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In ISB202, Spring Semester 2020, the first high-impact assessment is applying nature of science and scientific literacy concepts to a case study on the biology of skin color. The worksheet and corresponding answers are included below. The full grading rubric can be found by clicking the attachment.
Part 1: The Investigation
1. Consider the research question: “Is there a connection in the intensity of UV radiation and skin color?” What type of study did they perform to investigate this question (observational study, modeling study, or experiment)?
Modeling or observational study are acceptable answers.
2. Explain some of the key components of the study that explain your choice for question #1. Make sure to include specific components (e.g., if there is a control and experimental group, then what were they? If not, then how do you know?). Answer in 2-3 sentences.
Modeling: maps are models showing distribution of skin color and UV radiation
Observational: collected data and did not have a control and experimental group- would not make sense with this research question to do an experiment
3. Evaluate the study’s methods. For instance, what kinds of things were held constant (for example, when we compared different models of the tube activity, each model developer had access to the same materials)? What was the sample size and did it use replicates? Consider different factors that we discussed during Week 2. Evaluate the methods; do not just create a list. Answer in 3-4 sentences.
Answers will vary, such as constants being using similar tools for measuring skin color and UV radiation
4. After they created the two maps (one for UV exposure and one for skin color), what was the resulting conclusion? Make sure to consider this part of the study and not the entire video.
Correlation between skin color and UV radiation (they may make a causal statement, which is also used in the video)
Answer should be the causes of this correlation (such as folate and vitamin D)
5. Describe a general pattern in the maps (i.e., the data) that support the conclusion that you described for question #4. Then explain two specific examples that support it.
The general pattern of darker skin in areas with more UV radiation and they will need two specific examples; they might describe higher elevations also correlating with darker skin (and more UV radiation)
6. After viewing the entire video, what kinds of questions do you have? Develop one testable, scientific research question that extends the research (no just replicate it).
Answer varies but should be testable and not just ethical questions- it is fine if the question is a natural science or social science question.
Part 2: Data Analysis
7. The graph below summarizes the age at which people are diagnosed with melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer. Consider the claims made throughout the video. Does this graph support or refute a claim in the video? Complete “a” and “b” below to answer this question.
A. Describe the relevant claim in one sentence:
Darker skin (may also mention eumelanin) is selected for to protect folate, an important vitamin for preventing birth defects; it is not selected for to prevent skin cancer
B. Do the data in the graph support or refute the claim? Explain your reasoning in 2-3 sentences.
Majority of people get skin cancer after 45 years of age, which is after reproductive years- natural selection cannot act after reproductive years because it does not affect the probability of getting genes to the next generation.
Part 3: Controversies
8. Describe one scientific controversy mentioned in the video- either current or resolved. Describe the specific evidence and define “scientific controversy” within your explanation. Answer in 3-5 sentences.
The main controversy that students may describe is why dark skin was selected for. Originally thought it was due to protect against skin cancer, which evidence does support that those with darker skin are less likely to develop skin cancer. However, new evidence suggests that it is to protect folate after it was showed to be important in preventing birth defects and can be damaged by UV radiation.
The controversy must be a scientific controversy, not an ethical one.
 

If a student discloses that they have experienced discrimination or harassment, you must refer them to the Office of Institutional Equity. The Office of Institutional Equity (OIE) reviews concerns related to discrimination and harassment based on age, color, gender, gender identity, disability status, height, marital status, national origin, political persuasion, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, veteran status and weight under the University's Anti-Discrimination Policy (ADP) and concerns of sexual harassment, sexual assault, stalking, dating violence, domestic violence, and other forms of sexual misconduct under the Relationship Violence and Sexual Misconduct and Title IX (RVSM) Policy.  
A student can file a report here.  
 
Confidential reporting for students
There are a number of resources on campus that can provide a confidential space where students can explore their options, talk about what happened, and obtain support services. Individuals often find it difficult to speak about what happened. Talking with someone once, or receiving ongoing support, can aid in recovery and assist with safety planning. If students access these services, they will be directed to other needed resources.  These private and confidential resources are available at no cost. These services are not required to report incidents to the Office of Institutional Equity or campus police.  
A student can access confidential resources here.
 
Mandatory reporting for faculty and staff
All University “responsible employees” and volunteers who are not otherwise exempted by this policy and/or applicable law must promptly report incidents of relationship violence, sexual misconduct, stalking, and retaliation that they observe or learn about in their professional capacity or in the context of their work and that involve a member of the University community or which occurred at a University-sponsored event or on University property. Please review the University Reporting Protocol.
 

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.-Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride 
Although that is not the line for which Mandy Patinkin's Inigo is best known, my observations of students in my introductory pathology and molecular diagnostics courses certainly was bringing it to mind more and more often. They were hearing and repeating the right words, but the precise meaning, so important in medicine, was somehow never quite grasped. For reasons I didn't completely understand, what had worked for years wasn't working in my classroom anymore, so I set out to find a practical solution. My first step was discovering reasons for the change. The extended version of that "why" I discovered is material for another whole article. Emphasis on context-based strategies for learning vocabulary in K-12 education, multi-tasking while studying, the effects of reading from screens, not reading at all, decreasing attention spans, and the collective effects of education during the COVID-19 pandemic were all likely contributors to students' "light" understanding of the necessary vocabulary. I was pretty discouraged when I realized that I couldn't change any of those things! However, I wasn't ready to give up, so I started looking in the literature for strategies and solutions. As you might imagine, not a lot has been published about teaching vocabulary to college students, but I did find some ideas when I read about teaching vocabulary to bilingual students and students with learning differences.When you are learning a new language (or struggling with various aspects of accessing your own), you may be missing or misunderstanding the meaning of new words even in context. My students were learning a new language, kind of, as they built their medical vocabulary, weren't they? With that hypothesis in mind, one deceptively simple activity stood out from this research, something known as a "Does it Make Sense" or DIMS activity.  Few resources were needed and little prep time. It didn't take a lot of class time to accomplish. It seemed like a low risk place to start.I created my version of a DIMS activity this way. I found about 25 3 x 5 cards moldering in the back of my desk drawer. On them, in bold black marker, I printed short statements about the current unit in pathology. I was teaching immunology, seredipitously the lessons in which learning precise language is most important in the course. The statements I wrote each had an error, a word or two that needed to be changed for the statement to be correct. At the end of a lecture with about 20 minutes of class time left, I pulled out the cards and asked the students to form groups of 4-5. Once the groups were formed, I gave these brief instructions:

Choose one person to read the statement on the card aloud. You may need to read it more than once. 
Discuss the statement. Each statement has an error. Determine the error in the statement in your group.
Then decide how to change the statement to make it correct. 
When you have your correction ready, raise a hand and I will come and hear your answer. If you get stuck, raise your hand and I will come over and help. 

I handed a card to each group, and let the discussions begin. When a group finished and they gave me a correct answer, I gave them another card. Some groups flew through card after card. Others took their time and needed a hint or two to decode their statement. All of the groups had great discussions, and they seemed to stay on task the whole time. In fact, no one, including me, noticed that the activity continued through the end of class and beyond. We had stayed an extra ten minutes when I finally noticed and sent them home! I had one of the best days in the classroom that I had had in a long time. From what I could see as I ran around the room from group to group, most of the students had that "aha" moment that we want for them, the moment they understand and learn something new. What did they learn? Did they learn proper use of every word in the vocabulary of immunology that day? Not at all, but that wasn't the point. The objective was to show them the importance of precise language in medicine and to encourage them to work harder on their own to master the new words in a new context. Based on my observations in class that day and casual student feedback, I think I can say mission accomplished! I plan to expand my use of this type of activity and other low tech approaches in the next few semesters. I want to collect more formal outcomes data and do some actual analysis beyond casual observation. My gut is telling me that I'm on to something. Watch this space for more, and if you are interested, feel free to contact me about collaboration!References:How Grades 4 to 8 Teachers Can Deliver Intensive Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension Interventions to Students With High-Functioning Autism Spectrum DisorderDanielle A. Cravalho, Zaira Jimenez, Aya Shhub, and Michael SolisBeyond Behavior 2020 29:1, 31-41 

Introduction to Spartan StudiosThis is the first article in our iTeach.MSU playlist for the Spartan Studios Playkit.
Spartan Studios are experiential interdisciplinary courses at Michigan State University where students respond to real life situations or wicked problems and design solutions in partnership with local stakeholders. Faculty members design and plan these courses with support from the Hub for Innovation in Learning and Technology, and we want to expand the number of experiential course offerings across campus. By experiential, we mean that students learn through experience as well as reflecting on their experiences. Studios experiences support student success by providing more accessible high-impact educational practices. Interdisciplinary courses are co-taught by multiple faculty members coming from different disciplinary backgrounds and/or departments across campus, exposing students to approaches/methods not normally part of their major. These courses are a response to the problem of the siloed university and complement students’ developing disciplinary training.
About the Playkit
This playkit, a combination of playbook and toolkit, is a resource for faculty interested in developing their own Spartan Studios course or expanding aspects of their interdisciplinary, experiential teaching. This resource was developed by the Spartan Studios project over 2020-21 with extensive feedback from MSU faculty members, external partners, and consultations with experiential education programs at other institutions. You will find descriptions of: 
▶️Plays: our best practices for planning, implementation, assessment, and evaluating your experiential course.
🔧Tools: resources for developing elements of your own experiential interdisciplinary course
How to Use this Playkit
We encourage you to approach this Playkit in a spirit of experimentation and to play with these suggestions as you think through your own potential Studio course and reflect on how these components could inform your teaching and impact your students. Our research suggests that the arrangement of components we present here following the Studios model can lead to transformative student outcomes, and we’ve compiled an Appendix of emerging scholarship on these benefits. We’ve also observed that faculty members who incorporate a few or only one of these evidence-based practices can still generate benefits to student outcomes. If designing an entirely new experiential course is too much, you have the option to treat these as à la carte suggestions for experiences that students tell us matter to their learning and growth beyond MSU. 
The Hub runs yearly workshops on experiential, interdisciplinary teaching and how to plan and teach your own Studio course. You are welcome to connect with the Hub if you have questions about elements of the Playkit or how to apply them in your own teaching.Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

What inspired you to pursue this project?



What inspired our team to pursue this project was to create a virtual reality application that included data from common scenarios to help individuals recognize their own biases in action. The purpose of developing this immersive experience was to demonstrate examples of situations many people experience every day. Our hope is that this project will provide a way for us to better understand the lives and experiences of people different from ourselves.



Who was involved in the project or made a significant contribution?



 
In addition to Dr. Quentin Tyler and Dr. Linda Nubani, the team includes CANR Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion representatives Ayodele Daré, Phillip Seaborn and Dr. Emily Sorroche.



What are some of the successes that you have experienced on this project?



Some of the successes that we have experienced in this project is the purchase of the oculus headset and success in downloading the A Mile in My Shoes project into the system, we have been able to stay in contact with the VR company to help in updating the VR application with new features in a reasonable time and scripts for the scenarios that we have drafted have been completed and are ready to be used with our participants. Our team has officially settled on a day for the beta test of this project.



What are some of the challenges that you have experienced on this project?







Some challenges that we came across were barriers regarding copyright issues that prevented us from utilizing an unconscious bias video that is instrumental in the overall training. Additionally, the team recognized the need of additional avatars to better represent the MSU Community so we contacted the vr company to assist in creating more avatars.












Describe some of the unexpected outcomes that occurred during this project?



Some of the unexpected outcomes that occurred during this project. Initially when this project was being developed, we intended to unveil this project in 2021 but due to the pandemic, we had to place a hold on the project. However, this prompted our team to develop a method for most MSU employees and students to access the system remotely without the headset.










What are the key lessons that you learned from the project?From working on this project we have learned that it is incredibly important for people to experience different situations and have conversations with others about diversity, equity and inclusion in safe and enlightening spaces. Through the system we can provide a safe space for our participants to prepare them for when they experience a microaggression and how they can act and support those that may experience it.



How would you describe the final status of the project?
The program is continuously being updated to improve the overall VR experience. Our team is updating the features in the vr system for accessibility use and new avatar creation. We are beginning to schedules sessions for participants to volunteer to be apart of the beta test for the program that we intend to schedule in January



What are the next steps for this project or research?







In January, we will be moving into the next stage for out beta test of the system. We will be scheduling to invite staff members to go through the “A Mile in My Shoes” project. They will go through the scenarios that office as created and observe the situations and describe how they would have handled the situation. Additional future plans include making the VR application available to more people and units at MSU, as well as supporting broader usage by other universities and organizations.








 

This video was made by Yuyang Cai for the University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum. This video is a part of the main content in the "Teaching Multilingual Learners: An Introduction to Translingual Pedagogy" Playlist. After watching this video, check out the comments below and then continue on to the next post in the playlist. 
 
How does what you observed in the video connect with what you wrote earlier, about your experiences teaching multilingual learners?
 

MSU's Enhanced Digital Learning Initiative (EDLI) has received a National Science Foundation Improving Undergraduate STEM Education grant to support research aiming to improve student learning outcomes and equity in blended online and in-person courses. As part of the study, we are seeking instructors interested in or already implementing blended undergraduate courses to participate for one or more semesters between Spring 2024 - Fall 2025.
What counts as “blended”?
Courses where the contact hours incorporate a mix of in-person and online (synchronous or asynchronous) instruction will likely qualify, including those where the course is offered fully in person but students are able to attend via Zoom. Fully online courses or in–person courses with online assignments (that are not part of the credit contact hours) will not qualify. 
We ask that instructors:

Participate in professional development with other blended course instructors, including:

Kick-off meeting/workshop with one-on-one consultations
Online learning community throughout the semester

Facilitate data collection, including: 

A course observation
A one-hour instructor interview 
Dissemination of two student surveys and consent/recruitment materials 
Tracking student attendance and the modality of student attendance


Instructors will receive:

Technical and pedagogical assistance through the professional development and learning community
$1000 overload stipend per semester (up to 4 semesters from Spring 2024 - Fall 2025)
Potential funding for undergraduate learning assistants

Priority given to STEM courses that feature in-person class sessions with synchronous Zoom sessions for online students


To learn more or participate:
Email Dr. Caitlin Kirby, kirbycai@msu.edu; or follow this link to our recruitment survey.

ResearchThis is the eighth article in our iTeach.MSU playlist for the Spartan Studios Playkit.
There are many potential approaches to research connected to teaching a Spartan Studios course. These include:

Disciplinary research inspired by the course

Novel methods, insights, theories, applications, or results inspired by activity in the course that fall within one instructor’s discipline. For example, a student team comes up with a new approach to solving a packaging problem. The packaging faculty member works with those students to write up and publish this innovation.

Studying institutional or student success outcomes
Education research on your pedagogical methods and processes
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) or Disciplinary‐Based  Education Research (DBER) about student learning outcomes.
Research into student teamwork (for example, by analyzing student communication networks)
Research on partner or community impacts and outcomes
See our Appendix for examples of research about Studios and other similar experiential courses 

▶️Plan ahead with your team for the kinds of research you’re interested in pursuing. There may be relevant data to collect during the semester, including classroom observations, student interviews/surveys, or specific assignment designs. You will also need to obtain institutional approval as well as consent from students and/or external partners to include their data in your research. 
🔧MSU’s Office of Research and Innovation has resources for faculty members to get started on a research project, involving undergraduate students in research projects, and more.  
🔧The Hub for Innovation in Learning and Technology has been conducting research on several Studios courses and can share our experiences in that area.
Next Steps
For more information about any of this material or to find out how you can teach your own Spartan Studios course, contact the Hub for Innovation in Learning and Technology (hub@msu.edu). We offer yearly workshops on planning and pedagogy for Studios courses and can consult with any interested units or faculty members. You are welcome to watch our workshop from the Spring Conference on Teaching, Learning, and Student Success (May 7, 2021) where faculty heard more about teaching Spartan Studios courses, got feedback on ideas for course designs, and heard from instructors who have already taught a Studio course.Photo by hannah grace on Unsplash