Affordable active learning for intro bio

SimBio’s inquiry-driven teaching tools are popular in biology courses that emphasize experimentation and discovery. In this presentation, we will demonstrate how SimBio’s SimUText System® lets you mix and match SimBio’s interactive tutorial/labs with chapters from an OpenStax Biology e-text to build an inexpensive active-learning replacement for your traditional Intro Bio textbook. We will be happy to brainstorm with participants on their particular teaching challenges

A question of Mesorah?

In the upcoming Krias Hatorah in Parshat Shoftim and Parshat Ki Savo there are a number of instances where the meaning of a phrase changes completely based on the pronunciation of a single word – םד – with either a Komatz or Patah. Until recently, most Chumashim and Tikunim which generally followed the famous Yaakov Ben Hayyim 1525 edition of Mikraot Gedolot published in Venice that printed a seemingly inconsistent pattern in the pronunciation of the different occurrences of this word

On the Hopf-Schur group of a field

Let k be any field. We consider the Hopf-Schur group of k, defined as the subgroup of the Brauer group of k consisting of classes that may be represented by homomorphic images of Hopf algebras over k. We show here that twisted group algebras and abelian extensions of k are quotients of cocommutative and commutative Hopf algebras over k, respectively. As a consequence we prove that any tensor product of cyclic algebras over k is a quotient of a Hopf algebra over k, revealing so that the Hopf-Schur group can be much larger than the Schur group of k.Comment: 12 pages, latex fil

SimBiotic software short-shots

SimBiotic Software is a small US company that produces interactive computer simulations for teaching biology. Our programs allow students to ‘discover’ important principles and concepts by doing experiments using simulations of realistic biological scenarios. In 1997, UniServe published a review of EcoBeaker 1.0 ™, our flagship software for teaching ecology (Montgomery, 1997). The enthusiasm for and popularity of the EcoBeaker software over the past several years encouraged us to develop innovations to make our software more widely accessible, and to branch out and apply our approaches to other areas of biology. UniServe Science has invited us to introduce some of our new projects here. We now have an improved version of EcoBeaker, and other new teaching software on topics such as diffusion and osmosis teaching (OsmoBeaker), evolution (EvoBeaker), neurobiology (NerveWorks), and are working on methods for online delivery of labs and assessment of student learning

Generating End-to-End Adversarial Examples for Malware Classifiers Using Explainability

In recent years, the topic of explainable machine learning (ML) has been extensively researched. Up until now, this research focused on regular ML users use-cases such as debugging a ML model. This paper takes a different posture and show that adversaries can leverage explainable ML to bypass multi-feature types malware classifiers. Previous adversarial attacks against such classifiers only add new features and not modify existing ones to avoid harming the modified malware executable's functionality. Current attacks use a single algorithm that both selects which features to modify and modifies them blindly, treating all features the same. In this paper, we present a different approach. We split the adversarial example generation task into two parts: First we find the importance of all features for a specific sample using explainability algorithms, and then we conduct a feature-specific modification, feature-by-feature. In order to apply our attack in black-box scenarios, we introduce the concept of transferability of explainability, that is, applying explainability algorithms to different classifiers using different features subsets and trained on different datasets still result in a similar subset of important features. We conclude that explainability algorithms can be leveraged by adversaries and thus the advocates of training more interpretable classifiers should consider the trade-off of higher vulnerability of those classifiers to adversarial attacks.Comment: Accepted as a conference paper at IJCNN 202

Iterative Design of a Simulation-Based Module for Teaching Evolution by Natural Selection

Background: This research builds on a previous study that looked at the effectiveness of a simulation-based module for teaching students about the process of evolution by natural selection. While the previous study showed that the module was successful in teaching how natural selection works, the research uncovered some weaknesses in the design. In this paper, we used design-based research to investigate how design changes to the module affected not only students’ understanding of the concepts but also their usage of misconceptions in the assessments. We present results from two studies. In study 1, we looked at gains in understanding on a pre and post-assessment for students who used the revised version of the module. We also examined misconception uses in their answer selections. In study 2, we compared the performance on a summative assessment between students who used the revised version and students who used the original version of the module. We also looked at misconception uses in their answer selections. Results: In study 1, we saw a significant improvement in the pre-post assessment for students who used the revised version. In study 2, we did not find a significant difference on the overall performance outcome between students who used the revised and those that used the original version of the module. In both studies, however, we saw a lower use of misconceptions after students used the revised module. In particular, we saw less use of the adaptive mutation misconception, the belief that mutations are adaptive responses to the environment and are biased towards advantageous mutations. This is promising because in the previous study there was no evidence of decreased use of this misconception. Conclusions: Students showed learning gains on all targeted key concepts, and reduced expression of all targeted misconceptions, which was not found previously for students using the older workbook version of the module. In particular, the revised version appears to help students overcome the adaptive mutation misconception. This article demonstrates how design-based research can contribute to the ongoing improvement of evidence-based instruction in undergraduate biology classrooms

A new assessment of graph construction competency for undergraduate biology students

With an increasing emphasis on teaching the skills and processes of science in the undergraduate biology classroom, working with and interpreting data has become an important part of the curriculum. Visual representations are a key tool when examining data, especially graphs. Undergraduate biology students notoriously have trouble both making good graphs and interpreting graphs. Yet, although there is an extensive literature on graph interpretation challenges amongst students, there has been much less work on the confusions students exhibit when constructing graphs. On the path to creating tools to help teach graphing to biology students, we have been building a new performance-based assessment of graph construction competence. The assessment presents students a research question and asks them to make graphs to test a hypothesis drawn from that question. The graphs are auto-scored for a number of practices associated with making good graphs. The digital nature and auto-scoring has allowed us to provide this assessment and analyze results at larger scales than previous assessments, gathering data that will help focus teaching tools on the areas of highest need. In this workshop, each participant will take one version of the graphing assessment themselves (about 20–30 minutes) and then we will discuss the experience. After talking about how well the assessment lines up to the graphing practices you look for in your students, the presenter will show data on where we find biology students struggle, drawn from students in a diverse set of classes and institutions. Bring your laptop (Mac or Windows only).Note: the creative commons license below is for the abstract and talk only, not the software

Time to Evolve? Potential Evolutionary Responses of Fraser River Sockeye Salmon to Climate Change and Effects on Persistence

Evolutionary adaptation affects demographic resilience to climate change but few studies have attempted to project changes in selective pressures or quantify impacts of trait responses on population dynamics and extinction risk. We used a novel individual-based model to explore potential evolutionary changes in migration timing and the consequences for population persistence in sockeye salmon Oncorhynchus nerka in the Fraser River, Canada, under scenarios of future climate warming. Adult sockeye salmon are highly sensitive to increases in water temperature during their arduous upriver migration, raising concerns about the fate of these ecologically, culturally, and commercially important fish in a warmer future. Our results suggest that evolution of upriver migration timing could allow these salmon to avoid increasingly frequent stressful temperatures, with the odds of population persistence increasing in proportion to the trait heritability and phenotypic variance. With a simulated 2°C increase in average summer river temperatures by 2100, adult migration timing from the ocean to the river advanced by ∼10 days when the heritability was 0.5, while the risk of quasi-extinction was only 17% of that faced by populations with zero evolutionary potential (i.e., heritability fixed at zero). The rates of evolution required to maintain persistence under simulated scenarios of moderate to rapid warming are plausible based on estimated heritabilities and rates of microevolution of timing traits in salmon and related species, although further empirical work is required to assess potential genetic and ecophysiological constraints on phenological adaptation. These results highlight the benefits to salmon management of maintaining evolutionary potential within populations, in addition to conserving key habitats and minimizing additional stressors where possible, as a means to build resilience to ongoing climate change. More generally, they demonstrate the importance and feasibility of considering evolutionary processes, in addition to ecology and demography, when projecting population responses to environmental change