School of Life Sciences is a wonderful community focused on improving teaching, sharing new ideas, and working together to find solutions for our students. Join us for a minute to reflect back and lift up the many voices in this community. Here are some of the key ideas and popular posts shared last year from our SOLS Community: Faculty Contributions: Our blogs covered a number of different ideas generated by the strong relationship between instructional designers and faculty. Often new ideas are tested and written about from courses. Some of the highlights this year were seen here: In How Active Learning is Implemented , Sara Brownell, shared various questions about how instructors help or hinder students when implementing active learning strategies. Gillian Clark shared her experiences with using specifications learning and shared the benefits and challenges in Adventures in Specifications Gradin g Reimagining classroom collaboration activities and teams became a topic for both bl...

  Why do I keep seeing people list pronouns on their email signatures? Can I use the word queer? What’s a deadname? As ASU is defined by who we include and how they succeed , we need to make sure that this includes everyone in the classroom, including students with identities that are invisible. Even though society tends to assume that everyone is straight and cis-gender, current estimates of individuals who identify as members of the LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) community range from 10-20% of the population. Specifically in biology classrooms at ASU, about 9-16% of undergraduates report having an LGBTQ+ identity on surveys. What challenges might a biology classroom present for LGBTQ+ students? Instructors and fellow students may inadvertently make incorrect assumptions that may cause some LGBTQ+ students to feel uncomfortable. For example, individuals may mis-gender transgender students and non-gender binary students in class. This could be done by using a...

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...

#SHUTDOWNSTEM Many of you are aware of the #ShutDownSTEM movement planned for today, June 10th, 2020. In the Arizona State University School of Life Sciences, we stand with the STEM community at ASU, and with scientists across the world to “transition to a lifelong commitment of actions to eradicate anti-Black racism in academia and STEM.”   Our Teaching Innovation Team will be taking the day to read, listen and consider how we as individuals, and as a team, can make a positive change for more diverse and inclusive learning environments for our Black colleagues and students. We are grateful to Sara Brownell and her research group for promoting this movement, and encourage our readers to look at the research they are doing in the area of biology education and inclusion at: http://sebbers.wixsite.com/biology-ed-lab We urge our readers to take time from their day, and consider a way to participate that is meaningful and appropriate to your situation. Below are some resourc...

Faculty and students come together in a course with assumptions and judgments that have been formed from our own experiences, as well as how we were taught in the past and how we learned. Often we forget to reflect upon the idea that no one has the same experience as we do, so we assume others are understanding or able to do the same things as we can. Especially in this remote time, we need to pause, ask questions, and seek out feedback in order to make improvements: “Does this work for you?” and “How can I make this work better for everyone?” Through reflection and implementation of changes to your course, you can begin to make your course accessible and inclusive for all. This post summarizes a virtual lunch and learn we hosted on Wednesday, April 29th, 2020. The webinar included two presentations: one from Dr. Sara Brownell , associate professor in the School of Life Sciences , and the other presentation was from Julie Allen , Instructional Designer with ASU Libraries . Future we...

Today's blog is written by Logan Gin, PhD Student in Biology and Society, and member of Sara Brownell's Biology Education Research Lab What are bridge programs? The transition to college can be difficult for students from a variety of different backgrounds as they attempt to adjust to the rigor of college courses, adapt to a novel university setting, and become members of a university community. Summer bridge programs, sometimes called boot camps or early start programs, have been developed as a way to ease the academic and social transition to college. They are intensive experiences for incoming students that can provide early exposure to the opportunities, knowledge, and skills it takes to succeed in college. How can bridge programs help STEM students? Surprisingly, there is limited research on the goals and effectiveness of bridge programs. A recent review of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) bridge programs (Ashley, Cooper, Cala, and Brownell, 2017)...