Mentors Honored | SimBio

July 1, 2022 // by Simbio

SimBio founder Eli Meir honored by the BioQUEST Curriculum Consortium

The BioQUEST Curriculum Consortium, an innovator of professional development for life sciences faculty, honored 19 leaders in STEM education as BioQUEST Mentors for their work during the 2021-2022 academic year. Eli Meir was recognized for his mentoring work for the “Grappling with Graphs” Faculty Mentoring Network (FMN).

BioQUEST hosts semester-long Faculty Mentoring Networks (FMNs), which bring faculty from various disciplines, regions, and institution types in an online peer community to implement innovative resources and pedagogical approaches within their classrooms.

The mentors were chosen to lead these professional development opportunities, providing expertise, advice, and guidance as the peer group incorporates new educational practices. In doing so, mentors made significant contributions to STEM education, the professional growth of their peers, and to creating a vibrant, scholarly, innovative community around STEM education reform.

“These mentors worked hard to guide their faculty participants through development, adaptation, and classroom use of educational materials,” said BioQUEST Deputy Director Deborah L. Rook, PhD. “They were able to bring people together to form meaningful online communities committed to improving the experiences of their students.”

In addition to FMNs, BioQUEST provides a cyber and social infrastructure, via the QUBES platform, to support the development, use, and adaptation of open educational materials. BioQUEST emphasizes scholarly teaching practices, including the use of evidence-based pedagogies, thoughtful reflection on implementation results, and sharing outcomes with the community.

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Olga Helmy

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Big Ideas from SABER

Eli Meir

“[SimBio’s modules] provide a powerful environment for hands-on, active learning in Ecology and Evolution. The depth, design, and pedagogical effectiveness of these packages is unequaled. They have greatly enriched student interest and understanding in all of my courses, from Introductory Biology to Advanced Population Biology”

— Dr. Brad Lister

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

“The lab simulations have been very helpful to reinforce the lecture content and encourage students to use critical thinking skills to solve problems.”

— Patti Fallest-Strobl

Neumann University

“I was amazed how quickly and effortlessly the simulation taught them a dynamic system.”

— Paula Philbrick

University of Connecticut

“The students like [it] so much that they are working ahead of what I have assigned. They just think it’s fun. And from the quiz results I have so far, they’re really getting it. You guys are geniuses.”

— Paulette Bierzychudek

Lewis & Clark College

“Since we began using Simbio’s Ecology chapters our students consistently come to class better prepared. This is a key to the success of our hybrid flipped classroom approach.”

— Dr. Peter Curtis

Ohio State University

“That was the most fun I’ve had teaching ecology and, I would venture to guess, the most fun my students have had taking ecology from me.”

— Matt Orr

Oregon State University, Cascades

“Our students are more prepared and our class discussions are more sophisticated because SimUText is such a great out of class “instructor”. Since our students have SimUText preparation we can spend class time applying concepts and evaluating new information.”

— Emily Bernhardt

Duke University

“I LOVE that every lab is based on a real study. I LOVE that all of the labs offer an open-ended inquiry. I LOVE that the labs gradually teach the concepts and build up a repertoire of data collection techniques. Thank you, for creating them.”

— Jeanette Williams

Community College of Vermont

“I just wanted to say how great simutext has been. I could have memorized facts about the electron transport chain and passed the test, but would not have had any solid concept of what was happening inside. I hope that we continue to use it often even when things return to normal.”

— Student

Rochester Community and Technical College

“Congratulations for developing such a high quality chapter. I was very impressed by its comprehensiveness, accuracy, and thoughtful design. It really is superb.”

— Richard Boone

Humboldt State University

“I recommend your modules to anyone I can, because of all the online materials I’ve found, SimBio is really the best in content and best managed. I am definitely a SimBio fan!”

— Valerie Anderson

Marymount California University