Undergraduate Life Science Research Articles

PULSE Ambassadors program: empowering departments to transform STEM education for inclusion and student success.

The Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Education (PULSE) is a non-profit educational organization committed to promoting the transformation of undergraduate STEM education by supporting departments in removing barriers to access, equity, and inclusion and in adopting evidence-based teaching and learning practices. The PULSE Ambassadors Campus Workshop program enables faculty and staff members of host departments to 1) develop communication, shared leadership, and inclusion skills for effective team learning; 2) implement facilitative leadership skills (e.g., empathic listening and collaboration); 3) create a shared vision and departmental action plan; and 4) integrate diversity, equity, and inclusion practices in the department and curriculum. From the first workshop in 2014, teams of trained Ambassadors conducted workshops at 58 institutions, including associate, bachelor, master, and doctoral institutions. In their workshop requests, departments cited several motivations: desire to revise and align their curriculum with Vision and Change recommendations, need for assistance with ongoing curricular reform, and wish for external assistance with planning processes and communication. Formative assessments during and immediately following workshops indicated that key outcomes were met. Post-workshop interviews of four departments confirm progress achieved on action items and development of individual department members as agents of change. The PULSE Ambassadors program continues to engage departments to improve undergraduate STEM education and prepare departments for the challenges and uncertainties of the changing higher education landscape.

Open Resources for Biology Education (ORBE): a resource collection.

In undergraduate life sciences education, open educational resources (OERs) increase accessibility and retention for students, reduce costs, and save instructors time and effort. Despite increasing awareness and utilization of these resources, OERs are not centrally located, and many undergraduate instructors describe challenges in locating relevant materials for use in their classes. To address this challenge, we have designed a resource collection (referred to as Open Resources for Biology Education, ORBE) with 89 unique resources that are primarily relevant to undergraduate life sciences education. To identify the resources in ORBE, we asked undergraduate life sciences instructors to list what OERs they use in their teaching and curated their responses. Here, we summarize the contents of the ORBE and describe how educators can use this resource as a tool to identify suitable materials to use in their classroom context. By highlighting the breadth of unique resources openly available for undergraduate biology education, we intend for the ORBE to increase instructors' awareness and use of OERs.

Examining Motivational Attitudes Toward Statistics and Their Relationship to Performance in Life Science Students

A strong foundation of statistics is essential for undergraduates pursuing life science careers, but this foundation is frequently undermined by negative student attitudes toward statistics. This study explored life science students’ motivational attitudes toward statistics, and their relationship to performance, using expectancy-value theory as a guiding framework. According to expectancy-value theory, task-values—interest in a task (intrinsic value), importance of doing well on a task (attainment value), perceptions of the usefulness of a task (utility value), and negative aspects of engaging in a task (cost)—impact achievement outcomes. However, task-values may be better represented by differentiating each into more specific underlying dimensions, or facets. Using 360 undergraduate life science students enrolled in biostatistics courses across two institutions, this study assessed the fit of a task-value facets model for statistics and examined which task-value facets relate to performance on a statistics assessment. Results show that life science students distinguish among facets of attainment value (importance of achievement, personal importance), utility value (school, daily life, social, career/job), and cost (effort, emotional, opportunity) for statistics. Students’ perceptions of the emotional cost of statistics and the importance of achievement in statistics related to their statistics performance. Implications for teaching and research are discussed. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.

Connecting plant science education in undergraduate life science courses to plant awareness disparity, Vision and Change, and sustainability careers

ABSTRACT Ensuring that botany and plant sciences are being included in undergraduate life science curricula is necessary for developing a future global sustainability workforce. To gain a baseline understanding, we surveyed life science educators in the U.S. about current botanical education. We further evaluated these data to determine connections to the frameworks of plant awareness disparity (PAD), a framework detailing the inability to notice or appreciate the plants in one’s own environment, and Vision and Change, an educational framework in the U.S. for preparing undergraduate biology students for the 21st century. Results from 245 responses revealed that most instructors use botanical examples and implement diverse hands-on botanical experiences. Our data suggest that hands-on botanical experiences are better suited to address PAD, the more science practice-centred framework, while plant examples are better suited to increase the understanding of core concepts of Vision and Change, the more concept-centred framework. We recommend that life science educators should 1) remain diligent in providing plant examples and hands-on botanical experiences in large introductory courses, 2) incorporate more botany education in general education courses (not required by the major but required by the institutions) and non-major courses, and 3) include educators outside of botany in these efforts.

Perspectives from Undergraduate Life Sciences Faculty: Are We Equipped to Effectively Accommodate Students With Disabilities in Our Classrooms?

Higher education has evolved in ways that may increase the challenges life science faculty face in providing accommodations for students with disabilities. Guided by Expectancy-Value Theory, we interviewed 34 life sciences faculty instructors from institutions nationwide to explore faculty motivation to create disability-inclusive educational experiences. We found that faculty in our sample perceive that providing most standard accommodations is a manageable but often challenging task. Further, faculty in our sample feel that improving accommodations necessitates additional support from their institutions. Most faculty had high attainment value for providing accommodations, in that they strongly believed that supporting students with disabilities is the fair and right thing to do. However, faculty did not perceive much utility value or intrinsic value in their task of providing accommodations, and most reported that providing accommodations can be a substantial burden on faculty. These findings imply that current approaches to providing inclusive educational experiences for students with disabilities rely primarily on the personal belief that providing accommodations is the right thing to do, which likely results in a flawed and inequitable system given that not all faculty equally share this conviction.

The combined effects of physical and virtual models in learning cellular biology

Physical models have long been used in science education for visualization of complex cellular structure and dynamics during face-to-face lecture (F2F). Recent advancement of technology has enabled us to create virtual models and to share knowledge remotely. This study aims to find out whether physical and virtual models work synergistically to enhance student engagement in learning an undergraduate Life Sciences module. Three independent experiments were conducted to assess learning effectiveness on three biology concepts through four learning approaches: video with virtual model only, video with integration of virtual and physical model demonstration, F2F lecture using virtual model only, F2F lecture using virtual and physical models. Participants were randomly assigned to different groups each with one learning approach. Data collected through pre- and post-tests revealed that significant improvement in learning scientific concepts occurred in one of three controlled experiments when the video contains both virtual and physical models, while no obvious difference found in the other two experiments. This data suggests that well-prepared digital media alone may convey scientific information well and additional physical models do not aid in information acquisition. However, feedback survey on student learning experience showed that all participants preferred to learn from physical models. In all three experiments, students consistently voted that the physical models attracted their attention and enhanced their interests. They made better mind maps and raised more questions. These hint that a combination of digital media with physical models might improve engagement and promote higher order thinking.

Diversifying laboratory assessment modes broadens engagement with practical competencies in life science students.

Laboratory practicals in life science subjects are traditionally assessed by written reports that reflect disciplinary norms for documenting experimental activities. However, the exclusive application of this assessment has the potential to engage only a narrow range of competencies. In this study, we explored how multiple modes of laboratory assessment might affect student perceptions of learned skills in a life science module. We hypothesized that while a mixture of assessments may not impact student summative performance, it might positively influence student perceptions of different skills that varied assessments allowed them to practice. This was informed by universal design for learning and teaching for understanding frameworks. In our study, in a third-year Bioscience program, written reports were complemented with group presentations and online quizzes via Moodle. Anonymous surveys evaluated whether this expanded portfolio of assessments promoted awareness of, and engagement with, a broader range of practical competencies. Aspects that influenced student preferences in assessment mode included time limitations, time investment, ability to practice new skills, links with lecture material, and experience of assessment anxiety. In particular, presentations were highlighted as promoting collaboration and communication and the quiz as an effective means of diversifying assessment schedules. A key takeaway from students was that while reports were important, an overreliance on them was detrimental. This study suggests that undergraduate life science students can benefit significantly from a holistic assessment strategy that complements reports with performance-based approaches that incorporate broader competencies and allow for greater student engagement and expression in undergraduate modules.NEW & NOTEWORTHY This study suggests that undergraduate life science students can benefit significantly from a holistic assessment strategy that complements reports with performance-based approaches that incorporate broader competencies and allow for greater student engagement and expression in undergraduate modules.

The Visual Science Communication Toolkit: Responding to the Need for Visual Science Communication Training in Undergraduate Life Sciences Education

Visual representations are essential to scientific research and teaching, playing a role in conceptual understanding, knowledge generation, and the communication of discovery and change. Undergraduate students are expected to interpret, use, and create visual representations so they can make their thinking explicit when engaging in discourse with the scientific community. Despite the importance of visualization in the biosciences, students often learn visualization skills in an ad hoc fashion without a clear framework. We used a mixed-methods sequential explanatory study design to explore and assess the pedagogical needs of undergraduate biology students (n = 53), instructors (n = 13), and teaching assistants (n = 8) in visual science communication education. Key themes were identified using inductive grounded theory methods. We found that extrinsic motivations, namely time, financial resources, and grading practices, contribute to a lack of guidance, support, and structure as well as ambiguous expectations and standards perceived by students and instructors. Biology and science visualization instructors cite visual communication assessments as a way of developing and evaluating students’ higher-order thinking skills in addition to their communication competencies. An output of this research, the development of a learning module, the Visual Science Communication Toolkit, is discussed along with design considerations for developing resources for visual science communication education.

Gender, Equity, and Science Writing: Examining Differences in Undergraduate Life Science Majors’ Attitudes toward Writing Lab Reports

It is often causally generalized that females naturally excel more at writing than males. Contrastingly, modern conventional wisdom similarly purports that males often innately excel more at science. True or not, both generalizations overlook important gender differences at the intersection of writing in science. This quantitative study investigates undergraduate life science majors’ attitudes to and perceptions of writing lab reports for 294 students who self-identify as either female or male. We used exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to develop a three-factor scale and provide reliability and validity on several related constructs: confidence, sense of belonging, and persistence as a life science major. Our results indicate males self-report as being significantly more confident at writing lab reports (F (1, 292) = 186.08, p < 0.05) than females. With regard to writing lab reports, no significant differences were found between genders in the constructs of belongingness (F (1, 292) = 1.64, p = 0.20) and persistence as a life science major (F (1, 292) = 0.66, p = 0.42). Understanding attitudes and perceptions toward writing lab reports through an equity lens provides information to help science majors be successful. Our findings add to the literature on gender, equity, and science writing, motivating further exploration into underlying malleable cognitive mechanisms.

Relation of life sciences students’ metacognitive monitoring to neural activity during biology error detection

Metacognitive calibration—the capacity to accurately self-assess one’s performance—forms the basis for error detection and self-monitoring and is a potential catalyst for conceptual change. Limited brain imaging research on authentic learning tasks implicates the lateral prefrontal and anterior cingulate brain regions in expert scientific reasoning. This study aimed to determine how variation in undergraduate life sciences students’ metacognitive calibration relates to their brain activity when evaluating the accuracy of biological models. Fifty undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory life sciences course completed a biology model error detection task during fMRI. Students with higher metacognitive calibration recruited lateral prefrontal regions linked in prior research to expert STEM reasoning to a greater extent than those with lower metacognitive calibration. Findings suggest that metacognition relates to important individual differences in undergraduate students’ use of neural resources during an authentic educational task and underscore the importance of fostering metacognitive calibration in the classroom.

Seeing Eye to Eye? Comparing Faculty and Student Perceptions of Biomolecular Visualization Assessments

While visual literacy has been identified as a foundational skill in life science education, there are many challenges in teaching and assessing biomolecular visualization skills. Among these are the lack of consensus about what constitutes competence and limited understanding of student and instructor perceptions of visual literacy tasks. In this study, we administered a set of biomolecular visualization assessments, developed as part of the BioMolViz project, to both students and instructors at multiple institutions and compared their perceptions of task difficulty. We then analyzed our findings using a mixed-methods approach. Quantitative analysis was used to answer the following research questions: (1) Which assessment items exhibit statistically significant disparities or agreements in perceptions of difficulty between instructors and students? (2) Do these perceptions persist when controlling for race/ethnicity and gender? and (3) How does student perception of difficulty relate to performance? Qualitative analysis of open-ended comments was used to identify predominant themes related to visual problem solving. The results show that perceptions of difficulty significantly differ between students and instructors and that students’ performance is a significant predictor of their perception of difficulty. Overall, this study underscores the need to incorporate deliberate instruction in visualization into undergraduate life science curricula to improve student ability in this area. Accordingly, we offer recommendations to promote visual literacy skills in the classroom.

Revisiting barriers to implementation of bioinformatics into life sciences education

IntroductionBioinformatics is an interdisciplinary field at the intersection of computational and biological sciences that focuses on the analysis and interpretation of large biological data sets. Although recognized as essential in the life sciences, bioinformatics is not commonly integrated in undergraduate life science education programs. Based on a national survey in 2016, the Network for Integrating Bioinformatics into Life Sciences Education (NIBLSE) published a community-sourced set of core competencies in bioinformatics education. The survey also identified barriers that prevent incorporation of these competencies into the curriculum. In the current study, the NIBLSE group reports the findings of a new survey to 509 life science educators across the US in 2022 to identify current barriers of bioinformatics integration and to determine if the landscape of bioinformatics education has changed since the 2016 survey.ResultsSimilar to previous results, a majority of respondents who currently teach bioinformatics or plan to teach bioinformatics report barriers. The top two barriers reported are students lacking prerequisite skills/knowledge and instructors lacking time to restructure course content. As in 2016, women reported experiencing barriers to bioinformatics teaching significantly more often than men; faculty from underrepresented minority backgrounds reported barriers more often than non-URM faculty; and educators at minority-serving institutions (MSIs) reported barriers more frequently than colleagues at non-MSIs. For additional insight into the barriers facing these educators, we conducted focus groups which provided qualitative data that supported the survey findings and revealed common themes including faculty perceptions of the relevance of bioinformatics in the curriculum. Despite the perceived value of bioinformatics education, many focus group members cited lack of student preparation and interest, and technological access as barriers. Participants also discussed how professional development and community support would enhance and sustain bioinformatics teaching.DiscussionTaken all together, this study indicates that challenges remain, which vary among faculty types and settings, but that more educators are attempting to integrate bioinformatics into life sciences education. In summary, our results suggest that redoubled efforts to provide training and community support to life sciences faculty is necessary.

Using an Escape Room activity to Enhance the Motivation of Undergraduate Life Science Students in Mathematics Classes - A Case Study

Mathematics is one of the school subjects where demotivation, dislike and failure are frequent concerns. To address this, it is important to actively engage students in the classroom and employ resources that make math classes more appealing and captivating, leading to meaningful learning experiences.
 Active, cooperative, and participative learning methods should be prioritized over traditional didactic teaching and the mere transmission of knowledge. Active learning methods offer alternative approaches to the conventional lecture format, actively involving students in the learning process. The concept of an escape room, a gaming experience where participants must solve challenges to escape from a locked room, has gained popularity in educational contexts. The educational escape room is an extension of this concept, aiming to promote real-time problem-solving, teamwork, and discovery of clues and mysteries to facilitate active learning. By engaging in various tasks within a room, students work together in teams, fostering an active learning environment. The educational escape room offers several benefits, including the enhancement of problem-solving skills, student performance, and motivation. By incorporating gamification strategies into teaching and learning processes, this approach proves to be an effective way of promoting active learning in mathematics.
 In this paper, we present a case study that explores the use of an educational escape room with first-year undergraduate students from a Portuguese higher education institution, with the goal of improving their mathematical problem-solving skills. The study aims to evaluate how escape rooms can contribute to increased student motivation.
 To assess the perception of students regarding this escape room methodology, a quantitative survey was conducted. The findings indicate that using the escape room as an educational approach effectively increased student interest and improved learning outcomes in mathematics.

Building Undergraduate Life Science Research Skills Remotely, During and Beyond a Pandemic

Building Undergraduate Life Science Research Skills Remotely, During and Beyond a Pandemic

Impact of COVID- 19 Pandemic on Undergraduate Life Science Teaching-Learning: A Gender- Based Qualitative Student Survey

A qualitative survey was carried out on undergraduate students of Life Sciences (viz. Botany, Zoology, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Environmental Science) of different colleges of Kolkata metropolis to study the impact of COVID-19 on the teaching-learning of Life Science. The gender-based survey revealed that lady students are more sensitive to environmental challenges and crises than men. They adapted to online teaching-learning of Life Science, comprehended and understood the theoretical matter better than their male counterparts and did their best to connect with the surrounding natural environment. The results of this study might provide useful guidelines and information for framing future teaching-learning strategies in Life science.

Decomposing trait and state variability in general and specific subjective task value beliefs

Expectancy-value researchers have theorized about the extent to which subjective task value components are more trait-like or more state-like. Using a bifactor representation of subjective task value data, the current study aimed to examine the degree of trait-state variation in general subjective task value, specific attainment value, specific intrinsic value, and specific utility value. The relations of both between and within components of the subjective task value constructs with academic self-efficacy beliefs were also examined. Results indicate that, in an undergraduate life science learning context (n = 169), the general subjective task value factor was the most trait-like of the subjective task value constructs. With respect to specific value beliefs, attainment value was composed of nearly equal amounts of trait and state variation, intrinsic value was composed of the largest amount of trait variation, and utility value exhibited the most state-like variation. Additionally, findings suggest that trait-like and state-like general subjective task value, trait-like specific intrinsic value, and state-like attainment value were positively associated with self-efficacy. Finally, we propose a model of trait- state dynamics in subjective task value.

The PULSE Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Rubric: a Tool To Help Assess Departmental DEI Efforts.

In an attempt to redesign science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) departments to be more inclusive of all student populations, institutions of higher learning are reviewing their programs, policies, and the ways they engage students. The Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Education (PULSE) has been working with STEM departments over the past 10 years to improve the student experience by incorporating evidence-based teaching practices and creating curricula with a deeper focus on conceptual understanding of scientific principles, competencies, and the process of science. PULSE created the PULSE rubrics, a set of five rubrics designed to assist life sciences departments in assessing their implementation of the recommendations of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Vision and Change report in the areas of curriculum, assessment, faculty practice and faculty support, infrastructure, and climate for change. An additional rubric, on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), is described in this paper. Each of the 13 criteria of the PULSE DEI rubric begins with a context section of background information with references and a scale of 0 to 4 (baseline to exemplar) with descriptors for each score. The PULSE DEI rubric has been added to allow departments to determine the starting point for their DEI work and reveal areas that require attention. All PULSE rubrics can be accessed from the PULSE Community website (https://www.pulse-community.org/rubrics).

Empowering faculty to initiate STEM education transformation: Efficacy of a systems thinking approach

Just a decade ago Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action was released, catalyzing several initiatives to transform undergraduate life sciences education. Among these was the Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Education (PULSE), a national organization commissioned to increase the adoption of Vision and Change recommendations within academic life sciences departments. PULSE activities have been designed based on the recognition that life sciences departments and faculty are embedded within institutions of higher education which, similar to other large organizations, are complex systems composed of multiple, interconnected subsystems. The organizational change research suggests that effecting large-scale changes (e.g., undergraduate STEM education transformation) may be facilitated by applying systems thinking to change efforts. In this paper we introduce the approach of systems thinking as a professional development tool to empower individual STEM faculty to effect department-level transformation. We briefly describe a professional development experience designed to increase life sciences faculty members’ understanding of systems thinking, present evidence that faculty applied a systems thinking approach to initiate department-level change, and discuss the degree to which transformation efforts were perceived to be successful. Though focused on faculty in the life sciences, our findings are broadly transferable to other efforts seeking to effect change in undergraduate STEM education.

The CRISPR in the Classroom Network: A Support System for Instructors to Bring Gene Editing Technology to the Undergraduate Classroom

CRISPR‐Cas9 based gene manipulation technology represents a once‐in‐a‐generation advance in molecular biology that has become a mainstream technique in research. However, as is often the case with a new technology, most undergraduate instructors do not have the training or support to bring CRISPR‐Cas9 technology into their curricula. To remedy this, we have established a “CRISPR in the Classroom” network of undergraduate instructors prepared to disseminate CRISPR‐Cas9 curricular and laboratory modules to undergraduates (NSF RCN‐UBE #2120417). The main objective of this network is to facilitate a series of workshops and mentoring activities designed to provide instructors, postdocs, and graduate students the skills, support, and confidence needed to introduce and implement CRISPR‐Cas9‐based modules in undergraduate classrooms. These workshops a provide flexible, easily adapted curriculum and mentoring to instructors as well as start‐up kits to overcome the hurdles associated with learning and testing new curriculum in class. By doing this, we hope to develop both a national support system for biology educators of two‐year and four‐year undergraduate degree granting institutions dedicated to spreading effective curricular modules for the classroom and laboratory activities centered on experiential‐based work with CRISPR‐Cas9 as well as an online repository of proven CRISPR‐Cas9‐based modules across a variety of model systems for instructors with “ready‐to‐use” curricular elements to adapt for their own specific pedagogical needs using the NSF‐supported QUBES platform. Assessment data from a previous online workshop as well as two NSF‐sponsored previous in‐person workshops (Awards #1823595 and 1916486) taken several weeks after their completion suggest that the majority of workshop participants develop the skills and confidence necessary to make concrete plans to implement CRISPR‐Cas9 modules into their classes within one year of the workshop. The CRISPR in the Classroom Network represents a dynamic community of practice dedicated to providing undergraduate life science instructors with the tools and support needed to introduce this technology into their curricula.

Examining the role of self-efficacy and online metacognitive monitoring behaviors in undergraduate life science education

In STEM education, a thorough understanding of the interaction of self-efficacy and metacognitive monitoring behaviors is needed to refine theories and inform the design of instructional supports for students with varying levels of motivation and self-regulation skills. We examined how students' (n = 1063) exam scores in an undergraduate life science course were influenced by their self-efficacy and online metacognitive monitoring behaviors by integrating variable-centered and person-centered approaches. In a semester-long study, students' self-efficacy judgements made at the end of the semester were stronger predictors of students' final exam performance than those made at the beginning of the semester. Results further suggested that the influence of self-efficacy on exam scores decreased as online monitoring behaviors increased. Students’ prior GPA predicted membership in three latent profiles indicated by 1) high self-efficacy with high metacognitive monitoring activity; 2) high self-efficacy with low metacognitive monitoring activity; and 3) low self-efficacy with low metacognitive monitoring activity. Learners with high self-efficacy and high monitoring activity outperformed those with high self-efficacy and low monitoring, who outperformed those with low self-efficacy and low monitoring on exams.