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We congratulate the 2023 NABT Teaching Award Recipients and are honored to recognize their achievements.
Nina was raised in Santa Barbara, CA. As an undergraduate at the University of California, San Diego, she studied Biology with an emphasis on Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution. During this time she participated in research studying salt marsh restoration and aerial insect biodiversity. As a teaching assistant, Nina discovered her passion for science education. This led her to an internship at Project Wildlife, where she developed NGSS-aligned lessons on native species. After graduating, she joined Teach for America and earned her teaching credential and master’s degree in education from Loyola Marymount University. Her thesis was a qualitative study to assess factors underlying the disparity in girls’ interest in STEM, including what variables specifically contribute to confidence in STEM within underserved communities. For the past nine years, she has taught high school Environmental Science, Biology, and Chemistry in South Central Los Angeles. She currently leads the science department and coaches developing teachers. In 2022 she began graduate school at the University of California, Irvine, and is working on completing a Master’s in Conservation and Restoration Science. Nina is passionate about increasing access for underrepresented groups in Ecology through education and believes that science outreach is critical to mitigating the impacts of current and future global change.
Personal Statement:
Since 2014, I have had the opportunity to teach high school science at Renee and Meyer Luskin Academy. But whether I was introducing the topic of invasive species in Biology, or ocean acidification in Environmental Science, it is necessary to recognize that our students will be tasked with developing solutions to these human-caused crises. Especially important to me is increasing access for students in communities that are disproportionately affected by environmental degradation and climate change. As a teacher working for an underserved community, it is my belief that all students inherently want to learn and deserve access to a rigorous and relevant education. In science education, there is a unique opportunity to engage students in scientific phenomena and the questions they generate around their real-world experiences. It is my belief that through the design of student-driven and hands-on learning experiences, I can help inspire the next generation of environmental stewards.
East Palestine High School, Columbiana, OH
Dr. Lisa Bircher taught science at East Palestine Schools in East Palestine, Ohio for thirty years. Although Lisa is most comfortable teaching high school biology and anatomy/physiology; she has also taught Physical Science, Environmental Science, Oceanography and seventh grade life science, over the course of her career. Lisa has been recognized by Kappa Delta Pi as both a Teacher of Honor, and Master Teacher of Honor recipient. She has also been recognized as Presidential Innovation Award for Environmental Educators for EPA Region 5. Lisa holds a Ph.D. from Kent State University in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in science education. Lisa believes one of the most important contributions she has made to teaching was the creation of a high school science club, and outdoor classroom for East Palestine Schools, intended to be used by all staff, students, and the community for outdoor exploration and education. Lisa also enjoys paper crafting, diamond painting, sewing, and mixed media painting in her spare time. Lisa always enjoys opportunities to write creatively, and is presently working on her memoirs of thirty years teaching science.
Personal Statement:
Dr. Bircher believes that all students learn best when they are actively engaged in real-world learning opportunities. Whether these opportunities are lab-based, project-based, or service-learning oriented, she feels all students deserve to be involved in experiences that expand beyond the classroom. She believes learning science is a lot like learning a new language, and the learner must use science in their life experience to become truly proficient. Science can, and should include outdoor learning opportunities and projects that span time, space, as well cut across traditional curriculum boundaries. She believes science is one of the most important ways of knowing the world in the 21st century, and therefore, all creative opportunities should be embraced in teaching and learning science. In an effort to create scientifically literate citizens, she has helped students engage in numerous project and citizen science efforts. In the pursuit of these goals, Dr. Bircher has earned numerous grants to fund these projects, and has also written several articles for National Science Teachers Association in an effort to educate other teachers about how it is possible to reach students with these opportunities.
Troy High School, Troy, MI
Rebecca Brewer has taught biology at Troy High School in Michigan for 23 years and co-authored a biology textbook called Biology Now. She has created educational resources for Science Friday, PBS NewsHour, the Curie Society, the Fred Hutch Cancer Center, BSCS, the Centers for Disease Control, NSTA, MiniOne Systems, and the National Center for Science Education (NCSE). The snake speciation storyline she authored for NCSE was featured at the NABT Evolution Symposium in Atlanta in 2021 and virtually at the NABT Darwin Day Webinar in 2022. This past July, Rebecca co-hosted a one-day workshop for 30 Michigan teachers featuring the NCSE snake speciation storyline, and thanks to a grant from the Society for the Study of Evolution, was able to provide the teachers with kits to bring this resource back to their classrooms.
Rebecca is a Teacher Ambassador for the Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science (TIES), NCSE, and Concord Consortium, along with a Teacher Consultant for MiniOne Systems where she trains teachers on their equipment at CollegeBoard AP Biology Summer Institutes. She worked with Concord Consortium and Michigan State University on a 4-year NSF grant to develop the ConnectedBio simulation on deer mice evolution. Her freshmen students have piloted the EvolvingSTEM curriculum, allowing them to witness bacteria evolve in under a week. While her AP Biology students have worked with yEvo to observe yeast evolve tolerance to caffeine, with the results of this 5-week research study being published soon.
Rebecca serves as the Michigan Director for the NABT Outstanding Biology Teacher Award Program and was herself an honoree in 2008. She has received over 40 educational grants, most notably $27,000 for her classroom as the 2011 first-place winner of the ING (Voya) Unsung Hero Award.
Personal Statement:
Evolution is the foundation of biology and spans all the units of my biology courses. An ongoing driving question my classes revisit is "How is life so diverse, yet so similar?". To tackle this query, students conduct scientific investigations that examine authentic data, argue from evidence, connect concepts within and between units, and present what they uncover through model construction. The ultimate goal is to shift instruction to a deeper analysis of biological concepts and facilitate student discourse to guide their sensemaking and learning progression.
Walters State Community College, Morristown, TN
Dr. Kelly Moore is an Associate Professor of Biology at Walters State Community College (WSCC), where she teaches Biology courses for non-majors, science majors, and pre-education majors. She serves as internship coordinator for biology majors and is co-advisor of the college’s BioClub. She holds both associate and bachelor's degrees in biology, a master’s degree in environmental health, and a doctorate degree in educational leadership. She is also a certified master herpetologist and is currently working on a certification in Spanish. She serves as the District VI Director of National Science Teaching Association, the District IV Representative of Tennessee Science Teachers Association, and is Co-Vice President of Tennessee Association of Biology Teachers. When she isn’t in the college classroom, she is designing and implementing science programs for students and teachers in preK-8 in the WSCC service area and beyond. These include teaching Kids College programs, Science and Math camps, talented and gifted programs, and leading teacher workshops. In 2018, she became very involved with the Hispanic population in eastern Tennessee after realizing this population was in need of more assistance and resources. She became a STEM Specialist and Faculty Mentor for WSCC’s Recruiting Hispanics to Achieve program. This led to creating, implementing, and assisting with community outreach, STREAM camps, bilingual campus visits, bilingual resources, etc. Her goal is to help increase the number of Hispanic students in STEM fields by create a STEM pipeline for Hispanic students beginning in elementary school and continuing through post-secondary.
Personal Statement:
My science teaching philosophy starts with an Albert Einstein quote. “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” Every student is distinctive, and every student learns in a different way. Each student has unlimited potential, and it is my job to find a way to teach them biology in way that helps unlock a portion of that potential. In order to this, I rely on three basic keys to success.
The first key is relationship building. It is very important to me that students see me as someone who is on their team and someone who is cheering them on from the sidelines. This is very important in a community college setting because we are dealing with students who are generally non-academically prepared, first-generation, and are from underserved areas who are very likely to dropout. Having that one person to stand for them can make all the difference.
The second key is teaching style. Science teaching is no longer about standing in front of a group of students with a PowerPoint presentation and lecturing to them for hours at a time. Today’s generation of community college students have been immersed in technology since birth. As a teacher this has to play a role in my teaching. Being an effective science teacher in today’s society involves not only inquiry-based learning, but also engaging hands-on activities, and the incorporation of technology. I try to reach as many learning styles as possible with each topic covered. This includes incorporating videos, AR/VR, manipulatives, and games. This is especially effective when teaching non-science major students, who enter the biology classroom with a fixed mindset that they hate science and are going to fail.
The last key to success is having a passion for teaching biology and the sharing of that passion with students. I love walking in the classroom each day and finding ways to show my students how cool biology really is. My enthusiasm is contagious. My goal is for those science haters to leave my classroom with the acknowledgment that science is actually quite awesome.
Walters State Community College, Morristown, TN
Elesha Goodfriend is an Associate Professor of Biology at Walters State Community College. She has a BS in Secondary Biology Education from Morehead State University (KY) and an MS in Biological Oceanography from Florida Institute of Technology (FL). She is currently completing her EdD in Educational Leadership at East Tennessee State University (TN). Elesha is the Co-Vice President of the Tennessee chapter of NABT. At WSCC, she teaches non-biology majors’ courses, biology majors’ courses, and pre-service teachers biology courses. She has been activity involved in creating and delivering engaging science content to preK-college students. She has also co-created and lead teacher workshops for preK-16 teachers throughout the state of TN. She believes that science learning is an active process and incorporates numerous types of interactive, hands-on activities to her students to help them grasp difficult concepts and enjoy learning. She feels that ALL students deserve the opportunity to succeed in life and should be afforded the tools to achieve this success. She had become actively involved in the Hispanic outreach organizations at both WSCC and the community wherein she resides, promoting STEM education in students from elementary ages through college. She and a colleague are very active advocates for this population. They have designed and implemented outreach nights to bring Hispanic families to Walters State and form relationships with them, making them more at ease when contemplating college choices for themselves and/or their children. They have also participated in multiple conferences, presenting ideas to aid minority groups in different areas.
Personal Statement:
In 1979, an educational researcher by the name of Ron Edmonds set a new precedence for education by saying “We can, whenever and wherever we choose, successfully teach all children whose schooling is of interest to us.” While understanding that there will be struggles and a tremendous amount of hard work, I believe his ideals to be true. When we are passionate about something, we, as educators, make it our mission to pass our knowledge on and interest others.
I do feel as though every student can learn. The key is to find something in your topic that appeals to/relates that topic to the student. Using multiple examples, different teaching strategies, and an enthusiasm for your subject matter tends to involve the students—making them more engaged, which is a component of the WSCC mission. If you, as the instructor, act as though it is a chore to impart your subject matter to the masses, the masses will respond in kind.
Educators must also be willing to adapt. We cannot follow the same patterns/format for every class. The education field is dynamic and exciting with the addition of technology to the classroom. This also helps with student engagement. Not all students will learn in the same manner. Therefore, the instructor must be able/willing to approach the subject matter from different angles.
Finally, I believe that the students must be held accountable for their own learning. Ultimately, the student is responsible for their own actions. However, the instructor should help to instill a desire to participate in and achieve student success.
The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL
bio and statement needed
University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA
Dr. Stanley Lo is a Teaching Professor (with tenure) of Cell and Developmental Biology and Affiliate Faculty in the Joint Doctoral Program in Mathematics and Science Education and the Research Ethics Program at University of California San Diego. Collaborative projects in his research group examine how faculty conceptions of diversity inform their instructional and mentoring practices, explore how student identities intersect with their experiences and learning, and develop and implement innovative programs to support student success. Dr. Lo earned his B.S. and M.S. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University and Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Harvard University. Before graduate school, he was a high school science instructor at Phillips Exeter Academy, where he first developed his interests in teaching and education research, and prior to moving to California, he was a Senior Research Associate in Learning Sciences at Searle Center for Advancing Learning and Teaching at Northwestern University. At UC San Diego, Dr. Lo developed and teaches a large introductory course-based undergraduate research experience on soil microbiomes for over 2,000 first-year undergraduates each year, a variety of courses that integrate topics of racism with genetics concepts, and graduate courses on learning theories and student identities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Dr. Lo was a National Academies Education Fellow in Life Sciences in 2011, National Academic Education Mentor in Life Sciences in 2012-2016, and President of the Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research in 2021-2022. He currently serves as an editor for CBE-Life Sciences Education and CourseSource.
Brown University, Providence, RI
Karla Kaun is an Associate Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Brown University. She is a behavioral neurogeneticist by training and is fascinated with the genetic, molecular and cellular mechanisms of memory and addiction. She developed and teaches Neurogenetics courses at Brown University and is passionate about incorporating approaches to increase interest and engagement in course material. Her research team investigates how alcohol and drugs of abuse influence the molecular mechanisms underlying memory formation to induce cravings. To investigate this her team uses a multidisciplinary approach combining behavior with in vivo imaging, genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry and bioinformatics in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. She has developed methods to make Drosophila neurogenetics research accessible for students of all ages and enjoys opportunities to engage in hands-on science into her local community. Karla is the 2023-24 president for the International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society, enjoys collaborating, and is an advocate for innovative teaching methods to decolonize STEM.
Neurogenetics is a very new field at the frontier of neuroscience that brings together geneticists and neuroscientists in pursuit of the common goal of understanding the nervous system. Through the two primary courses I developed and teach: Introduction to Neurogenetics, and Behavioral Neurogenetics Laboratory, I’ve created learning environments that develop both an appreciation for and the skillsets necessary to develop an in-depth knowledge of the field of Neurogenetics, and to understand and employ Neurogenetics research. My goal as a genetics educator is to inspire students with the desire, appreciation and ability to learn. I also believe it is important to rethink education to improve equity and inclusion, and I do so by incorporating creative and interdisciplinary experiential learning in my courses. Deeper Learning encompasses the ideology that students that are very engaged in a specific aspect of the course material think critically, collaborate, communicate effectively, direct their own learning, and believe in themselves. Introduction to Neurogenetics and Behavioral Neurogenetics Lab incorporate this philosophy by: 1) allowing students to choose a topic within the field of neurogenetics that engages them, and 2) using interactive learning techniques that involve class discussion and peer feedback. Through development of ideas, reiterative writing and sharing their projects, students gain an understanding of the central theories and methodologies of the field of neurogenetics, and gain an understanding that science is a continual process of investigation and interpretation. I’m grateful to my students and fellow educators for inspiring me to improve the ways I learn and teach.
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR
William F. McComas is the inaugural holder of the Parks Family Endowed Professorship in Science Education at the University of Arkansas following service as a secondary school biology teacher in suburban Philadelphia and professorship at the University of Southern California. He is interested in laboratory teaching, informal science learning, evolution education, science for gifted learners and the intersection of philosophy of science and science instruction. McComas has given more than 100 keynote speeches in the U.S. and a dozen other countries and writes frequently on a variety of science education topics. His book Nature of Science in Science Instruction: Rationales and Strategies (Springer, 2020) joins The Language of Science Education (Brill, 2014) and a pictorial account of The Scopes Monkey Trial (Acadia, 2016) co-written with Randy Moore. McComas has been the Editor of The American Biology Teacher for more than a decade. He has been honored by NABT, NSTA, NCSE and ASTE for work in evolution education, research in biology teaching, innovations in college science teaching and mentorship. He is president-elect of the Association for Science Teacher Education (ASTE). McComas was a Fulbright Fellow at Dublin City University, Ireland, is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Linnean Society (UK) and has been named a Distinguished Professor at the University of Arkansas. He is particularly proud of the students whose dissertations he chaired, fifteen of whom are now professors of science education.
Supported by NABT Member Donations
biography
Woodstock Academy, Woodstock, CT
Valerie received her undergraduate degree in biology from Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania, and a Master of Education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She began her teaching career twenty-six years ago at Walpole High School and spent the last 24 teaching at The Woodstock Academy in Woodstock, CT. The Woodstock Academy is an independent school in rural Connecticut that serves students from six small public school districts as well as boarding students from every corner of the globe. Valerie teaches various courses, including college prep Biology and AP Biology, and dual enrollment courses through the University of Connecticut in Biotechnology and Environmental Science. In addition to teaching, she is the advisor of the Woodstock Academy Medical Club and Science National Honor Society and serves on the Board of Trustees Academic Committee. In 2012, Valerie was a member of the NABT/BSCS AP Biology Teacher Academy. This pivotal opportunity started a parallel career in providing professional development experiences to fellow biology educators. Valerie has served as HHMI BioInteractive Ambassador since 2014. She has worked with teachers across the country through school partnership workshops, national science teachers’ conferences (NSTA & NABT), and online workshops provided by BioInteractive. It is an honor to be this year’s recipient of the Kim Foglia AP Biology Service Award. Kim Foglia selflessly shared her resources and had a strong influence on how I shaped my approach to teaching AP Biology. As for many others, she was a lifeline as I navigated the complexities of the course.
While my primary goal as a biology teacher is to guide my students to better understand the natural world, my ultimate goal is to prepare students for the world they will encounter outside my classroom and the challenges that will inevitably come their way. When facilitating professional development workshops for other biology teachers across the country or contributing to online communities of AP Biology teachers, I try to focus on building other teachers’ confidence to take on the work in a way that benefits students.
Glenbrook South High School, Park Ridge, IL
I graduated from North Park University with a bachelor's in Secondary Education and Biology. I started my teaching career as a part-time Biology and Chemistry teacher and Aide at Glenbrook South High School. After 2 years in district 225, I moved to Wheeling High School where I have been teaching for the last 3 school years in Freshman Biology, Honors Biology, and 10-12 Physical Science. I returned to North Park and this past spring, and graduated with my Masters in Education in Language, Literacy, and Culture in order to play more of a role in EL and Bilingual Science Education.
My journey in Biology education resonates with a strong desire to stimulate students and leave them with a long lasting understanding of Biology, Life Science, and Science-centered skills which could be carried with them beyond the classroom. This also means striving to create an environment where all students experience belonging, acceptance, and success in science. In my practice I am constantly seeking opportunities to involve students in the class room and in the process of their own learning through language, experience, and teamwork. When students come to Biology, the possibilities are endless. We become zoo keepers, geneticists, and marine biologists; while also embracing that we are diverse learners, multilingual peoples, artists, writers, athletes and mathematicians. My goal is for my students to leave the classroom as more educated students, but also as more experienced individuals. Individuals who know that they belong: in zoology, epidemiology, and physiology... because they first felt that they belonged in Freshman Biology.
Durham Technical Community College, Durham, NC
Jayme Dyer has been teaching Introductory Biology as an Adjunct Instructor at Durham Technical Community College in Durham, NC since 2018. Before that, she taught Introductory and Upper-level Biology courses as a teacher for the Duke high school Talent Identification Program, as an Adjunct Instructor at Lesley University, and as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Earlham College. Jayme earned her BA in Biology from Carleton College, her PhD in Genetics at Duke University, and she was a Postdoctoral Fellow in Biology at MIT. In addition to her passion for teaching, Jayme is an avid freelance science communicator. She runs a Biology education YouTube channel (https://youtube.com/YouTooBio) and she has taught community college students how to produce science education videos. She also works one-on-one with research scientists to improve their science communication skills, she works with NSF-funded research teams to develop Broader Impacts curricular materials, and she reviews video storyboards and provides voice-over talent for textbook-associated animations. Jayme is a first-generation college student who firmly believes that anyone can become a scientist. Improving equity and access for students in STEM and academia is one of Jayme’s central values, which is why she employs evidence-based strategies in her classes to engage, include, and promote learning for diverse students.
I use real data to teach foundational concepts in biology.
I bring real data into the classroom - especially the Introductory Biology classroom – because I believe it is critical that students learn content and scientific reasoning skills concomitantly.
For example, when I teach evolution I use a freely-available data-centered narrative about Salvador Luria and Max Delbrück’s landmark 1943 experiment. Student groups respond to discussion prompts that ask them to analyze data and determine which of two hypotheses is supported by the data, then we discuss the results as a class together. Later, in lab, students replicate the Luria-Delbrück experiment using the freely-available browser-based evolution software, Avida-ED (1, 2). During the lab, students determine how many “generations” it takes for a beneficial mutation to arise in a population of self-replicating, mutating computer scripts under selective or non-selective conditions. Students analyze data collected by the entire class to determine that mutations arise randomly, consistent with the Luria-Delbrück experiment. Together, these exercises reinforce the foundational concept that mutations occur randomly and not in response to selective pressure (a common misconception), while students concomitantly develop analytical and quantitative reasoning skills through data analysis in both lecture and lab.
Because I believe in the importance of incorporating real data throughout the introductory biology curriculum, I wanted to assign instructional homework videos that use data-centered narratives. However, I found very few instructional videos that incorporate real data. Thus, to produce the videos I wanted to assign, in 2020 I created the YouTube channel YouTooBio. I produce videos that introduce common laboratory equipment and techniques, and foundational concepts in biology, using data-centered narratives. For example, in How do you read Evolutionary Trees? I use a compelling story about the first time an evolutionary tree was used in a criminal court. While I assign this video to students in my classroom, the video has tens of thousands of views on YouTube, which means many students beyond my own class have learned introductory-level content in the context of compelling data-centered narratives.
Once I had developed the skills to produce science videos, I wanted to teach students how to do it, too. In 2021, I received a Mini-Grant from the Durham Tech Foundation to lead a 10-week summer program that taught five Durham Tech students how to produce science videos. I designed the program with three stakeholders in mind: 1) The students enrolled in the program learned fundamental skills in science communication and video production; 2) Durham Tech Science Faculty had their pedagogical needs directly met, since they determined the video topics; and 3) Future Durham Tech students will benefit from the empowering experience of seeing students just like them explaining science concepts. You can see the students’ videos here; I am exceptionally proud of what they produced! And since the students’ videos incorporate compelling data-centered narratives, future Durham Tech students will also learn introductory-level content in the context of real scientific data.
I center Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in my pedagogical choices.
As a first-generation college student, I know what it feels like to be an academic outsider. I make pedagogical decisions that have been shown to reduce the achievement gap and invite all types of learners to achieve success and feel welcome in the classroom.
I design my courses around principles of active learning and high structure, which have both been shown to disproportionately improve classroom performance for students traditionally excluded from STEM (3, 4). Students in my classroom build their knowledge through hands-on activities, drawing and writing exercises, small-group discussions, and repeated retrieval through no- and low-stakes assessments. I also design my courses to have high structure, including regularly-spaced low-stakes homework assignments.
I believe in choosing course topics that can impact student attitudes and beliefs, especially related to race. When students learn about genetic variation within and between racial groups, they demonstrate fewer cognitive forms of prejudice (5). For this reason, I explicitly teach about genetic variation within the human lineage, coupled with a discussion of the historical basis – and limitations – of race-based medicine. Additionally, to counter stereotypes about who has access to a career in science, I assign Scientist Spotlight homework assignments, which have been shown to increase students’ ability to personally relate to scientists (6).
Many students enter the classroom with assumptions about the apparent conflict between evolution and religion. Coupled with a disproportionate paucity of religious representation among scientists, many Christian students perceive negative stereotypes about their ability in science (7). Thus, to increase inclusivity for religious students, I briefly and explicitly address the apparent conflict between religious belief and evolution in my Introductory courses (8).
To encourage students to make connections between biology and their values and interests, I created an “Independent Project” assignment where students demonstrate their understanding of course learning objectives in the context of any topic of their choice, using any format of their choice. For example, one student explored the evolutionary history of raccoons in the context of explaining her unique hobby: making bone jewelry, including raccoon-jaw earrings.
Finally, I have recently begun to shift my courses away from traditional grading practices. Informed by the books Grading for Equity and Ungrading (9, 10), I have experimented with using Multiple Grading Schemes and also collaborative grading (a version of ungrading). These policies are designed to increase flexibility, align the final course grade with evidence of student learning instead of behavioral compliance, and give students with diverse strengths equal access to success. Based on my experiences with alternative grading, I have shared equity-related considerations and implementable policies with faculty through several talks at Durham Tech, at the Annual Meetings of the North Carolina Community College Association of Biology Instructors, as well as at a national-level meeting, The Grading Conference. Non-traditional grading policies are relatively new and still lack significant published evidence to inform their impact on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. However, I am an active participant in online Alternative Grading communities, including a Faculty Mentoring Network and a monthly reading group, and I will continue to develop and update my grading policies to align with current evidence and published best practices.
Citations 1. J. J. Smith, et al., An Avida-ED digital evolution curriculum for undergraduate biology. Evol. Educ. Outreach 9, 9 (2016). 2. D. S. Abi Abdallah, C. W. Fonner, N. C. Lax, M. R. Babeji, F. A. Palé, Evaluating the Use of Avida-ED Digital Organisms to Teach Evolution & Natural Selection. Am. Biol. Teach. 82, 114–119 (2020). 3. E. J. Theobald, et al., Active learning narrows achievement gaps for underrepresented students in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and math. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 117, 6476–6483 (2020). 4. S. L. Eddy, K. A. Hogan, Getting Under the Hood: How and for Whom Does Increasing Course Structure Work? CBE—Life Sci. Educ. 13, 453–468 (2014). 5. B. M. Donovan, et al., Toward a more humane genetics education: Learning about the social and quantitative complexities of human genetic variation research could reduce racial bias in adolescent and adult populations. Sci. Educ. 103, 529–560 (2019). 6. J. N. Schinske, H. Perkins, A. Snyder, M. Wyer, Scientist Spotlight Homework Assignments Shift Students’ Stereotypes of Scientists and Enhance Science Identity in a Diverse Introductory Science Class. CBE—Life Sci. Educ. 15, ar47 (2016). 7. K. Rios, Z. H. Cheng, R. R. Totton, A. F. Shariff, Negative Stereotypes Cause Christians to Underperform in and Disidentify with Science. Soc. Psychol. Personal. Sci. 6, 959–967 (2015). 8. J. M. Truong, M. E. Barnes, S. E. Brownell, Can Six Minutes of Culturally Competent Evolution Education Reduce Students’ Level of Perceived Conflict Between Evolution and Religion? Am. Biol. Teach. 80, 106–115 (2018). 9. J. Feldman, Grading for Equity: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How It Can Transform Schools and Classrooms, 1 edition (Corwin, 2018). 10. Blum, Susan D., Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead) (West Virginia University Press, 2020).
Hoffman Estates High School, Hoffman Estates, IL
For the past seventeen years, I have been a biology teacher at Hoffman Estates High School. I have taught every level of biology that our school offers - from special education co-taught biology to AP biology along with being a certified dual-credit biology instructor with William Rainey Harper College.
Throughout the years I have come to truly understand not only the needs of students at all levels but also how to build a biology program that is comprehensive in nature over an entire high-school experience. Biology is everywhere and it is my goal to teach students to be resourceful and think critically about the world around them. My philosophy is simple, I want my students to do science and love it. Lab days in my classroom are organized chaos. Students are talking, the music is rockin’ and I am running around creeping on their conversations. I want to be invisible and allow students to capitalize on “student talk” and be their own teachers.
Before teaching I earned my bachelor’s degree in Microbiology from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign and later held a research assistant position at Loyola University Medical Center in the Neuroscience and Pharmacology Departments. Since 2017 I have proudly worked with the Baxter Center for Science Education, which is an OCEP program run out of Northwestern funded by Baxter International, Inc. It provides resources to teachers at no cost to run biotechnology labs in their classroom. I have also worked alongside the education team at BioRad Laboratories developing biotechnology strands for teachers at the high school level.
Lone Star College - Kingwood, Kingwood, TX
Dr. Shmaefsky is a professor of environmental science and IRB Chair at Lone Star College – Kingwood, near Houston, Texas. Environmental science is his primary teaching responsibility, although he does occasionally teach general biology and anatomy & physiology. Dr. Shmaefsky did his initial graduate studies in environmental physiology using fungi and then plants as research models. Several years later he pursued an Ed.D in science education to focus his efforts on science teaching. He worked as a biochemist for Sigma-Aldrich chemical company in Missouri before pursuing full-time college teaching at Southern Illinois University- Edwardsville, Northwestern Oklahoma State University, and Lone Star College. Aside from teaching college students, Dr. Shmaefsky has a passion for educating the public about biological science and environmental justice topics. He has authored several human disease books for a general readership series called Deadly Diseases and Epidemics into addition to writing chapters in technical books on phytoremediation. Dr. Shmaefsky has also given many science presentations for civic groups, policymakers, schools, and senior centers. Dr. Shmaefsky has shifted his professional research efforts to developing best practices in college science teaching.
I truly enjoy being in a two-year college setting teaching a discipline that many students find esoteric and challenging. Like many of my students, I was a first-generation college student from an underrepresented community and was working to pay for college. I focus my teaching on using active learning strategies, content relevancy, place-based learning, and DEI to engage a broad audience of students in the course content. My students learn how the data collected by environmental scientists can be used for public good. They also learn that jobs in environmental science are accessible through a variety of career options. My students design and conduct civic engagement projects and community-based research studies to help communities that are exposed to environmental justice and public health inequities. I want my students to be advocates for science and not just memorizers of science content. My role as a Professional Development Fellow for my college permits me to share best practices in 2-year college teaching with colleagues at my college and at professional organization conferences.
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