2025 NABT Biology Education Research Symposium

Friday, October 31, in St. Louis, Missouri

Presentations for the 17th Annual NABT Biology Education Research Symposium were accepted through a double-blind peer-review process that was open to biology educators and researchers at all levels. The NABT Four-Year University & College Section Research Committee Co-Chairs were Ben England, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO,  Jeff Grim, University of Tampa, Tampa, FL,  Jenn Idema, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, Melanie Lenahen, Raritan Valley Community College,  Branchburg, NJ, Ashli Wright, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH.

We extend a special thank you to our reviewers for their time and detailed feedback.

2025 Presentations

Implementing HyFlex in Team-Based Learning: A Case Study in Undergraduate Biology

Dr. Andrea Bierema, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI

ABSTRACT: This study examines student participation behavior in a large, team-based undergraduate biology course that used a bounded HyFlex policy. Students were allowed to miss up to three in-person class sessions and complete asynchronous makeup activities to earn participation credit. The course emphasized teamwork, with permanent six-person teams engaging in case studies and debates during weekly class meetings. Makeup activities paralleled in-class work and were completed individually. The study explored how often students used the asynchronous option, whether their collaboration attitudes (initial project preferences and end-of-semester team satisfaction) influenced usage, and whether attendance patterns varied over time. Participation data, collaboration indicators, and team satisfaction scores were analyzed descriptively and with chi-square tests. Most students (86%) stayed within the three-makeup limit, and nearly all made up any missed sessions. Neither collaboration preferences nor team satisfaction were significantly associated with asynchronous participation. Absences tended to cluster around calendar events such as spring break and holidays. 

This case illustrates how a bounded HyFlex structure can provide students with meaningful flexibility while supporting consistent participation, even in large, team-based courses, by balancing structured choice, accountability, and workload considerations.

Science Talk in the Southeast: Investigating Undergraduates Interpersonal Science Communication Value and Self-Efficacy

Dr. Erin Rowland-Schaefer, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN and M. Elizabeth Barnes, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN

ABSTRACT: Effective science communication is critical for bridging divides in society about culturally controversial science topics (CCSTs) like climate change and vaccines and is recommended as a core skill in undergraduate science curricula. Since the diversity of undergraduate students exceeds that of scientists, they may have greater potential to span boundaries between their communities and science through conversations. Although students are already attempting boundary spanning, we lack information about the extent to which students value communication about CCSTs and feel they can have effective conversations. Further, we know little about how students’ social identities such as political and religious affiliation or factors such as their major may influence these perceptions. We administered an exploratory survey to 867 students at a university in the southeastern United States, where disagreement with experts about CCSTs is prevalent among the public, to assess students’ value and self-efficacy for communication. We found that non-majors and conservative students perceived less communication value overall, and liberal students perceived lower self-efficacy for emotional regulation. This exploratory study highlights points of tension that future research can address between undergraduate biology students and effective interpersonal communication about CCSTs.

Modeling Systems in Biology: Exploring Student Conceptualization of Gene Expression and Natural Selection

Dr. Elena Bray Speth and Faryal Hashmi, Saint Louis  University, St. Louis, MO, Daniel Ferguson and Jenni Momsen, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, Samuel Montgomery, Elon University, Elon, NC

ABSTRACT: National guidelines for science education at the K-12 and college levels identified systems as a core concept, and modeling as a core competency, for biology education. Compared to other concepts and practices, however, systems and models have been studied, so far, relatively less, particularly at the college level. Our research seeks to bridge this gap by developing curriculum and instruction that center systems and systems thinking in the undergraduate biology classroom. Conceptual model-building, an integral component of our instructional approach, supports student reasoning and learning about complex biological systems, while also generating important evidence of how learners construct and represent their knowledge and develop systems thinking skills. 

We present two studies, conducted at different institutions, illustrating, respectively: (1) how students’ conceptual models of gene expression change over a short period of time while students are learning about the central dogma of molecular genetics, and (2) how students connect the central dogma to the process of natural selection in introductory biology and, one year later, in a 300-level evolution course. Our findings contribute to the biology education community’s pedagogical knowledge about how to incorporate systems and models in the biology classroom.

Exploring the Capital Low-Income Students Use to Navigate Barrioers in Undergaduate Research Experiences

Dr. Emma Goodwin, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, Sara Brownell, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ

ABSTRACT: Participation in undergraduate research experiences is demonstrably a positive and influential experience for many science majors. However, the structure of undergraduate research experiences as a historically unpaid and extracurricular activity may challenge participation of students who have greater financial need. Through an interview study with 22 students recruited from universities across the United States, we explore how low-income students use the social capital developed through their background-specific experiences to navigate barriers and participate in undergraduate research experiences. In our study, low-income students described how they often have less time and resources to participate in research due to increased family or employment responsibilities, may experience housing or food insecurity, need to commute to research sites from areas with more affordable housing, and lack discretionary income to cover any unexpected costs of participating in their research experience. Guided by Yosso’s theory of Community Cultural Wealth, we explore how these experiences both pose barriers and bolster student’s capacity to persist and excel in undergraduate research experiences. This work expands awareness of the ways that traditional mentored undergraduate research experiences may systematically disadvantage low-income students and highlights what universities and research mentors can do to support equitable research participation for low-income students.

Special Guest Presenter: Cynthia Brame, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, Recipient of the 2025 NABT Four-Year College Section Research in Biology Education Award

Maximizing the value of learning assistants for students’ belonging, mattering, and confidence in gateway STEM courses.

Abstract: STUDY CONTEXT: Learning Assistants (LAs), undergraduates who facilitate active learning, can reduce psychosocial barriers in gateway science courses and increase student belonging and confidence through mechanisms that align with Dewsbury’s Deep Teaching model (Barrasso & Spilios, 2021; Clements et al., 2025, 2023, 2022; Dewsbury & Brame, 2019; Dewsbury, 2020). However, prior work has not investigated how LA impact varies among demographic groups.

STUDY DESIGN: We investigated how LA integration impacts belonging, confidence, and a previously uninvestigated concept, mattering, for students from different demographic groups. Group interviews with 33 students from LA-supported introductory biology and general chemistry courses were transcribed, coded, and compared to identify factors that were similar and different for students from different demographic groups.

ANALYSES AND INTERPRETATIONS: Inductive analysis of the group interviews identified six narratives describing students’ experiences with course structures, people, and personal connections. Underrepresented racial/ethnic (UR) and first-generation (FG) students said that active and collaborative learning had multiple benefits, while these benefits were inconsistent for well-represented, continuing-generation (WRCG) women and unmentioned by WRGC men. All groups described instructor interactions as helpful, but UR and FG students highlighted instructors’ importance in establishing course climate. Students also described differences in shared identities: sharing academic identities with LAs was important for all groups, but shared gender and racial/ethnic identities had greater salience for UR and FG students.