UPC Projects and Committee Work by Mandy Schivell

Current Bio Major Track Requirements

schivell — 2023-10-01 19:20:57 UTC

This document has the summary of the courses and the major as it exists currently. After the intro chem/physics/bio series, students in most tracks require at least 37 credits of upper division coursework. This work must include 2 labs, 10 credits of Writing, a "breadth" course and a Natural History/Biodiversity course.

Evaluation of Teaching - how/who/when?

schivell — 2023-10-01 22:23:44 UTC

There is some work being done at the University level on this. Please feel free to add ideas to this thread!!

Open search for temporary lecturers

schivell — 2023-10-01 22:24:25 UTC

Current status - Approved by the UPC
Creating Ad to publish, working on some of the wording

How to add to the Padlet

schivell — 2023-10-17 03:50:04 UTC

Click the yellow "+" button below and a "sticky note" will pop up - you give it a title, then you have the option of linking or uploading files. At the bottom you have a place to write. You can change the color of the sticky note by clicking on the lower left hand corner of the sticky note.

When you are finished you click "Publish"

Note - you can scroll laterally or up and down create more space and to add more sticky notes!

Quantitative Sciences Issues

schivell — 2023-10-18 17:49:26 UTC

What do other departments do? College of the Environment needs a lot of this QSci!!!
Improving Biology-related Qsci
Make sure we are not dumbing it down!
Would this REPLACE math or just be an alternate pathway? (Issue of AP calculus and placing out of one of the courses?)
No clarity on the background - some of our students have NO statistics.

Ideas about tracks - Room 1

schivell — 2023-10-18 18:09:17 UTC

We have 5 Foundations courses, none are plant
- if we added 6th (plant) - you have to take at least 2 - they are prerequisites for many of the 400-levels - This would mean we would have to add more of the 300 levels as prereqs! Could be some which don't need a 300 level?
- try to make a spiderweb map - see how it might play out?
- at least one course in Science and Society
- Outside vs. Inside the body??? :)
- Currently NO requirement for specific Foundations course, it is actually just by definition needed for prerequisites.
- Interactions between ALL of life!!! Connecting all these is important.
- Do we want to make hard barriers between "bins"? Umbrella idea is embracing the courses that are helped by the foundation course...
- Jeannette - great point about students WANTING it to be prescriptive!!!
- If there are a group of courses that do not require a pre-req of foundations, but which is outside of the penumbras (foundations) you have taken.

Breakout room 2 (Janet, Veronica, Sara)

2023-10-18 18:09:26 UTC

-Model after vision and change
- Seems more modern
- reframes the discussion
-Invite Alison to UPC to talk about what happened before with degree change so we don't start back at square 1

Breakout room 2

2023-10-18 18:10:27 UTC

-Invite Alison to UPC to fill us in on the history of degree tracks and what she did with faculty meeting
-Ask faculty what areas they think their courses are fulfilling
-Tracks are a historic remnant of Botany and Zoology merging. Students get pigeonholed into tracks and how do we foster students to have a more integrative mindset instead of being a "human phys" or "mcb" major. Integrate courses with all of the competencies.
-Model content areas after vision and change competencies (listed below) OR do we use current subject areas major options?

1) evolution (the diversity of life-forms that have evolved over time through mutations, selection and genetic change; 2) structure and function (the basic units of biological structures that define the functions of all living things); 3) information flow, exchange and storage (the influence of genetics on the control of the growth and behavior of organisms); 4) pathways and transformations of energy and matter (the ways in which chemical transformation pathways and the laws of thermodynamics govern the growth and change of biological systems); and 5) systems (the ways in which living things are interconnected and interact with one another).

-More holistic and broad education for our students
-Do we define degree by vision and change competencies or keep core subject areas (PHYS, MCB, Ecology, Plant, 2 general tracks)?

Map of Curriculum created by Jeannette, Ben and Gretchen

schivell — 2023-10-18 18:34:28 UTC

DATA ON COMPETENCIES/NEEDS in major from 2019

schivell — 2023-10-18 18:39:34 UTC

Curated list vs a bin (College of the Environment)

2023-10-19 16:13:57 UTC

This is what the College of the Environment has set up for the
Marine Biology Minor Summary

To earn a Minor in Marine Biology, students must complete a Bachelor’s degree concurrently with the minor, and may not complete the minor as a standalone academic program. However, there is now a Marine Biology major if students would like to go more in depth with the subject matter.

The minor is built around 4 required introductory courses from marine biology, oceanography, biology and statistics. Advanced electives are then selected from a curated listed from the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, The School of Oceanography, The Department of Biology, and Friday Harbor Labs. As part of the minor, students will also complete an integrative experience capstone to gain research experience either on campus or at Friday Harbor Labs

AI in Biology

2023-10-20 00:40:16 UTC

Below are my initial notes for the AI Subcommittee. Please feel free to add to the list below.
-Christine Savolainen

Proposal: Create an online resource that interested Biology Educators at UW Biology can use regarding AI in Biology Education.

Topics/Subjects to consider expanding on (not limited to this list, in no particular order of importance):
-Examples of Syllabus Statements that Instructors can use and modify for their course
-Examples of how to incorporate AI into class assignments; example assignments from Biol 118 Summer 2023
-Provide real life MC Exam & AI's responses as an example
-AI literacy: Canvas Quiz for students, video reference (Demystifying ChatGPT), additional links for knowledge resources
-Examples of AI's fallibility: "misunderstanding" questions or prompts posed, interpreting graphs, vague or incorrect responses, etc.
-How to have students use AI in their own work; how to take screenshots of what students asked ChatGPT and use those in their assignments
-Provide a list of AI products currently available / Others at UW are currently using
-Examples of AI being used in Research @ UW Biology (Matt?)
-How are people in the dept currently using AI? 1. for teaching? 2. how are grad students using AI? 3. How are undergrad students?

BioCore Guide (Brownell et al 2017)

schivell — 2023-10-29 22:48:25 UTC

BioSkills Guide (Clemmons et al., 2020)

schivell — 2023-10-29 22:50:05 UTC

Grid maps (based on BioCore)

2023-11-15 19:15:08 UTC

These are a few examples of how to map individual courses or overall curriculum requirements into the two-dimensional grid from the BioCore Guide.