Summary comments re BIOS 101

Every semester I try to give my classes some collective feedback on the teaching experience. This document is the one for the fall, 2008, BIOS 101 (General Biology) course. - JJ

Life without American cars?

This link is to CJ's Pitch column on the potential of life without American car companies. Enjoy. - JJ

Presentations on teaching and research at Notre Dame, November 20, 2008

Here is a link to the PowerPoint shows and audio files of the two presentations made at Notre Dame on November 20, 2008. The two presentations are:

(1) Evolution of Parasite Life Cycles: Marshes, Metaphors, and Models (mainly about the trematode life cycle work of Matt Bolek and Scott Snyder, although also considering the early Fundulus zebrinus research and some recent modeling of complex life cycles.

(2) What We Teach, What They Learn, and Why Anyone Should Care (mainly about the teaching of freshman biology).

--JJ

Commentary on "Fringe" (Fox) episode involving parasites.

This link is to a story by Kate Schweitzer, from Popular Mechanics, about the science behind a "Fringe" episode.

Various presentations about parasites and other stuff

This link is to an increasing number of presentations, including PowerPoints, pdfs, and audio (*.wma format). The Cedar Point Biological Station recruiting show (*.ppt and *.wma) are up there for downloading if anyone wants them. The pictures from the CPBS show are of Field Parasitology class in multiple years.

Freshman biology feedback in general

After posting that commentary on student writing for a single week, I decided to put up all the feedback that I've given students over the past seven weeks. Does this feedback seem to help? Maybe.

Feedback to non-majors BIOS 101 (~200 students)

Every Friday, in BIOS 101 (approx. 200 students, mostly freshmen), we do an extemporaneous writing. After those pages are recorded, they have a week to re-do them and generate a page of self-assessment. On October 3, 2008, the prompt was: Based on your knowledge and experience in biology so far, answer the question: Do any of the current candidates for president or vice president understand the importance of scientific research? Answer the question “yes” and defend your answer, then answer the question “no” and defend that answer. After reading their self-assessments, I sent them some feedback (the link); it's been edited slightly.