Connecting you to what's happening in the UBC Biology Program
By Christine Goedhart In the spring 2024 semester, I had the privilege to develop and teach a brand new undergraduate course at UBC: Biology of Cannabis – BIOL 348. This wasn’t my first time developing or teaching a course; prior to coming to UBC I was a biology faculty at a community college in Los …
Continue reading “What I Learned from My Recent Course Development Experience”
Hi! My name is Ina (she/her) and I am a fourth year PhD candidate in the Keeling Lab where I study the diversity and evolution of a widespread group of parasites called the apicomplexans that includes Plasmodium spp. (causative agent of malaria) and Toxoplasma gondii. I completed my undergraduate degree at UBC in Biology with …
Hi friends! My name is Jessica, and I’m a second-year neuroscience student at UBC. I moved to Vancouver for university from my hometown in Halifax, Nova Scotia. From East to West, I have always had the aspiration to enter paediatric medicine. I’m a very active person so I love living in Vancouver. Currently, at UBC, …
Hello! My name is Henry and I’ve just completed my undergraduate degree in Honours Biology. I am from Guangzhou, China and I moved to the beautiful city of Vancouver at the age of 12. As a part of my program requirement, I have been incredibly fortunate to be a part of the Auld Lab to …
Hello everyone! My name is Jiho, and I am an international student from South Korea currently going into my 3rd year in Kinesiology. I first came to Canada when I was 11 and went to elementary and high school in Prince George. After coming to Vancouver for university, I have exposed myself to various opportunities …
Pam Kalas, Maryam Moussavi and Solveig van Wersch recently worked with some colleagues to create two case studies that counter genetic essentialism and reflect the complex reality of how genes are expressed as phenotypic traits. These case studies, one featuring the variation in hair colour and the other featuring the variation in the blood clotting factor involved …
Hi! My name is Matthew Hartono and I am originally from South Tangerang, Indonesia. I went to high school in Singapore before moving to Vancouver in early 2021. I realized that I did not want to pursue a purely scientific degree, and that led to me combining my knowledge in the sciences with my passion …
Hi! My name is Achol and I was born and raised in Vancouver. I just finished up my second year at UBC studying Neuroscience. I am in the first cohort of the major, which is super exciting and provides lots of opportunity to help develop the program, which I am working on this summer. Although …
Hi! I’m Josh, and I was a Peer Tutor for BIOL 112! I currently live in Vancouver, but I’ve called almost every major city in Metro Vancouver home, including Surrey, Coquitlam, Burnaby, and even UBC when I was an infant (funny how my life went full circle like that). I’m currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in Microbiology …
Hi, I’m Ilke! I am originally from Belgium but moved around South and North America growing up before finally settling in Canada. I did my undergrad at McGill University where I did a BSc in Biology. I then did an MSc in Tropical Biodiversity and Ecosystems as part of the Erasmus Mundus Masters Programme (TROPIMUNDO). …
Hi! My name is Nataly El-Bittar and I’m a fourth year Biology student originally from Lebanon! I just graduated at the end of May and am so grateful for all the opportunities I’ve gotten over the past four years. I have been volunteering at the AMS Food Bank for the past two years and recently …
Continue reading “Student Research Spotlight – Nataly El-Bittar”
This past term Ilke Geladi and Blaire Steinwand tried something new in their section of BIOL 180: They incorporated two new classroom activities to help students explore systems thinking and identify their own personal values in preparation for their final projects. Below, Ilke and Blaire share their motivation for doing this, how they did it, …
Hi – I’m Kira! I was born in the States, then moved to the Netherlands in 2010. I went to Scotland to start university, however, after my first year, I realized that what I really wanted to study went beyond what was offered at the university, so I decided to transfer to UBC where I …
I’m Magnus from Nova Scotia on the East Coast of Canada! I began my studies at Dalhousie University where I did a BTECH in Environmental Landscape Horticulture and upon refining my interest of plants to plant molecular science, I did a BSc in Biology with Honors. Now, I’m in a MSc in Botany here at …
Hey there! My name is Sebastian and I am a 4th-year undergraduate student in the Faculty of Science’s Biology program. I was born and raised in the beautiful city of Vancouver, BC. I have been incredibly fortunate to have done many fascinating research projects over the course of my degree here at UBC. During this …
Continue reading “Student Research Spotlight – Sebastian Kondratowski”
Hey! I’m Christie and I was born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil, where I attended a German school and completed the Abitur, the German High School Diploma. I am currently a 3rd-year Biology student, and these past 2 years, I’ve been awarded the Faculty of Science International Student Scholarship. Although I’m from a very …
Continue reading “Peer Tutor Spotlight – Christie Lie Aoki Katayama”
Hi! My name is Anthony. I was born and raised in Southern Ontario. I went to high school in Mississauga, Ontario and completed the International Baccalaureate (IB Program) in the last 2 years of high school. I moved to British Columbia to do my BSc at UBC four years ago. I am currently a 4th …
Hi! My name is Toktam (pronounced talk-tam) and I’m currently in my senior year at UBC majoring in Biology and minoring in Health & Society. I was born in Tehran, Iran and I’ve lived in Vancouver for most of my life, but I love traveling and exploring the world! I’m currently a part of the …
Continue reading “Student Research Spotlight – Toktam Movassagh”
Hi! My name is Nicholas and I was born and raised in Vancouver. I am currently a 3rd Year Honors Microbiology and Immunology Student, and this past year, I was named as a TREK Scholar for finishing with a cumulative yearly average amongst the Top 5% in the Faculty of Science. After having peer tutored …
Hi, I’m Zandra! I was born in the Philippines, immigrated to Canada in 2008 and lived in Saskatoon, SK (Treaty 6 Territory, the Homeland of the Metis) since. I completed my undergraduate degree at the University of Saskatchewan (Usask) where I received my BSc. Hons. in Biology with a minor in Archaeology. In my undergrad, …
ChatGPT has recently taken higher education by storm and has caused a lot of uproar around what this new technology means for the future of teaching and learning. While many instructors are trying to figure out how to prevent their students from using ChatGPT, Celeste Leander has instead chosen to embrace and integrate this new …
Continue reading “Teaching Spotlight – Using ChatGPT in the Biology Classroom”
Hi! My name is Jubi and I am a Biology major. I actually graduated last summer with a BSc in Biology and am currently back as a non-degree student taking special education courses full-time. Also, I grew up in Vancouver and cannot imagine being anywhere else but here! This term I am peer tutoring for …
Hi, I’m Timothy and I’m from Washington State. I am majoring in Nutrition Science with a minor in Biochemistry. I’m interested in helping people with both improving their health and studying science, so I’m glad that I have the chance to be a peer tutor for BIOL 200 this term, which is my favorite course …
As an instructor in Botany and Vantage College, Caitlin Donnelly teaches many international students for whom English is not their first language and who are still in the process of learning English. She has found that these students sometimes answer questions incorrectly, not because they don’t understand the concepts, but because they don’t understand what …
Continue reading “Teaching Spotlight – Making Questions More Understandable For EAL Students”
Hi! I’m Amy (she/her) and I am from Vancouver, the traditional, ancestral, and unceded lands of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ speaking xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and sə̓lílwətaʔɬSelilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. I completed my undergraduate degree at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Biology and I am currently a PhD candidate in the Rieseberg lab located in …
Hi! My name is Elizabeth and I am a 5th year Biology student in the Faculty of Science. I am originally from Medicine Hat, A.B., but have called Vancouver home for 7 years now. Through my degree I have been involved in a rather diverse range of research experiences. In the summers following my 2nd …
Continue reading “Student Research Spotlight – Elizabeth Chesley”
By Christine Goedhart Walk into any undergraduate biology classroom, take a look around at the students in the room, and you might notice something: most students are women.* Given that women now outnumber men in higher education throughout much of the Western world, this might not be too surprising, but it actually is quite different …
Continue reading “Serving the Underserved Majority: 5 Ways to Support Women in Biology Classrooms”
Hi – I’m Frances Butterfield and I’m originally from Treaty One territory, or Winnipeg. I’m a fourth year student in the Combined Major in Science (CMS) program and biology is one of my packages, along with chemistry and earth and ocean sciences. I really like the CMS program because it gives me flexibility in terms …
To help shift students’ focus from memorizing to understanding, Pam Kalas and Rosie Redfield recently developed innovative animations and teaching materials for learning mitosis and meiosis. Their question-driven, terminology-free, stop motion videos encourage students to discover the underlying principles and build a deep understanding of these key processes. Below they describe what motivated them to …
I’m Sophia (she/her), a second year MSc student in the Tseng lab at UBC Zoology. I’m from Snuneymuxw land over on the island, a small city also known as Nanaimo. I moved out east to the University of Toronto for my undergraduate degree in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, where I lived on land home to …