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What’s The Buzz?
Classroom-based Lotka-Volterra exercise uses real-world mosquito invasion case study to teach difficult concepts. In the past decade, two species of introduced disease-carrying mosquitoes were detected in the state of California.…
Using Simulations to Teach Cell Biology
Challenges & Rewards Every few years we poll our community of biology educators to find out what topics they’re finding particularly tricky to teach and to help us figure out…
Helping Students Become Better Graphers
Biology education research is a core aspect of SimBio’s teaching tools, and many SimBio content developers participate in our research program. Research collaborations with instructors help us figure out what’s…
Beyond Multiple Choice
The Answers are in the Questions! One of the reasons I enjoy working at SimBio (after three decades of building biology education software) is that we have always maintained a…
Virtual Labs vs. Wet Labs?
Study finds they help students learn different (and in both cases important) skills! Biology instructors sometimes ask me why they should use virtual labs in their classes. The implication seems…
Beyond Curriculum
Bridging Gaps in Science Education Over the past decade, the University of Western Ontario quietly built an excellent science education conference that is one of my favorites to attend. The…
What lies beyond the logical fallacy?
A Lesson from SABER Biology students need and want more training in philosophy! More specifically, they want training in logic. So began a surprising and captivating talk by neuroscientist Dr.…
Helping Undergraduates Understand Natural Selection
Our Research is Making a Difference! Most SimBio authors, myself included, come from biology research backgrounds, so it’s not good enough for us to feel like we’re creating great teaching…
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Important Learning Gains from Genetic Drift & Bottlenecked Ferrets
A Guest Post from Dr. Rebecca Price I’m excited to turn my blog over to Rebecca Price from the University of Washington, Bothell. Rebecca investigates how students overcome their conceptual…
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Team-based Learning Using SimBio’s Evolution Labs
Some novel approaches from our customers At the Association for Biology Laboratory Education (ABLE) conference this past summer in Boston, Dr. Andrew Whiteley from UMass, Amherst, presented a workshop demonstrating…
Collaborative Testing
Modern-day science is a collaborative enterprise. That’s true of most other professions as well, so learning to work and solve problems with others is important. Yet, the grades students receive…
Better feedback through Cyberlearning
With the start of a new academic year comes the dreaded, seemingly never-ending stream of grading. Grading, and providing feedback to students in general, is the most challenging precisely in…
