges and barriers to being both religious and ...

Depression is a mental health concern for many students and is prevalent among undergraduates at a concerning rate. It has also been shown that underserved and underrepresented individuals in science are disproportionately impacted by depression  ( Turner and Noh, 1988 ,  Eisenberg et al., 2007 ; Jenkins et al., 2013 ; American College Health Association, 2018 ).  If we want to create a more inclusive community in science, we should consider how students’ depressive symptoms interact with their research experiences. However, there is a lack of understanding of the relationship between undergraduate research and students’ depression. A recent study published by the Biology Education Research Lab at ASU begins to explore how depression impacts undergraduate research experiences, as well as how these research experiences affect students’ depression.                      Depressive symptoms affect undergradua...

One of the great things about a project-based course is that students can bring fresh, creative angles to the standard topics in a field. Unfortunately, their contributions often don’t have a lifespan beyond the semester or a good way to reach a broader audience. Google recently revamped its aging Google Sites service, and I found it to offer an effective solution for this challenge in my course this semester, especially in combination with the rest of Google’s cloud services .  If you’re interested in sharing student projects on a public-facing site, I also found some licensing tools from Creative Commons nicely address some important concerns about credit and reuse. Engaging Students As a philosopher teaching in ASU’s School of Life Sciences, I’m always looking for creative ways to engage students with philosophy as an activity – something we can do together as a group -- rather than a bunch of theories disconnected from what they’re studying. I’ve been teaching an upper-level ...

Aisles of freshly printed ink on large format paper are a hallmark of major scientific conferences all over the globe. Poster sessions are an arena where seasoned and budding scientists get to communicate about their work, network with peers, and determine new directions in their research. But how can we bring this icon of scientific discourse into the digital classroom? In remote and synchronous online courses, virtual poster sessions can be implemented as an assignment and exercise that allows students to practice real world skills within the community of support inside their course. Poster sessions have long been a tradition in on-ground courses, and are used to give students a taste of what scientific inquiry and discussion is like beyond the classroom. I’ve witnessed countless gatherings of excited students crowded around posters hung proudly on display in hallways at the end of term. These sessions are great practice for students who plan to go to graduate or professional schools...

Photo by  Nathan Dumlao  on  Unsplash Arizona State University's charter statement is a powerful reminder that we are here to create an inclusive learning environment for our students. A group of School of Life Sciences (SOLS) faculty recently affirmed that statement by engaging in an all-day, inclusive teaching workshop in San Francisco, hosted by the American Geophysical Union on Sunday, Dec. 8th, 2019. This event, facilitated by Prof. Kimberly Tanner from the Department of Biology at San Francisco State University and Prof. Jeff Schinske from the Department of Biology at Foothill Community College, engaged our faculty in a number of exercises aimed at helping them adopt practices that promote equity and inclusion. The core of the workshop was built upon two excellent and accessible articles: Structure Matters: Twenty-One Teaching Strategies to Promote Student Engagement and Cultivate Classroom Equity Order Matters: Using the 5E Model to Align Teaching with...

The path to quality information is not straight.  A recent survey from Project Information Literacy  explored how college students engage with news . Most survey respondents encounter some news every day, but more found out about news and current events through conversations with peers, family and instructors than from professional news sources. Researchers found class conversation about world events can provide important context and practice for engaging with credible information sources. Further, students who discussed news and public issues in the classroom were more inclined to investigate the topics on their own.  Research and exploration are important components for any learning endeavor. Students dive deeper into a subject area to gain new knowledge, and instructors often help guide them toward credible, authoritative sources in their subject area. But what is often overlooked in most classrooms is the experience and habits students bring to the table for find...

Here are some ASU Library resources that you might not be aware of, from our subject matter librarian, Rene Tanner . Post how you would use these for your classes! Learn TechLib: New Resource for Technology and Learning Want to know what is happening in the world of educational technology and e-learning? And do you want reliable research based information? Then the ASU Libraries has a great source for you. Learn TechLib is an online database of journal articles, conference papers specifically for ed tech and e-learning: https://www-learntechlib-org.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/ . To stay current, notice the options to receive e-mail alerts for selected journals and to receive the Learn TechLib newsletter. Makerspace in Hayden Library Want to inspire creativity and innovation among your students? Mkrspace and Mkrstudio in the Hayden Library and have all kinds of production equipment and software for any ASU affiliate to use, including video editing, 3D printing and scanni...