01/31/11 - Chronology of the Evolution-Creationism Controversy, written by Randy Moore, Mark Decker and Sehoya Cotner (Biology Program), has been named a 2011 Outstanding Reference Source Award by the Reference User Services Association (a division of the American Library Association). The Outstanding Reference Sources list of titles identifies the most important reference publications for small and medium-sized public and academic libraries published in a given year. The award is considered one the highest honors for a reference work.
11/25/09 - A beautifully written article by Sharon Schmickle about the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s “The Origin of Species” published November 24, 2009 by MinnPost features CBS faculty Mark Borrello, Sehoya Cotner, Randy Moore, Mark Decker and David McLaughlin. The in-depth story begins with a look at a survey of UM biology students conducted by Cotner, Moore and Decker showing how teaching evolution in K-12 schools remains a challenge today, even in Minnesota. It provides a look at the social and scientific impact of the book. And it returns to the present to show how scientists like David McLaughlin are working at the molecular level to connect branches for the NSF Tree of Life project. This is the first in MinnPost’s occasional, year-long series about Charles Darwin.
10/23/09 - Poster presented at the Lilly Conference on College and University Teaching in September won the prize for the most effective poster presentation.
Engaging Students for Enhanced Learning in Introductory Biology
Sue Wick*, David Matthes, Robin Wright, Mark Decker, Deena Wassenberg, Rob Brooker, Brett Couch
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
*swick@umn.edu, 612-625-4718
Undergraduates in the College of Biological Sciences start their biology coursework with a two-semester lab course that emphasizes learning within permanent teams of students. Key features of the concept lab (which replaces lecture and discussion sections) are a specially designed active learning classroom, minimal lecture time, individual and team quizzes on pre-class reading, daily and weekly activities that challenge students to apply what they have read, and long-term projects that require mastery and integration of material from throughout the semester.
10/15/09 - Beginning in January 2010, Dr. Susan Wick, Dr. Deena Wassenberg, Dr. Ken Jeddeloh, and Jane Phillips will be working with the Austin Public Schools in concert with the College of Education and Human Development to provide elementary teachers experience and training in inquiry-based science for their classrooms. This is part of a larger effort by the Austin Public Schools funded by the Hormel Foundation to improve Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) education at all levels. The involvement of the Biology Program began in the summer of 2008 with a very successful workshop in biotechnology for middle and high school teachers. Success was measured by incorporation of workshop materials and curricula into the teachers’ classrooms.
10/15/09 - This summer (2009), Dr. Susan Wick, Jane Phillips, and Sandra Mackey, along with Dr. Emily Hoover from Horticulture and Sandy Tanck from the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, hosted an investigative plant biology workshop for elementary teachers. This is the seventeenth year the workshop has been offered. Teachers in this workshop can earn graduate credit (PBio 5960) for attending and engage in investigations, curriculum design, and developing assessment techniques for their classrooms. The group continues to meet during the academic year. In the following year (2010–2011), a subset of these teachers will work on advanced curriculum design and assessment issues with the goal to improve investigative science in elementary classrooms.
10/15/09 - Sehoya Cotner, Randy Moore and Mark Decker provided a workshop for high school teachers titled “Evolution, Controversy, and Standards” August 3–13, 2009. The workshop was supported by a an Improving Teacher Quality grant from the Minnesota Office of Higher Education.
10/15/09 - Robin Wright, Deena Wassenberg, Rob Brooker, and Mark Decker were invited to and attended the “Transforming Undergraduate Biology Education: Mobilizing the Community for Change” conference, sponsored by NSF and AAAS, in Washington DC July 15–17, 2009.
10/15/09 - In the fall of 2010 Dr. Deena Wassenberg of the Biology Program will offer a new course: Our Global Environment: Science and Solutions (BIOL 1050). This course has been submitted for approval for the CLE Environment theme. BIOL 1050 will be, first and foremost, a course in science. Students will be asked to consider the environmental topics of biodiversity, global food production and choices, environmental toxicology, and climate change as scientists. This means students will evaluate data and experimental design, propose experiments and carefully consider sources of data. Students will deal with human populations as a part of a global ecosystem: a part that not only dramatically influences the ecosystem, but whose health and well-being are directly affected by ecosystem function.
The environmental topics studied in this course affect all members of society. These topics are ones that individuals can influence by their personal choices, the policies they support, and the representatives they elect. This course will also explore the role members of society have on environmental policy and environmental change.
