Sheraton Downtown Denver Hotel
Denver, Colorado
July 27–30, 2017
LATE-BREAKING ABSTRACTS
The following abstracts were presented in a late-breaking poster session at the American Society for Microbiology’s Conference for Undergraduate Educators (ASMCUE) on Saturday, July 29, 2017.
The 2017 abstracts are organized by both content and pedagogy to help participants navigate more easily through the poster session. The content themes are based upon the ASM Recommended Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate Microbiology Education found on www.asm.org. The pedagogy themes are organized into five categories: course design, hands-on projects, student learning, teaching approaches, and teaching tools.
30-B
A Concept Triangle as a Metacognitive Device and Assessment Tool in a General Microbiology Course
Aaron Coby, St. Martin’s University, Lacey, WA.
ASM Curriculum Guideline Concept(s): Advancing STEM education and research
Pedagogical Category(ies): Student learning
31-A
Assessment of Student Learning Using Weekly Quizzes: Paper Quizzes versus Online Quizzes
Narveen Jandu, Gannon University, Erie, PA.
ASM Curriculum Guideline Concept(s): Structure and function
Pedagogical Category(ies): Student learning, Teaching approaches, Teaching tools
32-B
A Reading-Writing Assignment Based on a Popular Narrative Science Book Enhances Student Engagement and Learning in an Introductory Microbiology Course
Tracy O’Connor, Mount Royal University, Alberta, Canada.
ASM Curriculum Guideline Concept(s): Advancing STEM education and research, Impact of microorganisms
Pedagogical Category(ies): Teaching tools
33-A
Active Learning in Large-Class Tutorials to Address Misconceptions
Heather Verkade, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
ASM Curriculum Guideline Concept(s): Advancing STEM education and research
Pedagogical Category(ies): Teaching approaches
34-B: A Project-Based Learning Approach for an Effective Undergraduate Bioinformatics Course
R. Pamela Watson, Emory University, Atlanta, GA.
ASM Curriculum Guideline Concept(s): Systems
Pedagogical Category(ies): Hands-on projects
30-B A Concept Triangle as a Metacognitive Device and Assessment Tool in a General Microbiology Course
Aaron Coby, St. Martin’s University, Lacey, WA.
The principles advanced by the 2011 Vision and Change (VC) report present educators with the challenge to transform their courses by moving away from content and toward a concept-driven approach to biology education. Designing tasks that allow students to engage in the material on a concept rather than content level is difficult. Students suffer from a “tell me what I need to know” approach to learning. There is a need for tools that provide students a framework upon which to explore their conceptual understanding and engage in intellectual self-reflection. These tools should also provide educators the opportunity to assess students’ understanding of the material.
ASM Curriculum Guideline Concept(s): Advancing STEM education and research
Pedagogical Category(ies): Student learning
31-A Assessment of Student Learning Using Weekly Quizzes: Paper Quizzes versus Online Quizzes
Narveen Jandu, Gannon University, Erie, PA.
Background
Microbiology is a complex discipline, with an enormous amount of terminology for microorganism names, patterns and characteristics of growth, and key laboratory procedures and experiments. For undergraduate students, routine practice and engagement with course content can facilitate learning and comprehension of this content. Weekly quizzes facilitate learning by ensuring that students review course content on a regular basis.
Objective
To determine any differences in student learning gains, through assessment of student grades, with the use of weekly paper quizzes versus weekly online quizzes.
Hypothesis
Student grades will not differ significantly between weekly paper quiz scores and weekly online quiz scores.
Assessment methods
57 students in a microbiology course were required to complete weekly paper quizzes and weekly online quizzes during the spring 2017 semester. Altogether, each student completed a pair of 7 weekly quizzes. Ethics approval was obtained from the institutional review board (IRB) at Gannon University to use the quiz scores from these microbiology students. Quiz score data were analyzed using MICROSOFT EXCEL, looking at mean quiz scores for each weekly quiz in each format (i.e., paper quizzes and online quizzes) and aggregate mean for each quiz type. Statistical significance in student scores between quiz formats was evaluated using a paired Student’s t-test.
Results
Average quiz scores between weekly paper and weekly online quizzes were not significantly different: paper quiz score aggregate mean: 4.21/5.00 (84.29%; n=57); online quiz score aggregate mean: 4.51/5.00 (90.14%; n=57); p=0.3134. Importantly, online quiz score grades were not inflated compared with paper quizzes. Neither quiz format substantially impacted the final grades of students, as the average change in overall final course grades with the weekly quizzes was only 0.33% (range: −1.58% to +2.95%).
Conclusion
Weekly quizzes can facilitate student learning with the use of either a paper or online format. Relevance: weekly online quizzes do not inflate student grades, which is a common apprehension amongst faculty.
ASM Curriculum Guideline Concept(s): Structure and function
Pedagogical Category(ies): Student learning, Teaching approaches, Teaching tools
32-B A Reading-Writing Assignment Based on a Popular Narrative Science Book Enhances Student Engagement and Learning in an Introductory Microbiology Course
Tracy O’Connor, Mount Royal University, Alberta, Canada.
Students may be more motivated to learn about microbiology if they appreciate its “real world” relevance. In order to motivate student learning in an introductory one-semester microbiology course, the author created a writing assignment based on reading a narrative popular science book dealing with infectious disease. It was hypothesized that this assignment would enhance student engagement and learning.
Students were asked to choose a book from a small selection provided by the instructor, read it, and generate questions related to the book. One question was chosen to serve as the basis for a short research paper, which was graded according to a rubric provided beforehand. Learning from the reading-writing assignment was also assessed with an open-ended question on the final exam. In addition, students’ perceptions of engagement and learning were assessed using Likert-style surveys.
According to surveys gathered over six semesters from a total of 180 students, 92% enjoyed reading the book, 86% thought it enhanced their knowledge of microbiology, and 88% thought it enriched their understanding of the work of infectious disease scientists. There was a direct correlation between enjoyment and perceived learning gains from the reading (p=0.01 gamma test for matched samples). On average, students scored better on the written assignment (82.7%, 95% CI=2.1) and the assignment-related exam question (74%, 95% CI=4.5) than on the final exam as a whole (65.1%, 95% CI=2.5). There was no significant correlation between a student’s performance on the final exam and their performance on either of the assignment-related assessments (Pearson coefficient ≤0.424), suggesting that the benefits of the assignment extended beyond the students who excel at writing exams. Thematic analysis of the exam answers indicated a wide range of lessons learned beyond those covered in class.
A survey of students taking the subsequent microbiology course indicated that they continued to perceive the assignment as beneficial.
The results of this study suggest that the reading-writing assignment based on a narrative popular science book enhanced student engagement and learning.
ASM Curriculum Guideline Concept(s): Advancing STEM education and research, Impact of microorganisms
Pedagogical Category(ies): Teaching tools
33-A Active Learning in Large-Class Tutorials to Address Misconceptions
Heather Verkade, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
Misconceptions such as commonly held but unscientific beliefs can seriously hinder student learning by preventing students from taking on more complex information on a topic and from applying concepts to new information. In fact, strongly held beliefs often do not change after didactic teaching, so active learning approaches are being examined to address misconceptions.
We hypothesized that active, student-centered approaches would bring about conceptual change in students. In a second-year biochemistry and molecular biology class, large-class tutorials were run in which the students were presented with a problem or question and asked to answer an online poll, after which they discussed their answers with their neighbors and/or viewed additional information, and then answered the question again. Finally, the correct answer was discussed by the lecturer.
The students’ understanding of the concepts was assessed, and concept questions that only 22% of the students could answer rose to 58% correct responses at the end of the tutorial and to 68% in the final exam. This has been repeated over multiple semesters with different questions, with similar results. Students were interviewed about their experience of changing their minds. Qualitative thematic analysis identified several inductive themes. Students with high confidence were less likely to change their minds after peer discussion, but more likely to remember if they were incorrect. Students’ prior knowledge of the topic predicted their initial confidence in answering the question.
The tutorial methods trialled in this study were successful in not only changing the students’ ability to answer conceptual questions, but also in retention of the concept to the end of the semester. When confusion was elicited during the tutorial, because the student discovered that their strongly held misconception was incorrect, the student was then more likely to remember the corrected concept.
ASM Curriculum Guideline Concept(s): Advancing STEM education and research
Pedagogical Category(ies): Teaching approaches
34-B: A Project-Based Learning Approach for an Effective Undergraduate Bioinformatics Course
R. Pamela Watson, Emory University, Atlanta, GA.
In this study, we report the implementation of a bioinformatics course in which the final goal was to guide undergraduate upper division biology students with limited prior computer science experience toward completion of a hypothesis-driven in-silico research project on gene discovery.
Bioinformatics can be overwhelming to biology students with a limited computer science background. We approached this issue by scaffolding students with a series of bioinformatics modules. Each module introduced a specific bioinformatic tool with a clear emphasis on the biological concepts each tool is designed to address. The students were tasked with completing an independent research project integrating several of the tools, then presenting their research at a local symposium. We hypothesized that this project-based approach would deepen student understanding of bioinformatics, with measurable gains in student understanding of the tools and how these tools are applied to answer biological questions. We also anticipated that participating in authentic research projects may have an impact on students’ attitudes toward research, as most of our students were not interested in pursuing research at the start of the course. Students were surveyed before and after completing the project to assess 1) understanding of the biological concepts, 2) familiarity with the bioinformatics tools, 3) attitudes toward research, and 4) prospective career goals.
Each student successfully completed the original research projects. At least 10% of students reported gains in understanding for all modules, with 80 to 90% of students reporting gains in modules that were used directly in the research project. This highlights both direct and indirect gains in project-based learning. The number of students interested in doing research in the future or pursuing research as a career also increased dramatically. Integrating a student-driven project into the bioinformatics course not only enabled us to effectively assess student learning outcomes but also boosted students’ understanding of biological concepts, appreciation of the skills learned and attitudes toward research.
ASM Curriculum Guideline Concept(s): Systems
Pedagogical Category(ies): Hands-on projects