2022 Science Education Open House

Hosted by Skylight on Thursday, April 28, 2022, at the Earth Sciences Building (ESB), 2207 Main Mall, UBC.  

If you are interested in viewing the recording of the Morning Session (Part 1 & 2), please email us at skylight@science.ubc.ca.

Event Schedule

09:00-09:30 – ESB Atrium: Coffee available, check in at the registration desk

09:30-10:30 – ESB 1012: Morning Session (Part 1)

  • Update from Skylight - Gülnur Birol (Director, Skylight)
  • Looking Back, Looking Forward: Teaching and Learning in the Faculty of Science - Sara Harris (Senior Associate Dean, Academic) and Jaclyn Stewart (Associate Dean, Academic)

10:30-10:45 – ESB Atrium: Break, coffee available

10:45-11:45 – ESB 1012: Morning Session (Part 2)

  • Two featured talks on UBC Science Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) projects:
    • Marcia Graves (MBIM) and David Oliver (MBIM), An Extensible Portfolio-Driven Model to Enhance Student Access to Undergraduate Research Opportunities in the UBC Faculty of Science.
    • Laura Lukes (EOAS) and Shandin Pete (EOAS), Developing a Toolkit for Assessing Student Understanding of How Indigenous Issues Intersect with Their Field of Study.
  • Closing remarks for the morning session

11:45-13:00 – ESB Atrium: Lunch and chatting/networking (posters available)

13:00-14:00 – ESB Atrium: Poster Session

Poster Session

  • Posters presented during the session will feature teaching and learning projects from departments across the Faculty of Science.
# Poster Title Poster Contributors Description
 1 Enhancing Student Self-Regulated Learning in First-year Biology with an Assignment Wrapper  Kathy Nomme, Rhea Storlund, Bernardita Germano, Chin Sun, Silvia Mazabel, Christine Goedhart This research project measured the motivation, emotions, and self-regulation of students in a first-year Biology course and the impact that the use of an assignment wrapper had on their performance.

2.a
2.b
2.c

Enhancing Equity Across Active-Learning Introductory Science Courses Christine Goedhart, Taylor Wright, Amelia Meredith, Yulia Egorova, Jackie Stewart, Joss Ives, Jared Stang, Karen Smith Our UBC’s Equity & Inclusion Scholars Program project aimed to increase equity and inclusion in active-learning first-year science courses. We will present three survey tools called the Inclusive Classroom Climate Instrument, Course Affective Outcome Questionnaire and the Learning Activities Questionnaire with data collected from over 4700 surveys since 2019.
3 Engaging Reflective Thinking on Short-Answer Questions to Improve Student Performance Joss Ives, Jared Stang Guided by dual process theories of reasoning, we have explored a variety of question formats designed to encourage reflective thinking on conceptual multiple-choice questions. This poster provides an overview of multiple studies that have resulted in improved student performance from these interventions.
4 Assessment of Technological Set-up for Teaching Real-time and Recorded Laboratories for Online Learning Emma C. Davy, Steven L. Quane Effective online teaching and learning for laboratory exercises requires students to be able to see and hear the instructor well. This works assesses a variety of audio and visual equipment through student survey results and use in a variety of undergraduate chemistry courses.
5 Graduate-Undergraduate Mentorship in Mathematics: Free Coffee! Matthew Coles, Hannah Kohut, Yuveshen Mooroogen, Jaye Sudweeks After noting a lack of community and connection between graduate and undergraduate students in mathematics, we invited our undergraduate students to get coffee with us. While having coffee, we talked about applying to graduate school, undergraduate research, and their experience in the program so far.
6 Future-ready Computing & Quantitative Skills; Opensource Solutions in Earth Science Courses Francis Jones, Phil Austin, Tara Ivanochko Progress at year 2 of 3 related to project goals: (i) introducing opensource computing facilities to enhance quantitative & 5computing learning in EOSC, ENVR, ATSC courses; (ii) establish sustainable local & institutional infrastructure and workflows; (iii) support faculty to transition courses or course components.
7 Re-invigorating Quantitative Curriculum for Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Science Specializations Francis Jones, Christian Schoof, Philippe Tortell We are at the midpoint of a project to (a) characterize current quantitative curricula in EOAS specializations; (b) recommend adjustments to meet the needs of future students and stakeholders in emerging Quantitative Earth Science (QES) occupations, and (c) attract & inspire appropriate students to pursue QES degrees or take QES courses.
8 Calculus Small Class Implementation: Student & Instructor Experiences Gaitri Yapa, Costanza Piccolo The Department of Mathematics is currently piloting a small class model to teach the two term Differential & Integral Calculus courses that aims to coordinate instruction and include building communities of practice. Here, we display student and small class instructor experiences during the 2021 Winter 1 & 2 implementation, which had slightly different formats.
9 Plom: PaperLess Online Grading Elizabeth Xiao, Andrew Rechnitzer, Colin Macdonald, Gaitri Yapa *Plom* (PaperLess Online Marking;  https://plomgrading.org) is a system for large-scale marking by humans. It prepares QR-coded test papers, collates scanned work, and coordinates a team of graders. Here, we will briefly outline what we can do so far, how we currently support & host the software within the Mathematics Dept, and our plans for how to move forward.
10 Getting More out of Test and Exam Grades Georg Rieger, Jess McIver, Silvia Mazabel, Sean Cooper and Gerwald Lichtenberg We classified test and exam questions into four types that are loosely based on Bloom's taxonomy. Following the first two tests, we posted the corresponding Type I - IV grades along with feedback for students to review and appropriate action to take.
11 Interdisciplinary Learning, Trust-building, and Examining Diverse Perspectives Through a First-year Biology Course Book Club Jaclyn Dee Build trust with your students and extend their learning beyond what you have the time and expertise to teach them. Watch in amazement as something as simple as reading a book together enables your students to discover for themselves the many ways that the Science they are learning in your class has relevance outside your class.
12 Expanding Teaching & Learning Professional Development with CIRTL Natalie Westwood The Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL) is a network of universities across Canada and the United States that supports graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in developing their teaching skills in order to support the future of undergraduate education. Here at UBC, CIRTL runs programs for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows from any discipline aimed at a wide range of experience levels. This presentation will give participants an overview of the what CIRTL is both as a larger network and at UBC, the benefits of participating in our programs, the offerings we have currently at UBC, and an opportunity to share an gaps they may be missing from our current programming.
13 Online Assessment Tool Unlocks Mastery Learning for Students Stephan Koenig, Cinda Heeren The online assessment tool PrairieLearn offers excellent flexibility in creating diverse types of questions and randomizing them. Instructors can then use questions in different contexts like practice problems for repetition, formative engagement, pre-class quizzes, and repeatable exams, offering students the opportunity for mastery learning.
14 Debunking the Misconceptions of Genetic Essentialism with a Pedigree Case Study Ria Goel, Andrea Jackman, Pam Kalas, and Maryam Moussavi Pedigree analysis problems are integral elements of genetics teaching and learning, but have great potential to reinforce genetic essentialism, the belief that individuals from a given social group have a genetic makeup that defines and distinguishes them from other groups physically, cognitively, behaviorally, etc. To debunk this incorrect and dangerous belief, we developed a pedigree-based case study that honours the real-life complexity of heritable phenotypes, and we invite comments and feedback from the audience.
15 Learning Analytics Tools - Exploring Ideas & Identifying Needs Zohreh Moradi We are currently working to develop learning analytics tools with the goal of supporting faculty and staff in the role towards student success and also to improve our student learning experience. In this poster, I will present some of the ideas we are exploring and also would like to hear from you what learning and teaching data or tools we can provide to support you in your role.
16 Earth Science Experiential and Indigenous Learning Laura Lukes, Shandin Pete, Sylvia Mazabel, Bean Sherman, and Brett Gilley The EaSEIL project is a collaboration with students, staff, and faculty from several units at UBC to redesign our thinking, teaching, and practice around field-based experiential learning. Our three pillars are indigenous ways of knowing, accessibility, and systems thinking. We use a “community of practice” model to engage with our partners in professional development, learning, and co-development of contextualized resources, tools, guidelines, and curricula.