Katelyn M. Cooper

Coming Out in Class: Challenges and Benefits of Active Learning in a Biology Classroom for LGBTQIA Students

Seven students who identified as part of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA) community from an active-learning biology class were interviewed. It was found that active-learning classrooms present a number of challenges for LGBTQIA students to navigate based on their social identities, but also offer some opportunities to come out to their peers.

What’s in a name? The importance of students perceiving that an instructor knows their names in a high-enrollment biology classroom

This study investigated whether instructors know student names and the importance of instructors knowing names. Nine reasons that students feel having their names known is important were identified. It was also found that instructors can use name tents to call students by name and do not have to know student names in order for students to perceive that their names are known.

Define Your Goals Before You Design a CURE: A Call to Use Backward Design in Planning Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences

We recommend using backward design to develop course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs). The defining hallmark of CUREs is that students in a formal lab course explore research questions with unknown answers that are broadly relevant outside the course. Because CUREs lead to novel research findings, they represent a unique course design challenge, as the dual nature of these courses requires course designers to consider two distinct, but complementary, sets of goals for the CURE: 1) scientific discovery milestones (i.e., research goals) and 2) student learning in cognitive, psychomotor, and affective domains (i.e., pedagogical goals). As more undergraduate laboratory courses are re-imagined as CUREs, how do we thoughtfully design these courses to effectively meet both sets of goals? In this Perspectives article, we explore this question and outline recommendations for using backward design in CURE development.

Using Expectancy Value Theory as a Framework to Reduce Student Resistance to Active Learning: A Proof of Concept

There has been a national movement to transition college science courses from passive lectures to active learning environments. Active learning has been shown to be a more effective way for students to learn, yet there is concern that some students are resistant to active learning approaches. Although there is much discussion about student resistance to active learning, few studies have explored this topic. Furthermore, a limited number of studies have applied theoretical frameworks to student engagement in active learning. We propose using a theoretical lens of expectancy value theory to understand student resistance to active learning. In this study, we examined student perceptions of active learning after participating in 40 hours of active learning. We used the principal components of expectancy value theory to probe student experience in active learning: student perceived self-efficacy in active learning, value of active learning, and potential cost of participating in active learning. We found that students showed positive changes in the components of expectancy value theory and reported high levels of engagement in active learning, which provide proof of concept that expectancy value theory can be used to boost student perceptions of active learning and their engagement in active learning classrooms. From these findings, we have built a theoretical framework of expectancy value theory applied to active learning.

Building Better Bridges into STEM: A Synthesis of 25 Years of Literature on STEM Summer Bridge Programs

This review of 46 reports on 30 unique science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) bridge programs published over the past 25 years notes the characteristics and goals of each program and whether programs were successful in meeting their goals. A set of recommendations for STEM bridge programs is presented in hopes of encouraging development of better bridges into college.

A Bridge to Active Learning: A Summer Bridge Program Helps Students Maximize Their Active-Learning Experiences and the Active-Learning Experiences of Others

This interview study of students who participated in a summer bridge program unexpectedly found that these students are maximizing their active-learning experiences and take an equitable approach to group work.

A Course-Embedded Comparison of Instructor-Generated Videos of Either an Instructor Alone or an Instructor and a Student.

Instructor-generated videos have become a popular way to engage students with material before a class, yet this is a relatively unexplored area of research. There is support for the use of videos in which instructors tutor students, but few studies have been conducted within the context of a classroom. In this study, conducted in a large-enrollment college physiology course, we used a randomized crossover design to compare the impact of two types of instructor-generated videos that students watched as part of their preclass assignments. We compared videos featuring only an instructor (instructor-only videos) with videos featuring an instructor tutoring a student (instructor–tutee videos). We analyzed student survey responses and weekly physiology quiz scores and found that students preferred, enjoyed, and valued the instructor-only videos significantly more than the instructor–tutee videos. In contrast to prior literature, students with a grade point average (GPA) below the median (3.49) performed significantly better on physiology quizzes after watching instructor-only videos compared with instructor–tutee videos. Students with a GPA at or above the median performed equivalently on physiology quizzes after watching instructor-only or instructor–tutee videos. We present this study as an example of bringing cognitive science studies into the context of a real physiology classroom.

MEASURING ELASTIC PROPERTIES OF THIN BIOLOGICAL FILMS USING CAPILLARY WRINKLING

Imprinting of soft biological cells to create microenvironments for cell culture has gained significant importance in studying biological processes. Developments in soft lithography techniques have caused a decrease in the size of these imprinted biological cells. Where pattern sizes were in the range of 50 um, they are now being fabricated in the range of 1 um. However, there has been very little work done to characterize the elastic properties of these imprinted gels at this scale. In this work, we attempt to use an unique technique that uses the wrinkling that occurs when a floating thin film is subject to a normal loading force. A previous study has reported the use of this metrology method to measure elastic properties of floating thin polystyrene films by counting the number and length of wrinkles that are created when subjected to radial stresses from a droplet of water. In this case, we extend this theory to study wrinkle formation in floating polystyrene films coated with biological cells, and fi...

Exploring Differences In Decisions About Exams Among Instructors Of The Same Introductory Biology Course

College instructors in the United States usually make their own decisions about how to design course exams. Even though summative course exams are well known to be important to student success, we know little about the decision making of instructors when designing course exams. To probe how instructors design exams for introductory biology, we conducted an exploratory interview study with seven instructors teaching the same introductory biology course at a large university. We found that despite designing exams for the same course, instructor exam decisions differed with regard to what content was assessed, the exam format, the cognitive difficulty of exam questions, the resources used when crafting exams, and how exams were administered. We hope that this work can initiate conversations about how college instructors should design exams and lead to more uniformity in how student learning is assessed across the same courses taught by different instructors.

To be funny or not to be funny: Gender differences in student perceptions of instructor humor in college science courses

For over 50 years instructor humor has been recognized as a way to positively impact student cognitive and affective learning. However, no study has explored humor exclusively in the context of college science courses, which have the reputation of being difficult and boring. The majority of studies that explore humor have assumed that students perceive instructor humor to be funny, yet students likely perceive some instructor humor as unfunny or offensive. Further, evidence suggests that women perceive certain subjects to be more offensive than men, yet we do not know what impact this may have on the experience of women in the classroom. To address these gaps in the literature, we surveyed students across 25 different college science courses about their perceptions of instructor humor in college science classes, which yielded 1637 student responses. Open-coding methods were used to analyze student responses to a question about why students appreciate humor. Multinomial regression was used to identify whether there are gender differences in the extent to which funny, unfunny, and offensive humor influenced student attention to course content, instructor relatability, and student sense of belonging. Logistic regression was used to examine gender differences in what subjects students find funny and offensive when joked about by college science instructors. Nearly 99% of students reported that they appreciate instructor humor and reported that it positively changes the classroom atmosphere, improves student experiences during class, and enhances the student-instructor relationship. We found that funny humor tends to increase student attention to course content, instructor relatability, and student sense of belonging. Conversely, offensive humor tends to decrease instructor relatability and student sense of belonging. Lastly, we identified subjects that males were more likely to find funny and females were more likely to find offensive if a college science instructor were to joke about them.