Chloe Cho, Joseph Distefano, Taylor Epstein, and Dimitri Moshovitis Receive the Outstanding Learning Assistant Award
The Biology Department recognized the hard work and innovation of all of our Learning Assistants (LAs) by presenting “The Outstanding Learning Assistant Award” to a group of Biology LAs on April 26, 2019. These students presented a poster that was judged by the Biology Honors Committee to best outline procedures that will improve teaching in our undergraduate courses. Financial support for this award was made possible by Professor Emerita Elizabeth Godrick.
Top award:
Chloe Cho, Joseph Distefano, Taylor Epstein, and Dimitri Moshovitis received the top award for Biology LAs for their poster on the topic of rearranging the order of BI 108 labs to coincide with BI 108 lecture. Here is the abstract from the group’s presentation:
Many students in BI108 labs have experienced frustration due to the fact that many topics covered in lecture are taught asynchronously with the lab section. For instance, meiosis and mitosis were covered in lecture and part of the first lecture exam, but were not covered in lab until later. In order to make student learning more efficient, it is important for the labs to act as a supplement to the lecture. For this reason, we propose shifting the order of the labs. By rearranging the order of the labs in a way that the topics are taught more concurrently with the lecture, it is possible to address students’ misconceptions sooner, resulting in a better overall understanding of the concepts. In order to accomplish this task, we would look at the syllabus of the BI 108 lecture, and then match the lab that most compliments that week’s topic. We would also keep in mind labs that involve touchstone problems. Slightly shifting the order of a few labs should be feasible since the lab materials will stay the same. Overall, shifting the order of the labs could be a straightforward method to improve the students’ experience in BI 108.
A close runner-up:
Leslie Meng, Narain Reddy, and Viha Vig were the runners up for their poster on the topic of introductory student activity on grant proposals for physiology. Here is the abstract from the group’s presentation:
In physiology, students have the opportunity to complete formative self-assessments before coming to lab. These student activities take many forms such as completing and labeling tables, diagrams, and graphs. With the lab course changing to meet BU Hub requirements, students will be required to write a grant proposal in addition to other semester-long scientific writing projects. These grant proposals will be completed by groups of three or four students during the semester. Our proposal is a student activity designed to specifically introduce students to the concepts and structure underlying grant proposals. The goal of this assignment is to give students an interactive activity that will increase their understanding of the overall framework and content of a proposal. Since students will be focusing on the research plan of the grant proposal, our activity will focus on the specific aims and research strategy components of the research plan. Under these sections, we will have students match different definitions and tips for creating effective argumentation for each part of the research plan. We hope to disperse this assignment to students three weeks before the first draft of the grant proposal is due. Since this is the first formal exposure to grant proposals in a classroom setting, this activity will prevent misconceptions and allow students to create error-free mental models.
Congratulations to the award-winners and thanks to all the hardworking LAs who participated in the poster presentations.