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 …
Category Archives: Teaching Spotlight
Teaching Spotlight – Integrating Systems Thinking and Students’ Personal Values into Final Projects
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, …
Teaching Spotlight – Using ChatGPT in the Biology Classroom
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 …
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Teaching Spotlight – Making Questions More Understandable For EAL Students
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 …
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Teaching Spotlight – Creating Animations to Teach Biological Processes and Principles
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 …
Teaching Spotlight – Course Projects Focused on Community Partnerships and Experiential Learning in BIOL 320
Bridgette Clarkston recently taught the first ever summer offering of Biol 320 (Survey of the Algae), which is a 3rd-year organismal lab course focused on exploring the biodiversity, ecology, evolution and human connections to macro- and micro-algae. Local seaweeds are a major course focus and Bridgette decided to pilot two new class projects around them …
Teaching Spotlight – Using Instructor Talk in the Classroom
If you observed one of Brett Couch’s classes, you would notice that in addition to talking about course content, he also frequently explains the ‘why’ behind his teaching decisions, reveals secrets to success, and shares personal experiences. This type of non-content talk directed to the entire class is known as Instructor Talk, and using it …
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Teaching Spotlight – Instructor Experiences with Mid-course Student Feedback
The midpoint of a course is a great time to ask students for feedback – students now have enough experience in the course to provide meaningful feedback, and there’s still time in the term to respond to the feedback they provide. Below, Rachel Germain, Bridgette Clarkston, and Jaclyn Dee share their experiences with doing mid-course …
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Teaching Spotlight – Adding a Sex & Gender Acknowledgement in BIOL 371
Irene Ballagh recently added a new element to her BIOL 371 course this past summer: a Sex & Gender Acknowledgement. When students logged onto the course Canvas site, they found the following statement: “As a neuroscientist with a background in studying the complex links between brain and hormones, I acknowledge that a person’s gender, or …
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Teaching Spotlight – Organism of the Day
Brett Couch starts most of his BIOL121 classes with a 1-2-minute presentation of some fun facts about an organism that can be found around UBC or coastal British Columbia. In addition to introducing students to various local species, the organism of the day activity “is meant to be fun and to also help students see …
Teaching Spotlight – Book Club with Students
Jaclyn Dee recently organized an informal Book Club for students in her BIOL 112 course. The Book Club was centred around Native American DNA: Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic Science, which brought an Indigenous lens to some of the relevant course material. “I had such a positive experience and I know the …
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Celeste Leander’s How-To Primer on Ungrading
In this month’s Teaching Spotlight, Celeste Leander explains why and how she ditched exams and began ungrading. Based on her experience, she offers relevant tips and a sample student self-assessment form that can be used by others who might want to try ungrading in their courses. You can read more about Celeste’s experiences with ungrading …
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Teaching Spotlight – Getting to Know Diverse Scientists in BIOL 336
The scientists featured in biology textbooks and courses tend to be males of European decent, but in reality, scientists are much more diverse, representing different ethnicities, sexes, genders, abilities, sexual orientations, and backgrounds. In BIOL 336, students get the chance to explore this diversity by engaging in a tutorial activity where they select an evolutionary …
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Teaching Spotlight – Group Contracts Facilitate Effective Teamwork in BIOL140
BIOL140 students work together in long-term groups throughout the term, so effective teamwork is an important component of students’ experience and success. To help groups develop shared expectations and set the foundation for how group members will interact and engage with one another, one of the first group assignments is to create a Group Contract. …
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Teaching Spotlight – Conducting Long-term Research with BIOL 230 Students at Totem Plant Science Field Station
Students in Rachel Wilson’s BIOL 230 (Fundamentals of Ecology) course recently went to Totem Plant Science Field Station on the UBC campus to look for isopods and contribute to an ongoing long-term experiment dating back to 2009. Rachel was especially excited to return to the site this term after a pandemic-caused hiatus. “This trip was …
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 …
Teaching Spotlight – It Starts With A Pencil: Getting Students To Ask Questions
What question do you have about this pencil? This simple question serves as a powerful prompt that Celeste Leander uses to get students to start asking and exploring different types of questions in her course. “I originally developed this activity for use in a large lecture experience during Jump Start and I’ve since modified it …
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Teaching Spotlight – Walking Office Hours
Jaclyn Dee recently introduced Walking Office Hours into her BIOL 209 course as a way to connect with students and extend student learning beyond the classroom. “In addition to getting students out of the classroom to learn in the ‘real world’ and tell stories, Walking Office Hours are an ‘ask me anything’ time. I find …
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Teaching Spotlight – Using CLAS to Teach BIOL 204 & 205 Labs Online
Charissa Fung, Lecturer in the Department of Zoology, shares her experience with using CLAS (Collaborative Annotation Learning System) to teach her BIOL 204 & 205 organismal lab courses in a remote format and offers advice for new users of CLAS. What motivated you to use CLAS? I was inspired by Brett Couch and his enthusiasm …
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Teaching Spotlight – CLAS: A Platform for Promoting Student Interaction with Visual and Audio Media
Do you want to gain insight into students’ thought processes as they work through course content? Are you looking for a way for students to interact with you and their peers while engaging with visual and audio media (e.g., figures from papers, demonstration material from labs, videos of interviews on science topics, news reports)? Would …