I am the Executive Director of TIDES at UT Austin. I earned my Bachelors at the University of California San Diego, in Biochemistry and Cell Biology. A high point of my undergraduate career was studying abroad at LaTrobe University in Melbourne, Australia for a year. I earned my PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Arizona, where I worked on RNA metabolism. After a short stint in industry at a start up biotech company, I moved into education. I have been fortunate to have a variety of experiences including teaching high school, as well as at a small college, an R1 and a community college. I ran a McNair Program at Concord College in West Virginia, and worked for BCSC before taking a position at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent). From NESCent, I moved to a position in future faculty development at the University of Wisconsin. In 2015I became the Executive Director of BioQUEST where I led the transition to a non-profit organization and played a key role in the development of QUBES.
My goal in science education is promoting success for all students and I use the Universal Design for Learning framework to support this outcome. I am particularly interested in teaching evolution, nature of science and quantitative reasoning skills. Projects I have been involved in to achieve these goals include Quantitative Biology at Community Colleges (https://qubeshub.org/community/groups/qbcc), which brings together a community of mathematics and biology faculty at two year institutions to develop Open Education Resources for teaching quantitative skills in a biology context, the BioQUEST UDL Initiative, which is focusing on bringing Universal Design for Learning practices to higher education, and EVOKE, an EU coalition focused on improving evolution education for everyone.
Drew LaMar @ on
Here's the synopsis from the journal club meeting:
Wednesday Nov 18 Kristin led the discussion with Kam Dahlquist, Melissa Aikens, Joe Dauer and Gaby Hamerlinck.
This paper was a nice overview of the types of models biologists use, as well as the role these models play in educational settings. Most of the references were from the philosophy of science and the K-12 world. Philosopher Jay Odenbaugh's five model types were introduced, and the various roles of these models discussed. Some key points from our discussion include that modeling is contextual (which Bob Mayes had already emphasized for QR), that the type of modeling varies by discipline, that students need training and practice in modeling, and that this is a messy, iterative process which will present challenges to effective teaching. However, both in the paper and in our discussion we noted that students engaged in modeling were really enhancing their nature of science skills, critical reasoning, argumentation, and content knowledge - important selling points for our future audiences. We also discussed the difference between how a novice vs an expert uses a model. This led to ideas about providing scaffolds for novices to help them through expert steps, as well as the acknowledgement that many experts are probably relying on intuition and would have trouble articulating steps in their modeling. Some additional ideas for examples we might develop were to provide different types of models for exploring a single biological concept, or demonstrate how different disciplines use models to address different types of problems. Overall, we found this paper to be worth the time to read, and thought provoking.
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