This dissertation asks how to improve science education and science communication, and suggests that digital storytelling techniques can be used to better engage learners in the process of knowledge making. Digital storytelling refers to both the use of high-quality digital media content as learning materials, and also to the use of social…

Generating an increasingly skilled and numerous workforces of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professionals is a national priority. Central to this goal is improving the ability of STEM graduates to apply scientific inquiry within oral communication, a necessary skill for STEM professionals. In this case study of an…

This study investigated the role of experiential learning and peer mentors in undergraduate biology at a community college. While the impact on all students was studied, special attention was paid to the effect interventions had on underrepresented minority students. Thirty-three sections of an introductory biology class were randomly assigned to…

Effective communication about science is a core skill undergraduates should learn, but little research has explored how students communicate about culturally controversial science topics. In this study, we explored how Black undergraduate science students took on the role of science communicators in their communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.…

The COVID-19 pandemic presented many challenges for educators. In Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs), where students learn about the scientific process by working on novel research, few resources for remote learning were available. Here the impact of changes to course delivery format on student learning gains in a…

Evolution is controversial among students and religiosity, religious affiliation, understanding of evolution, and demographics are predictors of evolution acceptance. However, quantitative research has not explored the unique impact of student perceived conflict between their religion and evolution as a major factor influencing evolution…

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the stay-at-home order implemented by the New York State Governor, the introductory undergraduate biology courses were changed to an at-home remote learning modality. To provide conceptual learning and hands-on experience, the second semester introductory biology laboratory course utilised a multi-modal learning…

Although many scientists agree that evolution does not make claims about God/god(s), students might assume that evolution is atheistic, and this may lead to lower evolution acceptance. In study 1, we surveyed 1081 college biology students at one university about their religiosity and evolution acceptance and asked what religious ideas someone…

ePortfolios are considered the eleventh high-impact practice (HIP) by the AAC&U (now the American Association of Colleges and Universities). They have been widely implemented in the humanities but remain underutilized in STEM fields. The benefits of engaged learning, metacognitive awareness, and professional identity development in those…

This paper discusses our experiences teaching a doctoral-level course in emerging information technologies. The concept of emerging technologies is put into context by describing the technology life cycle. The emerging information technologies of current interest -- Artificial Intelligence and related areas, Collective Human-Computer Intelligence,…

An understanding of biological variation is important for understanding ecological interactions, ecosystem function, and species' response to environmental change. Biological variation is essential to species survival because natural selection acts upon the phenotypic variation within a population: the more varied the population's genetic…

In an undergraduate introductory biology laboratory course, we used a summative assessment to directly test the learning objective that students will be able to apply course material to increasingly novel and complex situations. Using a factorial framework, we developed multiple true-false questions to fall along axes of novelty and complexity,…

Helping faculty develop high-quality instruction that positively affects student learning can be complicated by time limitations, a lack of resources, and inexperience using student data to make iterative improvements. We describe a community of 16 faculty from five institutions who overcame these challenges and collaboratively designed, taught,…

Students arrive in college with significant prior knowledge including misconceptions that hinder their ability to learn new concepts correctly. Misconceptions, or "alternative beliefs," have been widely studied in the physical sciences at higher education institutions; however, there is a paucity of research concerning the community…

This paper describes the structure and activities of READ (Reading Effectively Across the Disciplines), a pilot initiative to improve students' critical reading skills, disciplinary literacy and academic success. READ employs a multimodal design that consists of faculty training in disciplinary literacy instruction and curricular enhancement,…