This dissertation explores the diversity and depth of scholarship at the intersection of feminist studies and science and questions where and how these inquiries might be taken up in the university curriculum. The dissertation theorizes a postmodern, reconceptualist curriculum as it intersects with critical and complexity theories that takes up a…

The purpose of this descriptive study was to investigate course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) outcomes of community college students by looking at students' sense of project ownership, science self-efficacy, and science identity using an end of course survey. A total of 54 students, 41 females and 13 males, completed the survey.…

Multiple-true-false (MTF) assessments can provide granular feedback on course materials, which stems from the format of the MTF question and helps to enhance student understanding and illuminates misconceptions that can be hidden with other assessment types (Brassil & Couch, 2019). The purpose of this study was to document how students use and…

Advocates for inclusive diversity with equity, access and accountability (IDEAA) are often torn between individual-level change and institutional-level change processes. Similarly, antiracist scholarship spans individual-level and institutional-level efforts towards antiracism. In discipline-based education research (DBER) in microbiology…

Over the past several decades, science education reforms have called for students to develop appropriate views of the nature of science and have a comprehensive understanding of subject matter. Additionally, education research has demonstrated that teachers must have appropriate views of the nature of science and strong content knowledge as…

Identification of novel fermenting yeast is beneficial to the brewing industry to develop innovations in flavor or processes. In addition, there is a growing interest in sour beers, which are traditionally produced with bacteria such as Lactobacillus and Pediococcus. Here, we characterize a novel yeast, lab strain 'GY7B', and its ability to…

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…

Soft rot diseases cause crop losses all over the world. These losses can have large economic impacts and threaten international food security. Soft rot bacterial pathogens produce pectolytic enzymes that attack the pectin around plant cells resulting in smelly, wet, and mushy tissue maceration. Once symptoms are visible, the crop cannot be used or…

The primary question of my dissertation is, "Does venom possess a microbiome specific to it as an ecosystem, and why?" Given the limited amount of literature on venom microbiomes, I selected the California Cone Snail, "Californiconus californicus" as a proposed, wild model system for studying venom-microbe interactions in the…

The purpose of this three-article dissertation was to expand knowledge and theory regarding digital tool use in biology laboratory courses, such as microbiology, which requires specific laboratory skill development through the perception of instructors and students. Article 1 establishes the broad digital literacy and fluency problem in education…

Plasmids exist in bacteria and are small, extrachromosomal pieces of DNA that often encode accessory genes such as antibiotic resistance genes. They are largely responsible for spreading antibiotic resistance genes through bacterial populations via their ability to conjugate into different bacterial hosts or species. In environments without…

The goal of biological sciences is to understand the biomolecular mechanics of living organisms. Proteins serve as the foundation for organisms functional analysis and sequence analysis has shown to be invaluable in answering questions about individual organisms. The first step in any sequence analysis is alignment and it is common that even…

This dissertation investigates the following research question within an informal games-based learning environment: "How do students construct scientific ideas within a games-based learning environment?" In this study, middle school youth role-played as scientists recruited by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) to stop the Raven Virus…

Cleaning and disinfection of environmental surfaces can reduce the transmissibility of potential pathogens on school surfaces. Determining the number of bacteria and investigating the presence of pathogens on school surfaces are beginning steps in managing the well-being of students contacting those surfaces. This research study examines the…

Problem: Sepsis is a nocuous host response to infection that leads to organ dysfunction and hypotensive shock. Now deemed a public health burden, sepsis is predicted to increase as the population in the United States ages. Recent research conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that 80 percent of sepsis begins outside…