Up to 78% of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) students experience poor academic achievement as defined by course grades of D, F and W in college. Students entering these fields are often not prepared (Chen & Soldner, 2013) and struggle to succeed in gateway STEM courses, with one-third of them possibly failing (Freeman…

Evidence-based instructional practices (EBIPs) have been shown to benefit students in undergraduate biology, but little is known about the degree to which community college (CC) biology instructors use EBIPs or the barriers they encounter. We surveyed CC biology instructors to characterize how they use EBIPs, their capacity to use EBIPs, and…

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) integrate an authentic research experience for students into a laboratory course. CUREs provide many of the same benefits to students as individual faculty-mentored research experiences. However, faculty experiences in teaching CUREs are not as well understood. There are no studies that…

This article examines the backgrounds and pedagogical evolution of twelve community college (CC) human anatomy and physiology faculty participating in a larger study known as the Community College Anatomy and Physiology Education Research (CAPER) project. Using qualitative analysis of interviews based on Luft & Roehrig's (2007) Teacher Belief…

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) provides a flexible framework for supporting a wide variety of learners. We report here on a conference that presented the UDL framework as a way to increase success of deaf and hard-of-hearing (deaf/hh) students in introductory biology courses. The Opening the Pathway conference was an NSF Advanced…

This paper presents the results of an exploratory study of a professional development-based effort at one of the nation's 14 federally designated Historically Black Colleges and Universities community colleges. Course revisions included introductory courses in its Natural Sciences department. The goal was to improve students' critical-thinking and…

Active learning, an engaging, student-centered, evidence-based pedagogy, has been shown to improve student satisfaction, engagement, and achievement in college classrooms. There have been numerous calls to reform teaching practices, especially in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM); however, the utilization of active learning is…

This study evaluates the effectiveness of human anatomy software in face-to-face and online anatomy laboratory classes. Cognitive, affective, and psychomotor perceived learning was measured for students using Pearson Education's Practice Anatomy Laboratory 2.0 software. This study determined that student-perceived learning was significantly…

If college science instructors are to use inquiry practices more in the classroom, they need both professional support to foster comfort with the pedagogy and practical ways to engage students in inquiry. Over a semester, we studied 13 community college biology instructors as they adopted bioinformatics problem-based learning (PBL) modules in…

Early research experiences must be made available to all undergraduate students, including those at 2-yr institutions who account for nearly half of America's college students. We report on barriers unique to 2-yr institutions that preclude the success of an early course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE). Using a randomized study…

We offered four annual professional development workshops called STAR (for Scientific Teaching, Assessment, and Resources) modeled after the National Academies Summer Institute (SI) on Undergraduate Education in Biology. In contrast to the SI focus on training faculty from research universities, STAR's target was faculty from community colleges,…

For the forty-fourth time, the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is sponsoring the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented online and onsite during the annual AECT Convention. Volume 1 contains papers dealing primarily with research and development topics. Papers dealing with…

ChemEd Bridges is an NSF-funded project that provides career and professional development opportunities for chemistry faculty members who teach at two-year colleges (2YCs). We broaden the interests and the horizons of these faculty members by building bridges between them and the broader community of chemical educators. In particular, we have…

The Science and Mathematics Alliance for Recruiting and Retaining Teachers (SMARRT) is a collaborative partnership pursuing aggressive strategies to recruit high quality minority teachers to teach in high-need schools in urban school districts. This partnership is dedicated to recruiting, preparing, and retaining high quality teachers with strong…