In recent years, accreditation standards for international engineering education have led to a dramatic rise in the use of outcome-based education at universities. In this system, enticing new undergraduate students to science and engineering, although challenging, is the first important step toward building students' career competencies. An…

It takes a deep commitment to change and an even deeper commitment to grow.-- Ralph EllisonThis quote from Ralph Ellison highlights the complexity of the concepts of change and growth. As faculty, we are constantly called on to facilitate the growth and change of our students through their academic work. This chapter provides a narrative of one…

The Microbiology Concept Inventory is an assessment tool derived from the fundamental statements created by the American Society for Microbiology. This two-tier, multiple-choice question inventory requires students to choose the most correct answer for each question and provide a brief justification of their reasoning. Educators can utilize this…

This study aimed to probe whether using the backward summary technique led to reading comprehension enhancement among non-English major university students at the Islamic Azad University of Babol, located in Babol city, in the North of Iran. 120 B.S. level nursing and microbiology students were randomly selected from a population of non-English…

We found that actively engaging students in our introductory microbiology course was a challenge given our large class sizes and many non-majors taking the course as a program requirement. Therefore, we introduced a novel active learning strategy to our course. Students grouped into teams of three had to create PowerPoint virtual posters on one of…

The research was carried out to determine whether the use of group tests for undergraduate science students to augment lecture material in a second-year core course in microbiology would improve the retention of material on a subsequent regular mid-term/final exam. On three separate occasions, the students were asked to complete short…

Medical microbiology presents a challenge to undergraduate students, mostly due to its extensive content and complexity of unfamiliar terminology. In addition to a narrative review of the literature, we report findings on students' motivation for and approach to learning in the Infections module of an undergraduate medical curriculum, and their…

Game-based learning environments hold significant promise for facilitating learning experiences that are both effective and engaging. To support individualised learning and support proactive scaffolding when students are struggling, game-based learning environments should be able to accurately predict student knowledge at early points in students'…

The present study was an attempt to investigate the effect of the analysis matrix, a type of graphic organizer, as a language improvement supportive attempt on fostering reading comprehension in an EFL academic context. The main question this study tried to answer was whether using this technique might enhance reading comprehension abilities among…

The integration of course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) laboratory curricula has provided new avenues to engage students at all levels in discovery-based learning. Empirical research demonstrates that CUREs have the potential to foster students' development of…

Educators are recognizing the potential power of immersive virtual reality (IVR) to allow learners to experience previously intangible firsthand phenomena, such as atoms and molecules. In this study, an IVR simulation of a complex gene regulation system was co-designed with an undergraduate microbiology course instructor. The course, with 234…

This study aimed to determine the effect of mastery learning model supported with reflective thinking activities on the fifth grade medical students' academic achievement. Mixed methods approach was applied in two samples (n = 64 and n = 6). Quantitative part of the study was based on a pre-test-post-test control group design with an experiment…

The teaching process is well described as an interaction between teacher, student, and content. Thus, it seems obvious that teachers must know the content to help students to learn it. Instruments have been developed to measure teachers' content knowledge (CK) in biology, but few of them have been provided to the scientific community. Furthermore,…

Test anxiety is a common experience shared by college students and is typically investigated in the context of traditional, face-to-face courses. However, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the closure of universities, and many students had to rapidly shift to and balance the challenges of online learning. We investigated how the shift…

This study examined the effect of the translation of traditional scientific vocabulary into plain English on student achievement in college science instruction. The study took place in the context of an introductory microbiology course. Data were collected from course sections instructed with traditional microbiology vocabulary as well as sections…