Connecting you to what's happening in the UBC Biology Program
What is something you do to motivate students? “I try to connect what we’re learning in class with what students are reading in the news and in other courses. With COVID-19 news, for example, I bring in charts or models that help connect what we’re learning in biomathematics or evolution to current affairs. I also …
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Chin Sun is a lecturer at the Department of Zoology. Chin received his M.Sc. in Ecology and Behavioral Biology from the University of Minnesota and his Ph.D. in Botany and Zoology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he also worked as a teaching post-doc for a couple of years before coming to Canada. Aside from …
Wayne Zhao is currently a PhD candidate in the Devine lab at the UBC Centre for Blood Research. He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto, specializing in immunology, then moved to Vancouver and earned a Master of Science degree at UBC in the Department of Experimental Medicine. Wayne’s research area is in …
Jennifer Liu is a third year biology student. Originally born in Vancouver, she has also lived in Saskatoon and Edmonton. Recently, she received the Mildred Brock Memorial Scholarship for her efforts in undergraduate affairs. Jennifer is also involved in student government as the Vice-President, Finance of the Science Undergraduate Society and in volunteer work at …
Are you looking for ways to promote metacognition into your course? This month’s Interesting Read provides a repository of questions focused on the three main components of metacognition (planning, monitoring, and evaluating), and offers implementation strategies and recommendations for building a class culture grounded in metacognition. Citation: Tanner, K.D. (2012). Promoting student metacognition. CBE – …
By Christine Goedhart “I thought that I did great, but my grade doesn’t show it.” “I spent weeks preparing, but still received a bad grade.” “It made sense in class, but not on the test.” “I’ve tried studying in lots of different ways and nothing works for me – I don’t know what I’m doing …
Brett Couch recently developed a series of art-based observation activities in collaboration with the UBC Belkin Gallery. These activities were designed to provide students with tools to become more active observers of demonstration material in organismal biology labs in BIOL323 (Structure and Reproduction in Fungi) and BIOL203 (Eukaryotic Microbiology). Brett chose to include a metacognitive …
Pam Kalas has been incorporating various student metacognitive activities in her courses for the past several years. Below, Pam describes the types of metacognitive activities she uses, what motivated her to start using them, how students have responded, and what she has learned along the way. She also offers some example metacognition questions from the …
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I completed my BSc (major in biology, minor in ocean sciences) at the University of Victoria in 2014. One of the final semesters of my undergraduate studies was spent at the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre in Bamfield, British Columbia, where I took field-based marine biology and research courses. It was during this term that I …