Connecting you to what's happening in the UBC Biology Program
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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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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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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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 …
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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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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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 …