“Biotecnological War” - A Conceptual And Perceptual Assessment Tool For Teaching Biotechnology And Protein Chemistry For Undergraduate Students In Biological Sciences.

Resumo: Este trabalho foi uma iniciativa do projeto “Ciências Biológicas – Uma Forma de Integrar e Construir a Prática Experimental”, cuja ação de destaque foi o incentivo ao ensino de Ciências Biológicas para alunos de ensino médio de dois municípios. Foram oferecidas aulas teóricas e práticas em laboratórios da Universidade Federal da Fronteira Sul (UFFS), promovendo o contato de alunos e professores de escolas públicas com a universidade. Neste contexto, foi possível aproximá-los de atividades, materiais e equipamentos de prática científica e de ensino nas áreas de Ciências Biológicas, visando melhorias das condições de aprendizagem e estimulando os jovens dessas escolas para a participação no meio acadêmico-científico, aumentando a interação universidade/escola pública. Foram atendidas 15 turmas, totalizando cerca de 320 estudantes, que presenciaram as aulas de “Microscopia, células e tecidos”, “Tipagem sanguínea” e “Biodecomposição de alimentos orgânicos”. Esse trabalho possibilitou que os alunos tivessem contato prévio com o mundo das ciências e os incentivou para ingressar na universidade. Já os professores que acompanharam os alunos se sentiram instigados a manter a criatividade em sala de aula. Para os acadêmicos envolvidos, o projeto possibilitou o crescimento pessoal, instigando os mesmos a desenvolver aptidões, além do que lhes é ensinado em sala de aula. Palavras-chave: Práticas laboratoriais, ensino-aprendizagem, escola pública, extensão universitária. The teaching of Biological Sciences - a theoretical and practical experience with students of high public schools Abstract: This article promotes the project ‘Ciências Biológicas – Uma Forma de Integrar e Construir a Prática Experimental’ (Biological Sciences – a way to integrate and to build experimental practices). This initiative encouraged the teaching of biological sciences to high school students of two municipalities. Theoretical and practical classes were offered in the university labs of Universidade Federal Fronteira Sul –UFFS (Chapecó, Santa Catarina State, Brazil) in order to promote the contact of students and teachers of public schools with the university. In this context, it was possible to put the students in contact with procedures, equipments scientific and teaching practices in the areas of Biological Sciences. These activities aimed at improving learning and stimulating the students from the schools in which were part of the academic and scientific community, and as a result, to promote the interaction between university and public schools. Fifteen student groups took part in the project, which totaled around 320 students who had lessons on microscopy, cells and tissues, blood typing and biological decomposition of organic food. This project encouraged students that had a previous contact with the world of science to enter university. In addition, the teachers who accompanied the students were encouraged to continue being creative in their classes. For the undergraduate students involved, the project enabled personal growth and encouraged them to develop skills beyond what they were taught in the classroom. Key-words: Laboratory Practices, Teaching and Learning, Public School, University Extension. La enseñanza de Ciencias Biológicas - una experiencia teórica y práctica con los estudiantes de la escuela secundaria en escuelas públicas Resumen: En este artículo, se hace un relato de un trabajo que tuvo una iniciativa del proyecto ‘Ciências Biológicas – Uma Forma de Integrar e Construir a Prática Experimental’ (Ciencias Biológicas – Una Forma de Integrar y Construir la Práctica Experimental), cuya acción principal fue el incentivo a la enseñanza de Ciencias Biológicas para alumnos de enseñanza media de dos municipios. Se les ofreció clases teóricas y prácticas en los laboratorios de la Universidade Federal da Fronteira Sul – UFFS (Santa Catarina, sur de Brasil) promoviendo el contacto de alumnos y profesores de escuelas públicas con la universidad. En este espacio, fue posible aproximarlos a actividades, materiales y equipamientos de la práctica científica y de la enseñanza en las áreas de Ciencias Biológicas, buscando mejorías en las condiciones de aprendizaje y estimular los jóvenes de esas escuelas a la participación en el medio académico-científico, aumentando la interacción universidad/escuela pública. Han sido atendidos 15 grupos y cerca de 320 estudiantes, que fueron testigos de las lecciones de “Microscopía, células y tejidos”, “Tipo sanguíneo”, y “Biodescomposición de alimentos orgánicos”. Ese trabajo ha posibilitado que los alumnos tuvieran un contacto previo con el mundo de las ciencias y los ha incentivado a ingresar a la universidad. Por otro lado, los docentes que han acompañado a los alumnos se han sentido instigados a mantener la creatividad en las clases. Para los académicos involucrados, el proyecto ha posibilitado el crecimiento personal, instigándolos a crear aptitudes, más allá de lo que les es enseñado en el salón de clase. Palabras-clave: Extensión Universitaria, Popularización de la Ciencia, Escuela Secundaria, Enseñanza Científica.

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The Effects of Gaming on University Student Quiz Performance

Journal of Effective Teaching in Higher Education ◽

10.36021/jethe.v2i1.11 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 109-119

Author(s):

Corinne M Gist ◽

Natalie Andzik ◽

Elle E Smith ◽

Menglin Xu ◽

Nancy A Neef

Keyword(s):

Student Performance ◽

Undergraduate Students ◽

Assessment Tool ◽

Electronic Device ◽

Classroom Engagement ◽

Electric Device ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Competitive Games ◽

Education Courses ◽

Quiz Scores

The use of competitive games to increase classroom engagement has become common practice among many teachers. However, it is unclear if using games as an assessment tool is a viable way to increase student performance. This study examined the effects of administering quizzes through a game-based system, Kahoot!,versusprivately on an electronic device. The quiz scores of 56 undergraduate students, enrolled in one of two special education courses, were evaluated. A linear regression was used to compare student scores across the two conditions, as well as performance over the course of a 15-week semester. No significant difference in quiz scores was found between the two conditions, and quiz scores in both conditions improved similarly over time. Sixty-eight percent of the students reported preferring to take the quiz privately on an electric device as opposed to on Kahoot!. Limitations and recommendations for practitioners are discussed.

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OSCE as a Summative Assessment Tool for Undergraduate Students of Surgery—Our Experience

Indian Journal of Surgery ◽

10.1007/s12262-018-1827-z ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 81 (4) ◽

pp. 412-412

Author(s):

Ketan Vagholkar

Keyword(s):

Undergraduate Students ◽

Assessment Tool ◽

Summative Assessment

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Undergraduate biological sciences and biotechnology students’ reflective essays focus on descriptive details of experiential learning experiences

AJP Advances in Physiology Education ◽

10.1152/advan.00144.2019 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 44 (1) ◽

pp. 99-103

Author(s):

Patricia A. Halpin ◽

Ann E. Donahue ◽

Kathryn M. S. Johnson

Keyword(s):

Biological Sciences ◽

Experiential Learning ◽

Undergraduate Students ◽

Learning Experiences ◽

Career Readiness ◽

Qualitative Assessment ◽

Learning Gains ◽

Hands On ◽

Apprenticeship Model ◽

Enhance Student Learning

Experiential learning experiences (ELEs), opportunities for students to apply knowledge and skills critically in a hands-on environment, are fundamental to the apprenticeship model of biological and biotechnological sciences. ELEs enhance student-learning gains, increase career readiness, and provide important networking opportunities. However, students do not often recognize the benefits of ELEs. Reflection is a highly effective tool to articulate learning gains and connect new content with established knowledge. Therefore, senior undergraduate students ( n = 23), majoring in biological sciences or biotechnology, wrote required reflective essays about their ELE, in response to an intentionally vague prompt. Qualitative assessment of the reflective essays identified themes present in the reflective essays that typically included descriptions of what students did, with whom they worked, and what they learned during their ELE, but lacked critical analysis or deep reflection about their experience. Differences were also present between different types of ELEs. These results provide a foundation for guiding students to deeper reflection, ultimately resulting in greater benefits from their ELEs. To promote more robust reflection, and, therefore, theoretically enhance learning gains from ELEs, we suggest multiple iterations of reflection, instructor feedback and coaching, and ELE-specific prompts that focus on the placement of ELEs within students’ personal and professional trajectory.

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Bioinformatics and the Undergraduate Curriculum

CBE—Life Sciences Education ◽

10.1187/cbe.10-03-0038 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 9 (3) ◽

pp. 172-174 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Mark Maloney ◽

Jeffrey Parker ◽

Mark LeBlanc ◽

Craig T. Woodard ◽

Mary Glackin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Biological Sciences ◽

Undergraduate Students ◽

High Throughput ◽

Undergraduate Curriculum ◽

Colleges And Universities ◽

Support Staff ◽

Faculty Members ◽

Data Generation ◽

Rapid Rise ◽

The Face

Recent advances involving high-throughput techniques for data generation and analysis have made familiarity with basic bioinformatics concepts and programs a necessity in the biological sciences. Undergraduate students increasingly need training in methods related to finding and retrieving information stored in vast databases. The rapid rise of bioinformatics as a new discipline has challenged many colleges and universities to keep current with their curricula, often in the face of static or dwindling resources. On the plus side, many bioinformatics modules and related databases and software programs are free and accessible online, and interdisciplinary partnerships between existing faculty members and their support staff have proved advantageous in such efforts. We present examples of strategies and methods that have been successfully used to incorporate bioinformatics content into undergraduate curricula.

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Accreditation and assessment of learning in the UAE

Quality Assurance in Education ◽

10.1108/qae-05-2013-0023 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 22 (3) ◽

pp. 212-225 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Valerie Priscilla Goby ◽

Catherine Nickerson

Keyword(s):

Learning Outcomes ◽

Communication Skills ◽

Undergraduate Students ◽

Assessment Tool ◽

Business Students ◽

Quality Assurance Program ◽

Testing Instrument ◽

Gulf Region ◽

Content Type ◽

Assessment Of Learning

Purpose – This paper aims to focus on the successful efforts made at a university business school in the Gulf region to develop an assessment tool to evaluate the communication skills of undergraduate students as part of satisfying the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accreditation requirements. We do not consider the validity of establishing learning outcomes or meeting these according to AACSB criteria. Rather, we address ourselves solely to the design of a testing instrument that can measure the degree of student learning within the parameters of university-established learning outcomes. Design/methodology/approach – The testing of communication skills, as opposed to language, is notoriously complex, and we describe our identification of constituent items that make up the corpus of knowledge that business students need to attain. We discuss our development of a testing instrument which reflects the learning process of knowledge, comprehension and application. Findings – Our work acted as a valid indicator of the effectiveness of teaching and learning as well as a component of accreditation requirements. Originality/value – The challenge to obtain accreditation, supported by appropriate assessment procedures, is now a high priority for more and more universities in emerging, as well as in developed, economies. For business schools, the accreditation provided by AACSB remains perhaps the most sought after global quality assurance program, and our work illustrates how the required plotting and assessment of learning objectives can be accomplished.

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When Chinese Masks Meet Phylogenetics

The American Biology Teacher ◽

10.1525/abt.2016.78.3.241 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 78 (3) ◽

pp. 241-247 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Claudia A. M. Russo ◽

Bárbara Aguiar ◽

Carolina M. Voloch ◽

Alexandre P. Selvatti

Keyword(s):

Biological Sciences ◽

Undergraduate Students ◽

Data Matrix ◽

Complex Objects ◽

Single Character ◽

Topological Pattern ◽

Hands On ◽

Character Matrix ◽

The Common ◽

Character Coding

Phylogenetics has a central role in the biological sciences. We suggest a hands-on exercise to demonstrate the task of character coding and its importance in phylogenetic systematics. This exercise is appropriate for undergraduate students in life sciences and related courses. The teacher must provide a single group of masks in which color patterns, textures, and formats provide the characters to fill the data matrix. (The masks could be replaced by a set of other complex objects.) In this case, because there is no actual phylogeny, students will not be concerned with recovering the correct topology. Character coding is the aim of the exercise. After the character matrix is completed, a phylogenetic tree is drawn and the students interpret the evolution of a single character, starting from the common ancestor, based on the topological pattern of the tree and on the data matrix. In sequence, the students name and provide a full diagnosis for the group of masks as revealed by the topological pattern. The comparison between group results is also educational: there will be some common patterns between trees, but others will differ as in biological systematics.

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ESTUDO SOBRE A MATRIZ CURRICULAR DO CURSO DE CIÊNCIAS BIOLÓGICAS DA UFSM

Cadernos de Educação Tecnologia e Sociedade ◽

10.14571/brajets.v12.n2.213-219 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 12 (2) ◽

pp. 213

Author(s):

Jaiane Moraes Boton ◽

Luiz Caldeira Brant de Tolentino-Neto

Keyword(s):

Biological Sciences ◽

Undergraduate Students ◽

Professional Training ◽

Basic Education ◽

Subject Area ◽

Degree Program ◽

Teaching Knowledge ◽

Knowledge Based ◽

Pedagogical Training ◽

Santa Maria

The teacher is an important actor in most people's lives. Considering the importance of this professional of his of the Training and the existing Teaching Knowledge that composes his practice, we aim, in this work, to investigate an initial training course of biology teachers. In order to do so, we analyzed the Pedagogical Project of the Biological Sciences Degree Program of the Federal University of Santa Maria, which was in force and was restructured in 2005. We focused on the following aspects: (i) how the Practice as a Component is developed Curricular (CCP; (ii) what semesters the CCP occurs in; (iii) how Supervised Curriculum Stages (ECS) are developed, and (iv) how the disciplines are distributed in relation to the Knowledge of Professional Training and Disciplinary Knowledge. Based on our analysis, we realize that the Course is documented in accordance with Resolution CNE / CP 2/2002, which regulates the duration and the compulsory workload for Basic Education Teachers, both in relation to the CCP and ECS. We also found that, even though there are more integrative orientations regarding disciplinary training and pedagogical training, there is still a prevalence of training focused on the specific subject area, with little space for pedagogical training. We hope that with the new legislation that will come into force in July 2019, the Biological Sciences Degree Program of UFSM will be restructured so as to give greater emphasis to the disciplines related to pedagogical training, thus giving place to the formation of professional identity of the undergraduate students.

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Perception of OSCE as An Assessment Tool in Undergraduate Students of Private Medical College in Karachi, Pakistan

10.53350/pjmhs211582370 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 15 (8) ◽

pp. 2370-2374

Author(s):

Saba Pario ◽

Shaista Bashir Anwar ◽

Zafar Haleem Baloch ◽

Saira Ghafoor ◽

Shazia Aftab ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Medical Students ◽

Undergraduate Students ◽

Assessment Tool ◽

Clinical Skills ◽

Tool Material ◽

P Value ◽

Practical Skills ◽

Undergraduate Medical Students ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Significant Difference

OBJECTIVE: To explore the perception of undergraduate students of United Medical and dental college towards objective structured clinical examination as an assessment tool. MATERIAL & METHODS: A cross-sectional observational study included undergraduate medical students, RESULTS: 153 students who completely filled the proforma were included in study among them 31% were male and 69% were females. Mostly agreed that stations in OSCE were simple and easily interpretable and assessed practical skills thoroughly. Majority of students accepted that skills inquired were taught in clinics, stations were according to course and stations were appropriately timed. 66 % confirmed that adequate instructions were provided before exam. 84.31% believed that OSCE is preferable to viva. 57.51% of candidates stated that examiners during OSCE were attentive and gracious but 20.91 % objected it , while 21.57% remained neutral. Almost half of examinees labelled it as comprehensive clinical assessment .Overall, 67.97 % perceived OSCE as demanding and tough assessment. Finally views of students for statement that OSCE is unbiased, reliable and valid were positive in 50.32%.There was a significant difference in the opinion of male and female( p-value is less than 0.05) in statement that OSCE thoroughly assessed practical skills, stations were according to course of instruction, Adequate instructions were provided before exam, superior and preferable to viva, assists in improvement of clinical skills, demanding and tough and finally OSCE was unbiased, reliable and valid CONCLUSION: OSCE was perceived as fair, comprehensive, un-biased format of examination but believed it was more stressful than traditional examination methods . KEY WORDS: Assessment, Attitude, OSCE, Perception, Undergraduate Medical students.

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Selective attention in hypothesis-driven data analysis

10.1101/2020.07.30.228916 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Itai Yanai ◽

Martin Lercher

Keyword(s):

Biological Sciences ◽

Data Analysis ◽

Selective Attention ◽

Undergraduate Students ◽

Free Group ◽

Scientific Research ◽

Initial Step ◽

Hidden Cost ◽

New Ideas ◽

Current Emphasis

When analyzing the results of an experiment, the mental focus on a specific hypothesis might prevent the exploration of other aspects of the data, effectively blinding one to new ideas. To test this notion, we performed an experiment in which we asked undergraduate students to analyze a fictitious dataset. In addition to being asked what they could conclude from the dataset, half of the students were asked to also test specific hypotheses. In line with our notion, students in the hypothesis-free group were almost 5 times more likely to observe an image of a gorilla when simply plotting the data, a proxy for an initial step towards data analysis. If these findings are representative also of scientific research as a whole, they warrant concern about the current emphasis on hypothesis-driven research, especially in the context of information-rich datasets such as those now routinely created in the biological sciences. Our work provides evidence for a link between the psychological effect of selective attention and hypothesis-driven data analysis, and suggests a hidden cost to having a hypothesis when analyzing a dataset.

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