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Recent Posts
- This might just be my new favorite book about teaching…
- Seven Strategies for Sustaining Student Engagement Online
- A New Way to Look at Red-Green Colorblindness
- “BiteScis”: Bite-sized research to promote scientific thinking
- What Does a STEM Professional Look Like? One Graduate Student’s Perspective
- Calling on students at random: What are the keys to success?
- Instructors: Be kind to your future self
- My Students Need Help Asking for Help; Do Yours?
- The Incredibly Stretchy Condom, Revisited
- Natural Selection in Tortoises: A (Homemade) Video
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Category Archives: Teaching
This might just be my new favorite book about teaching…
Last month, I bought and read Terry McGlynn’s excellent new book, The Chicago Guide to College Science Teaching (published 2020). It is one of those books that hits the rare combination of being informed by educational research without dwelling on … Continue reading
Posted in Course design, Equity and inclusion, STEM, Teaching
Tagged book, Chicago Guide to College Science Teaching, Chicago Guides, Efficient teaching, introductory biology, office hours, Respect principle, Saundra Yancy McGuire, syllabus, Teach Students How to Learn, Terry McGlynn
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A New Way to Look at Red-Green Colorblindness
When we cover genetics in our nonmajors biology classes, many of us use red-green colorblindness as a familiar example of X-linked inheritance. We may even ask our students to indicate whether they can see the numbers or symbols in Ishihara … Continue reading
“BiteScis”: Bite-sized research to promote scientific thinking
Are you looking for biology lessons that promote scientific thinking, are classroom-tested, and are fully customizable to your own needs? On second thought, who isn’t? While reading The American Biology Teacher recently, I learned about a good source: BiteScis, a … Continue reading
What Does a STEM Professional Look Like? One Graduate Student’s Perspective
I encourage you to visit today’s Science Careers website and read the moving commentary entitled Why I’ve struggled with the pressure to assimilate when teaching. The author is Montrai Spikes, a graduate student in Biology at the University of Oklahoma … Continue reading
Posted in Equity and inclusion, STEM, Teaching
Tagged graduate student, Montrai Spikes, University of Oklahoma
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Calling on students at random: What are the keys to success?
Lofty principles of equal opportunity guide our country and our schools, but the truth is that not everyone is treated fairly, and not everyone’s voice has an equal chance of being heard. As instructors, we must confront the painful idea … Continue reading
Instructors: Be kind to your future self
I’ve posted a few times on helping your students cultivate a growth mindset. But I think its also important to think about our own mindsets as instructors. How can we cultivate a growth mindset about teaching, learn from our mistakes, and … Continue reading
Posted in Mindset, Teaching
Tagged course planning, future self, growth mindset, note to self, PowerPoint, present self
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My Students Need Help Asking for Help; Do Yours?
We finished exam 2 in my nonmajors biology class last week, and after the exam was over, I had an epiphany: Very few students asked me for help. For context, I’ve been doing this job for more than 20 years. … Continue reading
Posted in Engaging students, Study skills, Teaching
Tagged Action Center, office hours, procrastination, professors, struggling students
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“Practice Perfection”: It’s Not Just for Gymnasts
In case you are not focused on the world of college gymnastics, the University of Oklahoma’s men’s and women’s teams are second to none. I am not exaggerating: You can see the 2019 NCAA men’s rankings here and the women’s … Continue reading
Posted in Study skills, Teaching
Tagged concept maps, growth mindset, gymnastics, old exams, practice, test anxiety, University of Oklahoma
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The Laptop Ban: New Research
Faithful readers may remember that a couple of years ago I banned the use of laptops in my nonmajors biology classroom. You can read about the rationale in a previous blog post that summarizes the Mueller and Oppenheimer study, which … Continue reading
Raise Your Hand: How Do You Start the Semester on the Right Foot?
Years ago, I published my best idea for semester prep, a checklist that has proved to be an audience favorite. Over the past 5 years, many readers have asked for my checklist, which I have freely shared. I was knee-deep … Continue reading
