Linda Jennings loves seeing undergraduates engage with the Beaty Biodiversity Museum collections. As a Herbarium Collection Curator at the Beaty, Linda is always looking for ways to engage with undergraduate students. “For me, the big thing is getting students to use the collections, and not having barriers.” Linda and her colleagues have been working with …
Category Archives: Teaching Spotlight
Teaching Spotlight – Creating Engaging and Real-world Case Studies for BIOL 155 Tutorials
This term in BIOL 155, instructors Agnes Lacombe and Irene Ballagh collaborated with TAs Lindsay Pallo and Lorenzo Lindo to develop engaging case studies for the weekly tutorial sessions. In addition to creating the case studies, Lindsay and Lorenzo also created pre-tutorial videos to help students develop some content knowledge of the case studies before …
Teaching Spotlight – How UBC Biology Faculty Motivate Students
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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Teaching Spotlight – Adding Metacognition to Art-based Observation Activities in BIOL 323 and BIOL 203
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 …
Teaching Spotlight – Pam Kalas On Using Metacognitive Activities
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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Teaching Spotlight – A Guest Speaker Brings Science to Life in the BIOL 140 Online Classroom
Blaire Steinwand and Jaclyn Dee recently teamed up to bring in Dr. Cole Burton as a guest speaker in their BIOL 140 course. Students had previously read popular press article pieces about Dr. Burton’s research on caribou conservation, and this session gave them an opportunity to meet and learn more about him and his work. …
Teaching Spotlight – Creative Ways to Engage Students Before Class Begins
Several UBC Biology faculty are using creative ways to engage students as they join synchronous class sessions. For some examples, check out Celeste Leander’s recent blog post and keep reading to learn how Karen Smith, Greg Bole, Angie O’Neill, Rachel Wilson, and Kathryn Zeiler are using pre-class activities to engage students in their courses. Karen …
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Teaching Spotlight – Analyzing How Students Process Questions On Exams
Alyssa Gutierrez is a 4th-year student in the Combined Major in Science Program concentrating on Life Sciences, Computer Science, and Earth & Environmental Science, with a keen interest in teaching & learning, among many things. In Spring 2020 (pre-COVID-19 disruption) Alyssa put her biology and coding skills to good use to help instructors gain insight …
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Teaching Spotlight – Scientist Spotlight Activity
Jaclyn Dee recently assigned a Scientist Spotlight activity in her BIOL 112 course. Students were asked to watch and respond to a short TED talk video in which Dr. Fatima AlZahra’a Alatraktchi talked about her life and work as a Nanophysicist and how she invented a tool that detects dangerous bacteria earlier than traditional methods. …
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Teaching Spotlight – Making biology relevant using an interdisciplinary group project and a virtual poster day
During the recent 2020 Summer I term, Dirk VandePol and Gwen Huber used an interdisciplinary group project and virtual poster session in their web-based BIOL 111 course to help their students see how the course content was relevant to their lives. As Dirk explains, the goal of this assignment was to “give students as much …
Teaching Spotlight – Using a Virtual “Snowball Fight” to Build Community
Jennifer Klenz and Stella Lee recently used a virtual “snowball fight” to help them get to know their BIOL 234 students. Below, Jennifer describes this activity, the role it has played in building a sense of community in the course, and its connection to another course assignment. How did you come up with the idea …
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Teaching Spotlight – Valentine’s Day Card Assignment
Bridgette Clarkston received lots of love from her BIOL 121 students this term in the form of biology-themed Valentine’s Day cards. Students were tasked to create a set of Valentine’s Day cards that incorporated concepts from the course, and as you can see from the display on her door in the pictures above, they definitely …
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Teaching Spotlight – Student-produced Mycology Slideshow Displayed in the Beaty Museum
As part of a biodiversity survey in the BIOL323 introductory mycology course last term, students identified and illustrated fungi that they collected from the UBC Farm. Students were then tasked to create informational slides to present these local fungi species to the public. The resulting slideshow presentation will be displayed in the Beaty Museum at …