Conference Session

Labs and Experiential Learning

Collection

2021 Illinois-Indiana Regional Conference

Authors

Gurcan Comert; Zulfikar Berk, University of South Carolina; Robert Petrulis; Balaji Iyangar; Esmail M Abuhdima, Benedict college; Negash Begashaw, Benedict College

Tagged Topics

Diversity, Labs and experiential learning

designed problems and activities. However, in the summer of 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the program had to be transitioned into a virtual research experience. In this study, we reflecton our experiences as supervising faculty, and the results of pre- and post-experience surveys completedby four groups of undergraduate researchers. In contrast to previous years’ REUs, team interactions werenot possible in the virtual environment, and activities were mainly training programs. Students were ableto work with previously collected real data and write code. The participants’ final presentations weretechnically better than those in the previous two years. Regarding the development of so-called soft skills,student engagement, team working skills

Conference Session

Diversity, Inclusion, and Access

Collection

2021 Illinois-Indiana Regional Conference

Authors

La'Tonia Stiner-Jones, The Ohio State University

Tagged Topics

Diversity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Access

. Wecompleted the first of three research experiences thus far. Here we expand upon currentknowledge to show the role of professional development in preparing students for graduate studyand research in the field of BMMB.Each week participants attended professional development seminars focused on topics tofacilitate their success in the application process and graduate school, writing a resume andcompetitive application materials, how to write an abstract and give presentations, and what toexpect and how to be successful in graduate school. Throughout the summer studentsparticipated in weekly journal clubs with faculty to help them understand faculty mentor researchand the discipline of BMMB. Facility tours helped students see firsthand the types of

Conference Session

Classroom Methodologies

Collection

2021 Illinois-Indiana Regional Conference

Authors

Brian S. Woodard, University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign; Tiffany Wenting Li; Ziang Xiao, University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign; Molly H Goldstein, University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign; Michael L. Philpott, University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign

Tagged Topics

Classroom methodologies, Diversity

rotations. Students who wereidentified as having weak spatial skills compared to their peers were advised to take a half-semestervisualization training course. The gender trends from the visualization assessment fit with past data, andadditional race and ethnicity trends in the data are presented. Male students who are not in underrepresentedminority groups generally performed the best on the assessment. The effectiveness of the spatialvisualization training course was determined by giving those students the same assessment again that all ofthe students took initially. Overall, the course provided significant gains in spatial visualization skills tothe students, consistent with past results with similar courses. This course was offered entirely