BLT

We are an informal community of faculty, post-docs, graduate students and undergraduates from the University of Washington and area colleges.

We meet every Friday at 3:30 via Zoom for an hour long discussion about a topic related to learning and teaching.

We welcome interested individuals to join our conversations. 

The current BLT organizers:

• Alison Crowe (Teaching Professor, Dept. Biology, University of Washington, Seattle)

• Elli Theobald (Associate Teaching Professor, Dept. Biology, University of Washington, Seattle)

Previous faculty who have contributed to the organization of BLT:

• Mary Pat Wenderoth

• Brian Buchwitz

• Jennifer Doherty (now  at Michigan State University)
  
  

To be added to the BLT listserv please sign up here

Spring 2025

April 11 - Alison Crowe (Dept of Biology, UW Seattle) will facilitate a continuation of our conversation around equitable collegial reviews

April 18 - Dr. Crystal Uminski (Newman lab, Genetics and Molecular Biology Education Research, Rochester Institute Technology) will lead a discussion of their recent paper on the use of visual models on biology exams.

April 25 - Dr. Elli Theobald (Dept of Biology, UW Seattle), will facilitate a discussion on the recent National Academies SEM Report: Transforming Undergraduate STEM Education: Supporting Equitable and Effective Teaching.  Dr. Elli Theobald and Dr. Josephine Pino were both member of the National Academies committee tasked with preparing this report.  

May 2 - Dr. Janet Bester-Meredith (Dept of Biology, UW Seattle) will lead a discussion on Undergraduate Peer Facilitators and Building a Community of Learners.

May 9 - Josephine Pino (Portland Community College) will share her work on collaborative learning

May 16 - No BLT meeting.  UW undergraduate research symposium.

May 23 - No BLT meeting - Memorial Day Weekend

May 30 - Dr. Tam'ra-Kay (TK) Francis (Dept of Chemical Engineering, UW Seattle) will share a framework she is working on for professional development:  Driving Systems Change: Advancing Groundskeeping as a Frame for Future-Ready STEMM Workforce Development

June 6 - Dr. Shahnaz Masani (Lyman Briggs College, Michigan State University) will share her work developing an social justice CURE with an urban ecology focus.  Histories That Shape Habitats: An introductory course-based research experience to engage students in exploring the historical contexts of inequities in human health and ecosystems

Winter 2025

January 17 - All Supporting students in changing times, using this article as a starting point.

January 24 - Dr. Becca Price (Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences, UW Bothell) "What does creativity mean in your teaching? What does it mean to your students?"

January 31 - Dr. Gretchen Sneegas (Dept of Geography, UW Seattle) will discuss how she has used Wikipedia-based  assignments in her 400 level Energy and Sustainability course.  You can read about her experience in this reflective piece from Wiki Education.

February 7 - Sam Robinson (Dept of Chemistry, UW Seattle) DOJ's ruling for digital accessibility requirements coming in April 2026.

February 14 - No Meeting Enjoy the long weekend

February 21 - Dr. Caleb Trujillo and Kit Thompson (Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences, UW Bothell) Stories from the Molecular Case Studies Network

February 28 - Bridgette Clarkston (University of British Columbia, Department of Botany) creativity in the biology classroom

March 7 - No Meeting

March 14 - Dr. Jeff Maloy (Dept of of Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology, University of California at Los Angeles)

Autumn 2024

October 4 - BLT planning for the year and general discussion on how/why you use or don't use student evaluation feedback to inform your teaching

October 11 - Discussion on aligning collegial/peer review with core teaching elements

October 18 - Dr. Alison Crowe (Dept of Biology, UW Seattle) will lead a discussion on the recent paper by Uminski et al. titled Undergraduate Biology Lecture Courses Predominantly Test Facts about Science Rather than Scientific Practices.  

October 25 - NO MEETING

November 1 - POSTPONED  Dr. Gretchen Sneegas (Dept of Geography, UW Seattle) will discuss how she has used Wikipedia-based  assignments in her 400 level Energy and Sustainability course.  You can read about her experience in this reflective piece from Wiki Education.

November 8 - Five for Flourishing, Dr. Penelope Moon & colleagues will share their work developing academic interventions to help students thrive   

November 15 - Dr. Camila Lopez-Anido (Dept of Biology, UW Seattle) will facilitate a discussion on study behaviors based on a recent article by Ewell et al. titled A Comparison of Study Behaviors and Metacognitive Evaluation Used by Biology Students.

November 22 - Dr. Josephine Pino (Portland Community College) will share her work developing culturally inclusive Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) for an on-line course.

November 29 - NO MEETING

December 6 - Dr. Crystal Uminski (Newman lab, Genetics and Molecular Biology Education Research, Rochester Institute Technology) will share her work on student understanding of DNA scale and abstraction.  "Sketchy understandings: Drawings of DNA reveal where biology students may need additional instructional support."

Spring 2024

March 29 - Dr. Jennifer Nemhauser & Dr. Elli Theobald (Dept of Biology, UW Seattle) will facilitate a conversation around how we can support one another in continuing to bring DEIJ lens to teaching. 

April 5 - Dr. Mo Turner (Dept of Biology, UW Seattle) - How do and can we support instructors in training? From peer facilitators to graduate TAs

April 12 - Dr. Jon Herron (Dept of Biology, UW Seattle) - Modeling and experimental design - what trips up students?

April 19 - Ev Nichols, Mila Pamplona, and Billie Goolsby (Stanford University) will facilitate a conversation about the bioBUDS program, focusing on  supplementary instruction and the hidden curriculum in postsecondary STEM education.

April 26 - Maddy Meuler (Allen Institute) will facilitate a session introducing the Allen Institute Education program and the ways instructors can integrate Allen into their classes.

May 3 - Dr. Janet Bester-Meredith (Dept of Biology, UW Seattle) - Group work in STEM classes: from evidence to implementation.

May 10 - Emoni Cook (Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California Los Angeles) - Social networks in the biology classroom: finding, making, and being a friend

May 17 - No Meeting - Undergraduate Research Symposium

May 24 - No Meeting  

May 31 - Dr. Jeff Laney and Dr. Casey Self (Dept of Biology, UW Seattle) - *Warning* Explicit Language - is swearing all that bad?

Winter 2024

January 5 - No Meeting

January 12 - Dr. Alison Crowe & Dr. Casey Self (Dept Biology, UW Seattle) will lead a discussion on the collegial evaluation process.   The UW Faculty Council on Teaching and Learning is discussing ways to improve this process.  We are interested in hearing things you like and don't like about the process in your department/college/institution.

January 19 - Bailey Edwards (Brownell Lab,  Research for Inclusive STEM Education (RISE) Center, Arizona State University) will lead a discussion of their research on how religiosity of either students or instructors impacts student acceptance of evolution.

January 26 - Dr. Kristiina Hurme (Dept Biology, UW Seattle) - Group discussion and problem solving in a flipped classroom.

February 2 - Dr. Becca Price (Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences, UW Bothell) and Dr. Alison Crowe (Dept Biology, UW Seattle) will lead a discussion of a recent paper by Imad et al. on the rehumanization of STEM education.   

February 9 - Jynx Pigart (Cooper Biology Education Research Lab, Arizona State University) will share her research on how comparison to others can impact students’ fear of negative evaluation.

February 16 -  Canceled - encourage UW biology members to attend the UW biology grad seminar

February 23 - Dr. Jennifer Nemhauser (Dept Biology, UW Seattle) will share science ethics activities she is developing for a cell/molec/dev introductory biology course.

March 1 -  Dr. Becca Price (Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences, UW Bothell) and Dr. Alison Crowe (Dept Biology, UW Seattle) will continue our discussion of a recent paper by Imad et al. on the rehumanization of STEM education.   

March 8 - Dr. Tabitha Kirkland (Dept Psychology, UW Seattle) will facilitate a conversation about ungrading, focusing on how to implement this approach to assessment in a way that reduces students’ anxiety and uncertainty over their performance.   People who are new to the ungrading approach can read about it here:

https://www.jessestommel.com/why-i-dont-grade/

Autumn 2023

Sept 29 - no meeting 

Oct 6 - Linda Martin Morris (University of Washington, Seattle) will facilitate a conversation about a recent CBE-LSE article from the Cooper Biology Education Research Lab at ASU on the aspects of active-learning courses that exacerbate and alleviate depression in undergraduates.

Oct 13 - TBD

Oct 20 - Kirsten Meltesen (PhD student, Department of Biology, University of Washington, Seattle) will facilitate a conversation about experiential learning.  To provide background for the discussion please look over Kolb & Kolb (2017), focusing on Fig 2, 4, 5, 7 and pp. 11-14, 15-19, & 23-31. If time allows, please consider taking the 10-15 minute educator roles quiz to learn about your own educator role profile (https://kerp.learningfromexperience.com/).

Oct 27 - Dr. Sandhya Krishnan (University of Colorado, Boulder, postdoctoral scholar in Dr. Lisa Corwin's lab) is leading a team investigating the relationship between failure and learning.  She will facilitate a discussion of her data exploring productive failure.

Nov 3 - Dr. Sumitra Tatapudy (University of Washington, Seattle, postdoctoral scholar in Dr. Elli Theobald's lab) will facilitate a conversation about competition in STEM classes and how competition might be short hand for "inequity" to students.

Nov 10 - VETERAN'S DAY OBSERVED - no BLT

Nov 17 - Competition in STEM classrooms: how students understand competition, how instructors understand competition. 

Nov 24 - THANKSGIVING/INDIGENOUS PEOPLES RECOGNITION DAY - no BLT

Dec 1 - Dr. Elli Theobald (University of Washington, Seattle) will solicit feedback around principles of Equitable and Effective teaching

Dec 8 - TBD

Spring 2023

March 31- no meeting 

April 7- Dr. Becca Price (University of Washington, Bothell) will guide us through the key points of the recent NASEM publication, Advancing Anti-Racism, Diversity, equity, and Inclusion in STEM Organizations: A consensus study.

April 14 - Dr. Elli Theobald (University of Washington, Seattle) will facilitate conversation and an idea sharing session about language to use (and avoid) in biology classes.

April 21 - Dr. Mike Wilton (University of California, Santa Barbara) will lead a session on Teaching Professors as change agents for DEI efforts

April 28 - Dr. Shannon Newman (UW Bothell and Green River Community College) will lead a resource-sharing session about how instructors can incorporate DEI into their curriculum rather than relegating the content as "additional."

May 5 - Dr. Jennifer Nemhauser (UW Seattle, Biology) will facilitate a discussion of King et al. 2023: Evading Race: STEM faculty struggle to acknowledge racialized classroom events.

May 12 - All  - Chat GPT: This is an opportunity to share what everyone has been doing/thinking about doing with Chat GPT in their classes. (Here is a resource from the UW Center for Teaching and Learning on the topic.)

May 19 - Undergraduate Research Symposium - no meeting

May 26 - Memorial Day Weekend - no meeting

June 2 - BLT organizers - Looking ahead! What are you excited about? What are you going to modify and try next year? What data will you collect?

June 9 - Biology Graduation- no meeting

Winter 2023

January 6 - No Meeting

January 13 - Dr. Stacy Alvares (Bellevue College) and Dr. Jenny McFarland (Edmonds College) will preview the CBE_LSE special issue on Discipline-Based Education Research (DBER) in community colleges. Here is the short essay introducing this special issue & community college focused papers that have been published so far

January 20 - Dr. Sarah Eddy (Florida International University) will lead a discussion of their recent paper on transgender, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming student experience in the classroom

January 27 - The Buckley Lab (UW Seattle)  and colleagues will discuss the TrEnCh-ed project that features interactive climate change data visualizations to help people learn about how climate is impacting the planet.

February 3 - Dr. Emma Goodwin (Brownell Lab,  Research for Inclusive STEM Education (RISE) Center, Arizona State University) will discuss her work on instructor perception of students with disabilities

February 10 - Group discussion of ideas for future BLT meetings in Spring and next year (Alison)

February 17 - Dr. Casey Self (UW Seattle) and Dr. Alison Crowe (UW Seattle) will lead a discussion of a recent publication in Psychological Science looking at test anxiety: Test Anxiety Does Not Predict Exam Performance When Knowledge is Controlled For.  If you have time, please read over the abstract and introduction to the paper.  We will work collaboratively to interpret the data and discuss if/how these findings might inform our own teaching practice.  

February 24 - CANCELED

March 3 - Dr. Hannah Chapin (Seattle Academy): Increasing equity through scaffolding and differentiation: a low-effort strategy to increase student accessibility and agency while retaining rigor.

March 10 - Dr. Megan Callow  (Director of Writing, UW Seattle) will discuss ways to integrate writing into biology courses and effective assessment strategies. 

 Autumn 2022

October   7-Kick off meeting for the year.  Teaching challenges and solutions for 2022-2023. 

October 14- Dr. Jeremy Hsu, Chapman University will discuss his recent findings published in CBE-LSE
Student Motivations and Barriers toward Online and In-Person Office Hours in STEM Courses.  

October 21- Dr. Alexa Clemmons will discuss her work with CODON

October 28- Dr. Jenny McFarland and collaborators will discuss the RiSE project

November   4- Drs. Gwen Schlicta and Lauren Buckley will lead a discussion on collecting data with students

November 11- Veteran's Day- No BLT

November 18-Dr. Pavan Kadandale, University of California, Irvine  will discuss findings from his recent paper in CBE-LSE "All Groups Are Not Created Equal: Class-Based Learning Communities Enhance Exam Performance and Reduce Gaps"

November 25- Thanksgiving break- No BLT

December   2- Dr. Alison Crowe will lead a discussion on systems thinking based on a recent paper by  Momsen et al. 

December   9- Dr. Stacy Alvares and colleagues will preview the CBE_LSE special issue on DBER in community colleges - Postponed till Winter 23

Spring 2022

April 1- Teaching that messages caring
              Dr. Linda Martin-Morris, Biology Department, University of Washington, Seattle

April 8- Concealable stigmatized identities
              Carly Busch, Brownell Lab,  Research for Inclusive STEM Education (RISE) Center, Arizona State University

April 15- Biology is Non-Binary: Uniquing current norms and norming diversity
                Dr. Aramati Casper, Colorado State University https://aramaticasper.weebly.com/ 

April 22- Test Question Templates (TQTs)
                Dr. Greg Crowther, University of Washington, Bothell
            * Visit my all-things-TQTs web page and click on something that intrigues you

           * Skim or read The effects of specifications grading on students' learning and attitudes in an undergraduate-level cell biology course by Shoshana Katzman et al. 

April 29- Draw it to know it
              Dr. Salwa Al-Noori, University of Washington, Bothell

May 6- "Ducks and Gators"- a virtual lab exercise
                    Dr. Jon Herron, Department of Biology, University of Washington, Seattle 

May 13- Culturally sustaining pedagogy
              Maddy Meuler (College of Education) and Dr. Jennifer Doherty (Department of Biology), University of Washington, Seattle

May 20- "Active Learning Instructors' Goals & Practices for Supporting Minoritized Students in STEM,"
                Dr. Yoon Ha Choi, a postdoc at Florida International University

May 27- Writing across the disciplines
              Frank MacCarthy and Dr. Megan Callow, Writing Center, University of Washington, Seattle

• June 3- Achievement gap discourse (and why and how to avoid it)

  • • • Dr. Becca Price (School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, Bothell) and 

      • Dr. Elli Theobald (Department of Biology, Seattle),University of Washington

Winter 2022

January 7 - no meeting as quarter has just begun and Omicron has arrived

January 14- group discussion of past experiences/ideas for developing anti-racist curricula in biology courses

January 21 - group discussion on how people have balanced compassion, flexibility and accountability in their classrooms

January 28- A data-based approach to look at the skills being taught across the curriculum
                    Deborah Donovan, Western Washington University

February 4- Depression and online teaching

Tasneem Mohammed, Cooper Biology Education Research Lab, Arizona State University 

February 11- Discussion of Bell Hooks

Elli Theobald, Department of Biology, University of Washington Seattle

February 18 -Race and science curricula
                      Madison Meuler and Jennifer Doherty, Department of Biology, University of Washington Seattle

February 25- Grad student definitions of success and Grad student resource use

Mayrose Weatherton,  Schussler Lab,  College of A & S, University of Tennessee Knoxville

March 4- Identifying challenges students have in understanding the dynamic nature and regulation of complex metabolic pathways. https://www.lifescied.org/doi/10.1187/cbe.20-04-0078

Dr. Jennifer Loertscher , Chemistry Department, Seattle University

March 11- Discussion on how to introduce students to molecular genetics.  

Punnett Squares or Protein Production.  Jennifer Nemhauser, Department of Biology, University of Washington Seattle

Autumn 2021

Oct  8- Returning to F2F instruction.  What are the rewards and challenges of returning to in person teaching?

Oct 15- What are the challenging concepts and content in Cell and Molecular Biology

Oct 22-What are the challenging concepts and content in Ecology

Oct 29-  Using the 3D-LOP to determine how you teach science practices.
                  Bain, Kinsey, Lydia Bender, Paul Bergeron, Marcos D. Caballero, Justin H. Carmel, Erin M. Duffy, Diane Ebert-May et al. "Characterizing college science instruction: The Three-Dimensional Learning Observation Protocol." PLoS One 15, no. 6 (2020): e0234640.

S1 File. 3D-LOP protocol. This document includes an expanded description of the 3D-LOP protocol. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234640.s024 (DOCX)

Nov. 5- Christina Cline, NIU, "Value for Learning Communication Skills in Undergraduate Biology Students"

Nov 12-Half way  through the term:  What have we learned about the return to in-person teaching and how does it inform winter quarter?

Nov 19- Keenan Noyes, MSU,  Ph.D. candidate Melanie Cooper's lab, "Teaching about ATP in Chemistry and Biology classes"

Nov 26- Thanksgiving

Dec 3- Tatiane Russo-Tait,   UT-Austin,  "Science faculty's conceptions of equity and their relationship to teaching practices”
https://education.utexas.edu/student/tatiane_russo-tait
she is a graduate student in Catherine Reigle-Crumb's lab at UT Austin

Dec 10 ( last meeting of Autumn)-- Nicole Suarez, UC SanDiego, "Instructor's Concept of Diversity"