Education

Enjoyed the discussion during our February BMB Ed Journal Club on the paper by Esparza, et al. (CBE-Life Sciences Education 2023) raising the question of the potential role of gender role differences in CURES.  While the paper acknowledges that they did not see any gender differences in terms of the interactions between students or selection for best researcher in the lab, it did raise a few questions for our group such as:

Questions from the Journal Club Discussion:

Assigning roles in lab-Is it necessary to assign specific roles within a lab group for CURES or is it sufficient to let the students identify their own role?

Laboratory Badges of Accomplishment-Is there a benefit to providing "badges" within a CURE for students who can demonstrate ability or mastery of a particular laboratory skill?  The idea is that this would go beyond a lab practical to focus on a demonstrated ability to perform a specific experiment or technique.  

Does the Gender of the Lab GA matter?-While the paper referred to other research demonstrating that women performed better in classes with female instructors (Eddy et al., 2014 saw a potentially small increase with female lead classes in female grades), we wondered if there would be a difference in student performance for women Lab Assistants since many lab sections are taught by grad assistants as opposed to faculty.  

Just a few of the questions raised by the journal club participants.  If anyone has suggestions/recommendations or questions of their own on the subject feel free to respond.  

Enjoyed the discussion during our February BMB Ed Journal Club on the paper by Esparza, et al. (CBE-Life Sciences Education 2023) raising the question of the potential role of gender role differences in CURES.  While the paper acknowledges that they did not see any gender differences in terms of the interactions between students or selection for best researcher in the lab, it did raise a few questions for our group such as:

Questions from the Journal Club Discussion:

Assigning roles in lab-Is it necessary to assign specific roles within a lab group for CURES or is it sufficient to let the students identify their own role?

Laboratory Badges of Accomplishment-Is there a benefit to providing "badges" within a CURE for students who can demonstrate ability or mastery of a particular laboratory skill?  The idea is that this would go beyond a lab practical to focus on a demonstrated ability to perform a specific experiment or technique.  

Does the Gender of the Lab GA matter?-While the paper referred to other research demonstrating that women performed better in classes with female instructors (Eddy et al., 2014 saw a potentially small increase with female lead classes in female grades), we wondered if there would be a difference in student performance for women Lab Assistants since many lab sections are taught by grad assistants as opposed to faculty.  

Just a few of the questions raised by the journal club participants.  If anyone has suggestions/recommendations or questions of their own on the subject feel free to respond.  

We hold virtual journal clubs 2-3 times each semester to discuss current BMB education papers.  Our next meeting will be in April (skipping March because of the Annual Meeting in San Antonio).  We will post the future date once it has been determined.  

Enjoyed the discussion during our February BMB Ed Journal Club on the paper by Esparza, et al. (CBE-Life Sciences Education 2023) raising the question of the potential role of gender role differences in CURES.  While the paper acknowledges that they did not see any gender differences in terms of the interactions between students or selection for best researcher in the lab, it did raise a few questions for our group such as:

Questions from the Journal Club Discussion:

Assigning roles in lab-Is it necessary to assign specific roles within a lab group for CURES or is it sufficient to let the students identify their own role?

Laboratory Badges of Accomplishment-Is there a benefit to providing "badges" within a CURE for students who can demonstrate ability or mastery of a particular laboratory skill?  The idea is that this would go beyond a lab practical to focus on a demonstrated ability to perform a specific experiment or technique.  

Does the Gender of the Lab GA matter?-While the paper referred to other research demonstrating that women performed better in classes with female instructors (Eddy et al., 2014 saw a potentially small increase with female lead classes in female grades), we wondered if there would be a difference in student performance for women Lab Assistants since many lab sections are taught by grad assistants as opposed to faculty.  

Just a few of the questions raised by the journal club participants.  If anyone has suggestions/recommendations or questions of their own on the subject feel free to respond.  

We hold virtual journal clubs 2-3 times each semester to discuss current BMB education papers.  Our next meeting will be in April (skipping March because of the Annual Meeting in San Antonio).  We will post the future date once it has been determined.  

Enjoyed the discussion during our February BMB Ed Journal Club on the paper by Esparza, et al. (CBE-Life Sciences Education 2023) raising the question of the potential role of gender role differences in CURES.  While the paper acknowledges that they did not see any gender differences in terms of the interactions between students or selection for best researcher in the lab, it did raise a few questions for our group such as:

Questions from the Journal Club Discussion:

Assigning roles in lab-Is it necessary to assign specific roles within a lab group for CURES or is it sufficient to let the students identify their own role?

Laboratory Badges of Accomplishment-Is there a benefit to providing "badges" within a CURE for students who can demonstrate ability or mastery of a particular laboratory skill?  The idea is that this would go beyond a lab practical to focus on a demonstrated ability to perform a specific experiment or technique.  

Does the Gender of the Lab GA matter?-While the paper referred to other research demonstrating that women performed better in classes with female instructors (Eddy et al., 2014 saw a potentially small increase with female lead classes in female grades), we wondered if there would be a difference in student performance for women Lab Assistants since many lab sections are taught by grad assistants as opposed to faculty.  

Just a few of the questions raised by the journal club participants.  If anyone has suggestions/recommendations or questions of their own on the subject feel free to respond.  

No recordings, unfortunately.  However, I will plan on uploading a little information about the previous papers in future posts.  

We hold virtual journal clubs 2-3 times each semester to discuss current BMB education papers.  Our next meeting will be in April (skipping March because of the Annual Meeting in San Antonio).  We will post the future date once it has been determined.  

Enjoyed the discussion during our February BMB Ed Journal Club on the paper by Esparza, et al. (CBE-Life Sciences Education 2023) raising the question of the potential role of gender role differences in CURES.  While the paper acknowledges that they did not see any gender differences in terms of the interactions between students or selection for best researcher in the lab, it did raise a few questions for our group such as:

Questions from the Journal Club Discussion:

Assigning roles in lab-Is it necessary to assign specific roles within a lab group for CURES or is it sufficient to let the students identify their own role?

Laboratory Badges of Accomplishment-Is there a benefit to providing "badges" within a CURE for students who can demonstrate ability or mastery of a particular laboratory skill?  The idea is that this would go beyond a lab practical to focus on a demonstrated ability to perform a specific experiment or technique.  

Does the Gender of the Lab GA matter?-While the paper referred to other research demonstrating that women performed better in classes with female instructors (Eddy et al., 2014 saw a potentially small increase with female lead classes in female grades), we wondered if there would be a difference in student performance for women Lab Assistants since many lab sections are taught by grad assistants as opposed to faculty.  

Just a few of the questions raised by the journal club participants.  If anyone has suggestions/recommendations or questions of their own on the subject feel free to respond.