Science Skill Gains: Students’ Perceptions of their Knowledge and Skills Acquired Upon Graduation

Consistent with the TCPS 2 (4.7) this is a research summary provided to participants and should not be considered a formal publication of results

Can we get practice questions like the exam? Exploring student expectations and assessment preparation

The perceived misalignment between practice questions and graded assessments can lead to student frustration and discouragement (Osterhage et al., 2019), as well as concerns over fairness. However, students often resist engaging in activities fostering metacognition, particularly in courses where students commonly attempt to use memorized patterns to solve problems (Avena et al., 2021). As a result, students often ask that exams have questions that “are the same as or similar to those solved in class”. Recognizing that mismatches between student expectations and experiences will impact retention (Maloshonok et al., 2017), effort has been undertaken in STEM higher education courses to introduce exercises that foster the development of metacognition (Stanton et al., 2021). To examine differences in expectations between students and faculty in the graded assessments, we implemented exam wrappers in a large-enrollment (311 students) introductory genetics course. To gain further insight, we are conducting interviews with students and instructors from similar courses nationally. In this session, participants will be invited to examine the themes emerging through the analyses of the exam wrappers and our interviews, consider alignment with their own pedagogical contexts, and share strategies to address perceived misalignments with assessments. We aim to develop a student-centred framework to foster metacognitive problem-solving strategies in the post-COVID era. Please note that we will be making use of Mentimeter – please bring your devices with you! This study was performed with ethics approval

Discipline-based educational development: examples from four Canadian universities

Discipline-based educational development , integrating the principles of teaching and learning with specific content knowledge of a discipline, is emerging as a complement to more traditional, centralized models of teaching support, bringing with it its own advantages and challenges. Partly, it is a question of belonging: it helps to be part of a team of people - possibly with a variety of specialties in areas like curriculum, pedagogy, educational technology - and operating from a centre offers this important support, but coming from a single unit across campus may make it harder to connect with those teaching in departments. Conversely, working in a department creates many opportunities to connect with faculty and students, but can be isolating as there is unlikely to be a team of any size at the department level doing similar work. This panel discussion will explore four examples of discipline-based educational development at Canadian universities, highlighting successful initiatives and challenges faced by educators in implementing this approach. In one case, teaching is transforming via graduate student projects within specific courses, and the others have variations on teaching centre models with different levels of connections to departments - in one case with staff members embedded in departments. We will also be interested to learn of other models from those who attend the discussion. Overall, this panel discussion aims to raise awareness of the value of discipline-based education development in STEM education and to provide a platform for dialogue and collaboration among educators and educational developers in Canadian post-secondary institutions

Experiential environmental education in urban parks: building sustainable connections to the nature around us

How do youth in differing circumstances and socioeconomic communities perceive nature? In the body of research on environmental education and youth access to nature, there exists a need to better understand this question (Adams and Savahl, 2017). While urban parks represent an opportunity for youth in cities to access nature, few studies have investigated how they experience these spaces (Daskolia and Chouliara, 2024). We are completing a scoping review to map the current state of the literature on urban environmental education (Munn et al., 2018) using the framework outlined in Arksey and O’Malley (2005). Our research questions are: 1) What is known about outdoor environmental education in urban settings? 2) How can urban parks provide opportunities for locally relevant outdoor environmental education programming in cities? 3) What elements must be included in urban outdoor environmental programming to create an authentic learning experience? Through this session, participants will be able to examine the results of our review, and consider how these results fit within their own pedagogical context. We will also share our plans for an experiential education initiative in which undergraduate students from diverse disciplinary backgrounds will learn to deliver environmental programming to elementary students in urban parks in Windsor, ON. We aim to develop a model for community-engaged learning that deepens the relationship urban youth have with the nature in their neighbourhoods. Such programming has the potential to increase youth engagement in STEM, promote the benefits of urban parks for all residents, and encourage conservation of urban green spaces

The Puf family of RNA-binding proteins in plants: phylogeny, structural modeling, activity and subcellular localization

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Puf proteins have important roles in controlling gene expression at the post-transcriptional level by promoting RNA decay and repressing translation. The Pumilio homology domain (PUM-HD) is a conserved region within Puf proteins that binds to RNA with sequence specificity. Although Puf proteins have been well characterized in animal and fungal systems, little is known about the structural and functional characteristics of Puf-like proteins in plants.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The Arabidopsis and rice genomes code for 26 and 19 Puf-like proteins, respectively, each possessing eight or fewer Puf repeats in their PUM-HD. Key amino acids in the PUM-HD of several of these proteins are conserved with those of animal and fungal homologs, whereas other plant Puf proteins demonstrate extensive variability in these amino acids. Three-dimensional modeling revealed that the predicted structure of this domain in plant Puf proteins provides a suitable surface for binding RNA. Electrophoretic gel mobility shift experiments showed that the Arabidopsis AtPum2 PUM-HD binds with high affinity to BoxB of the Drosophila Nanos Response Element I (NRE1) RNA, whereas a point mutation in the core of the NRE1 resulted in a significant reduction in binding affinity. Transient expression of several of the Arabidopsis Puf proteins as fluorescent protein fusions revealed a dynamic, punctate cytoplasmic pattern of localization for most of these proteins. The presence of predicted nuclear export signals and accumulation of AtPuf proteins in the nucleus after treatment of cells with leptomycin B demonstrated that shuttling of these proteins between the cytosol and nucleus is common among these proteins. In addition to the cytoplasmically enriched AtPum proteins, two AtPum proteins showed nuclear targeting with enrichment in the nucleolus.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The Puf family of RNA-binding proteins in plants consists of a greater number of members than any other model species studied to date. This, along with the amino acid variability observed within their PUM-HDs, suggests that these proteins may be involved in a wide range of post-transcriptional regulatory events that are important in providing plants with the ability to respond rapidly to changes in environmental conditions and throughout development.</p

Development of a Tetrameric Streptavidin Mutein with Reversible Biotin Binding Capability: Engineering a Mobile Loop as an Exit Door for Biotin

A novel form of tetrameric streptavidin has been engineered to have reversible biotin binding capability. In wild-type streptavidin, loop3–4 functions as a lid for the entry and exit of biotin. When biotin is bound, interactions between biotin and key residues in loop3–4 keep this lid in the closed state. In the engineered mutein, a second biotin exit door is created by changing the amino acid sequence of loop7–8. This door is mobile even in the presence of the bound biotin and can facilitate the release of biotin from the mutein. Since loop7–8 is involved in subunit interactions, alteration of this loop in the engineered mutein results in an 11° rotation between the two dimers in reference to wild-type streptavidin. The tetrameric state of the engineered mutein is stabilized by a H127C mutation, which leads to the formation of inter-subunit disulfide bonds. The biotin binding kinetic parameters (koff of 4.28×10−4 s−1 and Kd of 1.9×10−8 M) make this engineered mutein a superb affinity agent for the purification of biotinylated biomolecules. Affinity matrices can be regenerated using gentle procedures, and regenerated matrices can be reused at least ten times without any observable reduction in binding capacity. With the combination of both the engineered mutein and wild-type streptavidin, biotinylated biomolecules can easily be affinity purified to high purity and immobilized to desirable platforms without any leakage concerns. Other potential biotechnological applications, such as development of an automated high-throughput protein purification system, are feasible

Beyond Punnett squares: Revising the Canadian genetics curriculum to meaningfully introduce social and ethical perspectives

In 2015, the Genetics Society of America published a learning framework based on Vision and Change. One of many core competencies was that “Students should be able to identify and critique scientific issues relating to society or ethics.” Unfortunately, no links to other core concepts were provided to help instructors integrate this core competency into the genetics curriculum, and no key issues were identified or discussed. Traditional genetics concepts raise many unresolved ethical issues (Gouvea, 2022; Visintainer, 2022) and new genome-editing technologies amplify the need to incorporate social and ethical perspectives in the genetics curriculum. A few exercises that touch on social and ethical perspectives in genetics have been made available through CourseSource, but these are mostly superficial and difficult to integrate into the existing curriculum. Moreover, little work has been published on the curriculum for Canadian introductory genetics courses in higher education. To address this deficiency, we conducted a document analysis of syllabi for introductory genetics courses across all provinces and territories. Only 15% of these syllabi touch on social and ethical perspectives. Through interviews of students and instructors in courses across Canada, we are exploring how these perspectives have been integrated into the curriculum. We will share the themes emerging through our interviews, and invite attendees to consider alignment with their own pedagogical contexts. We will share our work to build a database of strategies to integrate social and ethical perspectives in introductory genetics courses across Canada. This study was performed with ethics approval

Flipped design for learning: Deepening scientific inquiry in a large-enrollment class

Hypothesis testing is central not only to the scientific method but also to understanding the nature of scientific knowledge. Although it is widely appreciated that students should develop hypothesis testing skills early in their undergraduate careers, there are many challenges in large-enrollment classes that can prevent them from deeply understanding the process of scientific inquiry. The hypothesis of this study is that a flipped-learning design will create a more effective environment than a traditional lecture format in which to foster both content acquisition and an understanding of the process of scientific inquiry. To measure the relative impact of these two approaches on learning, our study compares cohorts of students in different sections of the same large-enrollment course who have been exposed either to a flipped design (combining collaborative in-class activities with problem-based computer simulation software) or a lecture-based approach. The key principles underlying our research design as well as preliminary findings of pre- and post-assessment surveys measuring student understanding of scientific inquiry and basic content acquisition will be presented. An initial analysis of the data obtained from focus groups will also be discussed. Although the project is still at an early stage, preliminary data suggest that a combination of peer-learning in-class activities and problem-based computer simulation software foster both the acquisition of content and the development of scientific inquiry skills