Events
- Annual Convention
- Great Teaching Round-up
- Leading from the middle
- fall conference for faculty leaders
- The Texas Network
"I think there is something more important than believing: Action! The world is full of dreamers, there aren't enough who will move ahead and begin to take concrete steps to actualize their vision."
Events: 2011 Biology Schedule
Biology Summary
Friday, 11:15 a.m. - 12:45 p.m.
"Laboratory Solutions for Online and Hybrid Courses"
Panel: Sondra Dubowsky, Biology Instructor, McLennon Community College; Janice Smith, Professor of Biology, Tarrant County College Northwest; Keith Crandall, Professor and Chair of Biology, Brigham Young Univerisity, Provo, Utah; and Brian Woodfield, Virtual ChemLab Project Director, Brigham Young Univerisity, Provo, Utah
Friday, 2:30-3:45 p.m.
"Biology for Non-Science Majors I: A Statewide Online Initiative"
Speakers: Jennifer Baggett, Adjunct Professor of Biology, Dallas County Community College District; and Grace Rutherford, Adjunct Professor of Biology, El Centro College
Saturday, 9:00 - 10:15 a.m.
"Online Adaptive Learning"
Speaker: Michael Windelspecht, Associate Professor of Biology, Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina
Friday, January 28th, 11:15 a.m. - 12:45 p.m.
"Laboratory Solutions for Online and Hybrid Courses"
Panel: Sondra Dubowsky, Biology Instructor, McLennon Community College; Janice Smith, Professor of Biology, Tarrant County College Northwest; Keith Crandall, Professor and Chair of Biology, Brigham Young Univerisity, Provo, Utah; and Brian Woodfield, Virtual ChemLab Project Director, Brigham Young Univerisity, Provo, Utah
In response to challenging student needs, many colleges are granting degrees through the completion of online coursework. While many students have benefited from these initiatives, some students struggle to meet the requirement for completing at least one science course upon graduation. In this panel discussion, four educators will share their experiences and recommendations for teaching basic laboratory skills and techniques to students who enroll in online Biology and Anatomy & Physiology courses.
Biographies:
Sondra Dubowsky is Instructor of Biology at McLennan Community College in Waco, TX. Since 2005, she has taught hybrid and online lab courses in Anatomy/Physiology, Microbiology, and Majors Biology, and has worked with a wide variety of resources, including wet lab kits and virtual lab programs. Professor Dubowsky received Bachelor’s degrees in biology and chemistry from Southwestern College in Winfield, KS, she holds a Masters in zoology/physiology from Emporia State University, and she completed coursework toward a Ph.D. at North Dakota State University in Fargo.
Janice Yoder Smith is Professor of Biology at Tarrant County College, Northwest Campus. She earned a B.S. in Biology from the University of Texas at Arlington and a Ph.D. from Texas Woman’s University. She has taught hybrid Microbiology and Anatomy/Physiology lectures and labs at Tarrant County College since 2007 and has taught both courses in a traditional mode since 1989. When asked about her primary goals in teaching in the hybrid or online environment, Dr. Smith responded, “Students require high quality instruction in both traditional and hybrid / online formats. Extra measures are needed to improve retention in the latter format because students don’t interact with an instructor in person as often. Otherwise, my traditional and online courses have the same goals for students: mastery of learning outcomes for the courses and understanding the courses in the larger societal and career frameworks.”
Keith A. Crandall is Professor and Chair of the Department of Biology at Brigham Young University. His research projects include studying the population genetics and evolutionary biology of cancer associated viruses such as the human T-Cell leukemia/lymphoma virus (HTLV) and the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). He has also performed extensive work on crustacean conservation genetics and systematics and has developed a variety of software for DNA sequence analysis. Professor Crandall serves on the editorial board of Bioinformatics and is President of the Society of Systematic Biologists. He received his PhD in population genetics and evolutionary biology from Washington University in St. Louis and performed postdoctoral research at the University of Texas as an Alfred P. Sloan postdoctoral fellow in molecular evolution.
Brian F. Woodfield is a Professor of Chemistry at Brigham Young University and is the creator and project director for a set of virtual labs covering Chemistry, Physics, and now Biology. His research interests include low-temperature physics, solid-state chemistry, and nanomaterials. He is also the founder of Cosmas Inc., a company focusing on catalysts and custom nanoparticles.
Friday, January 28th, 2:30 - 3:45 p.m.
"Biology for Non-Science Majors I: A Statewide Online Initiative"
Speakers: Jennifer Baggett, Adjunct Professor of Biology, Dallas County Community College District; and Grace Rutherford, Adjunct Professor of Biology, El Centro College
Using SoftChalk software as the delivery tool, the LeCroy Center for Educational Telecommunication is creating an online course that may be easily customized while maintaining a fluid navigational design. The demonstrated biology course, partially funded by the Virtual College of Texas, is being developed with coordinated contributions by faculty in community colleges throughout the state, and will be available to all Texas community colleges for implementation in January 2012. The course includes a student engagement activity for each online lesson, followed by content summaries and interactive instruction and activities that provide immediate feedback to students. The course contains 15 lessons with 15 corresponding labs.. The online course will supplement a customized lab kit designed for at-home use (available from a third-party vendor) by providing demonstration videos and introductory, supplementary, and assessment materials using SoftChalk delivery.
Biographies:
Jennifer Baggett has been researching and teaching biology for over ten years. Funded by a National Science Foundation pre-doctoral fellowship, Jennifer completed her dissertation research at The Johns Hopkins University, studying the movement of small particles into cells. During this time, she won two Dupont teaching awards for her work teaching cell biology and genetics and published several papers on her dissertation topic. After completing her doctoral degree, Jennifer continued biology research at Southern Methodist University and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, studying specialized proteins involved in absorbing nutrients along the intestinal lining. For the last several years, Jennifer has been teaching biology and working with students in the Dallas County Community College District at Richland College and Eastfield College. She has a Bachelors degree in biology from Rice University and a PhD in cell biology from The Johns Hopkins University.
Grace Rutherford has fifteen years of instructional design experience developing educational and training materials. She explored student success and online interactivity in her dissertation. She has been involved in numerous projects at the LeCroy Center for Educational Telecommunications, including the instructional design of online courses for education, anatomy and physiology, and technical training. Grace is an adjunct faculty member for El Centro College, teaching an online Anatomy and Physiology for Allied Heath students. Grace has a BS degree in Nursing from Texas Christian University, a BS degree in Computer Information Systems from Texas A&M University at Commerce, an MS in Child Health from Texas Woman’s University, and an EdD from Texas A&M University at Commerce.
Saturday, January 29th, 9:00 - 10:15 a.m.
"Online Adaptive Learning"
Speaker: Michael Windelspecht, Associate Professor of Biology, Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina
Biography:
Michael Windelspecht is an associate professor of biology Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. He serves as the general biology coordinator for the department, and is responsible for the supervision of a program that enrolls over 4,000 students annually. As an author, he acted as the series editor for a ten-volume series on the human body, and has authored five reference books and eight lab manuals. He is currently the managing author for the next edition of Sylvia Mader's Human Biology, Essentials of Biology, and Biology. With his wife, he is the owner of a multimedia production company (Ricochet Creative Productions, LLC) that specializes in the design of materials for the Science 2.0 classroom.
Biology Section Chair:
Diane Teter, South Texas College