How to Get Students to Ask Better Questions

By Christine Goedhart Being able to ask good questions is particularly important in science, because good science begins with good questions. But when you think of someone asking a question in a classroom, who do you picture? If the classroom is like a typical science classroom, it is probably the instructor who is asking the …

Mid-course Student Feedback Resources

The midpoint of a course is a great time to ask students for feedback. It is far enough into the term where students are able to draw upon their experience to give meaningful feedback, and there’s also time to make changes based on that feedback. Here are some resources to help you get started: Templates …

Attention Matters: How Orchestrating Attention May Relate to Classroom Learning

Do you want your students to “pay attention” in class? This month’s Interesting Read presents an evidence-based framework for understanding attention in the classroom and offers ways that instructors can design teaching strategies to better guide students’ attention, leading to improved learning. Citation: Keller, A.S., Davidesco, I., & Tanner, K.D. (2020). Attention Matters: How Orchestrating …

Teaching Spotlight – Place-based Learning in Pacific Spirit Park: Contributing to a Local Rehabilitation Project

Celeste Leander recently took students in BIOL 342 (Integrative Biology Laboratory) to Salish Creek in Pacific Spirit Park to measure abiotic variables at two sites along an active salmon stream. Part of the stream had been rehabilitated by the City of Vancouver (site 1), while the rest of the stream had not (site 2). To …

Peer Tutor Spotlight – Dana Lao

Hello! My name is Dana Lao, and I’m a third-year student majoring in Microbiology and Immunology. I’m from Surrey, BC, which is east of Vancouver. This term, I’m peer tutoring for BIOL 121, and it’s been a very exciting experience since this is my first time being a peer tutor. I’ve learned so much working …

TA Spotlight – Shuang Liu

I’m currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Zoology, co-supervised by Dr. Eric Taylor and Dr. Jeffrey Richards. I study freshwater adaptation in a euryhaline fish, prickly sculpin, by focusing on ion regulation in fish from habitats that vary in the distance to the sea. I got my bachelor’s degree from Tianjin Agriculture University, …

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