Sally G. Hoskins

Distribution of acetylcholinesterase activity in the deutocerebrum of the sphinx moth Manduca sexta

We have used a cytochemical technique to investigate the distribution of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity in the deutocerebrum of the brain of the sphinx moth Manduca sexta. To distinguish between extra-and intracellular pools of the enzyme, some brains were treated prior to histochemical staining with echothiophate, an irreversible AChE inhibitor which penetrates cell membranes very slowly and, therefore, inhibits only extracellular AChE. In the antennal nerve, fascicles of presumably mechanosensory fibers show echothiophateinsensitive AChE activity. They bypass the antennal lobe and project to the antennal mechanosensory and motor center of the deutocerebrum. In the antennal lobe, fibers in the coarse neuropil, cell bodies in the lateral cell group, and all glomeruli exhibit AChE activity. In most ordinary glomeruli, echothiophate-sensitive AChE activity is concentrated in the outer cap regions, corresponding to the terminal arborizations of olfactory afferents. A previously unrecognized glomerulus in the ventro-median antennal lobe shows uniform and more intense AChE-specific staining that the other glomeruli. No AChE activity appeared to be associated with malespecific pheromone-sensitive afferents in the macro-glomerular complex. About 67 interneurons with somata in the lateral cell group of the antennal lobe show echo-thiophate-insensitive AChE activity. These neurous seem to be members of two types of antennal-lobe projection neurons with fibers passing through the outer-antenno-cerebral tract to the protocerebrum. AChE-stained arborizations of these neurons appear to invade all glomeruli, including three distinguishable subunits of the male-specific macroglomerular complex. In echothiophate-treated animals, the projections of one of these types of fiber form large terminals in the lateral horn of protocerebrum, which partly protrude into the adjacent glial cell layer. The results suggest that extracellularly accessible AChE is associated with ordinary olfactory receptor terminals but apparently not with pheromone-sensitive afferents. Intracellular AChE appears to be present in antennal mechanosensory fibers and in two types of olfactory projection neurons of the antennal lobe. The study provides further evidence for cholinergic neurotransmission of most antennal afferents. The AChE-containing interneurons might be cholinergic as well or use the enzyme for functions unrelated to hydrolysis of acetylcholine.

Does the Segregation of Evolution in Biology Textbooks and Introductory Courses Reinforce Students’ Faulty Mental Models of Biology and Evolution?

The well-established finding that substantial confusion and misconceptions about evolution and natural selection persist after college instruction suggests that these courses neither foster accurate mental models of evolution’s mechanisms nor instill an appreciation of evolution’s centrality to an understanding of the living world. Our essay explores the roles that introductory biology courses and textbooks may play in reinforcing undergraduates’ pre-existing, faulty mental models of the place of evolution in the biological sciences. Our content analyses of the three best-selling introductory biology textbooks for majors revealed the conceptual segregation of evolutionary information. The vast majority of the evolutionary terms and concepts in each book were isolated in sections about evolution and diversity, while remarkably few were employed in other sections of the books. Standardizing the data by number of pages per unit did not alter this pattern. Students may fail to grasp that evolution is the unifying theme of biology because introductory courses and textbooks reinforce such isolation. Two goals are central to resolving this problem: the desegregation of evolution as separate “units” or chapters and the active integration of evolutionary concepts at all levels and across all domains of introductory biology.

CREATE Cornerstone: Introduction to Scientific Thinking, a New Course for STEM-Interested Freshmen, Demystifies Scientific Thinking through Analysis of Scientific Literature

This study shows that a one-semester course aimed at STEM-interested freshmen and focused on scientific literature analysis using the CREATE strategy can produce gains in thinking/design ability as well as epistemological maturation.

The CREATE Strategy for Intensive Analysis of Primary Literature Can Be Used Effectively by Newly Trained Faculty to Produce Multiple Gains in Diverse Students

CREATE uses intensive analysis of primary literature to demystify/humanize science. Previously, CREATE produced cognitive/affective gains at a minority-serving institution. These data reveal that faculty members on a wide range of campuses can learn CREATE pedagogy in workshops, teach CREATE effectively in their first attempt, and elicit cognitive/affective gains in their students.

“But if It's in the Newspaper, Doesn't That Mean It's True?” Developing Critical Reading & Analysis Skills by Evaluating Newspaper Science with CREATE

ABSTRACT The media will likely be a major source of science information after college for non-science majors. It is thus essential that all students learn to critically read newspaper/Internet science. I have adapted the CREATE approach, an active-learning method originally designed for close reading of journal articles (Hoskins et al., 2007), for use with a newspaper article written for the general public. The analysis challenges students to read closely, learn to represent data and design experiments, and think creatively about scientific issues and their social implications. The approaches outlined here can be adapted to any scientific reading and analysis.

Testing CREATE at Community Colleges: An Examination of Faculty Perspectives and Diverse Student Gains

This study addressed whether 1) workshop-trained community college faculty teach effectively with CREATE in their first attempt and 2) two-year students in CREATE courses make cognitive and affective gains. The authors report that 2-yr faculty successfully applied CREATE pedagogy in their first CREATE course and that 2-yr students demonstrated diverse gains.

Investigating Undergraduates’ Perceptions of Science in Courses Taught Using the CREATE Strategy †

Many science educators agree that 21st century students need to develop mature scientific thinking skills. Unsurprisingly, students’ and experts’ perceptions about the nature of scientific knowledge differ. Moreover, students’ naïve and entrenched epistemologies can preclude their development toward “thinking like scientists.” Novel teaching approaches that guide students toward more mature perceptions may be needed to support their development of scientific thinking skills. To address such issues, physics educators developed the Colorado Learning Attitudes About Science Survey (CLASS), subsequently adapted for chemistry and biology. These surveys are “designed to compare novice and expert perceptions about the content and structure of a specific discipline; the source of knowledge about that discipline, including connection of the discipline to the real world; and problem-solving approaches” (Semsar et al., CBE Life Sci. Educ. 10:268–278; p 269). We used CLASS-Bio to track students’ perceptions of science in separate first-year and upper-level CREATE (Consider, Read, Elucidate hypotheses, Analyze and interpret the data, Think of the next Experiment) electives, hypothesizing that perceptions would become significantly more expert-like across a semester. Both first-year and upper-level cohorts made significant expert-like shifts. Students also made significant critical thinking gains in CREATE courses. Our findings of more mature, expert-like perceptions of science post-course contrast with those of previous studies, where students’ thinking became significantly less expert-like across a term of introductory instruction and changed little in upper-level biology electives. Augmenting traditional biology curricula with CREATE courses could be an economical way to help undergraduates develop more mature views of science.

CREATE Two-Year/Four-Year Faculty Workshops: A Focus on Practice, Reflection, and Novel Curricular Design Leads to Diverse Gains for Faculty at Two-Year and Four-Year Institutions †

Improving STEM education through the propagation of highly effective teaching strategies is a major goal of national reform movements. CREATE (Consider, Read, Elucidate the hypotheses, Analyze and interpret the data, and Think of the next Experiment) is a transformative teaching and learning strategy grounded in evidence-based science pedagogy. CREATE courses promote both cognitive (e.g., critical thinking) and affective (e.g., attitudinal and epistemological) student gains in diverse settings. In this study, we look more deeply into the faculty development workshop used to disseminate CREATE pedagogy to instructors at two-year and four-year institutions. We hypothesized that an immersive experience would positively shift faculty participants’ views on teaching/learning, build their understanding of CREATE pedagogy and develop their confidence for course implementation. Internal and external assessments indicate that faculty participants did achieve gains within the timeframe of the CREATE workshop. We discuss the workshop training outcomes in the context of designing effective dissemination models for innovative practices.

Inside the Literature: An Interview with Sally G. Hoskins, 2017 Recipient of the Elizabeth W. Jones Award for Excellence in Education

The Genetics Society of America’s Elizabeth W. Jones Award for Excellence in Education recognizes significant and sustained impact on genetics education. The 2017 recipient is Sally G. Hoskins, in recognition of her role in developing and promoting the transformative science education method CREATE (Consider, Read, Elucidate hypotheses, Analyze and interpret data, and Think of the next Experiment). This innovative approach uses primary literature to engage students, allowing them to experience for themselves the creativity and challenge of study design, analysis, interpretation, collaboration, and debate. Comprehensive evaluation of CREATE has consistently found that students improve in difficult-to-teach skills like critical thinking and experimental design, while showing improved attitudes and beliefs about science. This is an abridged version of the interview. The full interview is available on the Genes to Genomes blog, at genestogenomes.org/hoskins/.