Well, t minus 2 business days until the start of this “new” semester. The butterflies are fluttering (and not the ones outside!). I’ve spent the past few weeks organizing the class and have a pretty “decent” plan, despite the looming uncertainty for what might happen in this Fall. Right now, the plan is for a hybrid delivery with lectures, presentations, and meeting activities all being virtual. Some of them (such as lectures) will be synchronous and recorded; some will be asynchronous. There will be opportunity for in person collecting of specimens on campus (following proper social distancing guidelines outside) and filming of organisms following University guidelines for any face to face delivery. The class is small, so we should be able to do this if we rotate who comes in to work or if some chose not to come in. I’ve had to shift things around a bit, which has been an interesting exercise in teaching creativity.
For labs, I’ve chopped up the delivery to be smaller live components, VoiceThreads to generate discussions, and tutorials (how to digitize and use R for example). One of the biggest challenges I feel like I’m facing this semester is removing the in person discussion of research (observing in nature, discussions in small groups, troubleshooting), so I’m trying to move it online, using VoiceThreads, discussion boards and tutorials. I’ve also been motivated by Price et al’s (2020) recent paper to have discussion threads of research questions online. VoiceThreads are a new technology to me, integrated with our blackboard, so we’ll see how they work. I’ve also been inspired by colleagues at Towson teaching CUREs, where they plan to have one group member in class, while the others Zoom in. This is something I’m hoping we can do once we get groups formalized and data collection starts. A group member or two come in to film, one is at home recording the data.
As I continue to plan and organize I have been thinking about incorporating other components to the course that could use some assistance from the broader scientific community (which I am happy to reciprocate).
First, in the (likely) event that we go completely online, meaning no collection on campus or filming, I am curious if others would be able/willing to share videos of animals moving (locomotion, feeding, other) for students to analyze at home. The videos could be part of a publication or extra that were not used, as long as students can obtain data from it (performance or kinematics) using ImageJ or something similar and there is information about the videos. The videos will not be used in publication and full credit will be given. Students may do an assignment interviewing you about the data if they chose to use it. I and ULA’s (undergrad learning assistants) will also be going out around campus collecting invertebrates to film to add to the database. I’m happy to reciprocate sharing videos, but please contact me if interested and I can provide more details.
Second, I have decided to introduce Scientist Spotlights. I have several planned with researchers whose papers we will read (thank you to those that already agreed to join us). However, I am interested in more Scientist Spotlights in the second half of the semester (after 10/12, which has fewer planned activities as most of the time is dedicated to research and lab meeting type activities). If you are interested in giving a half hour talk about yourself, your journey, and your research, please let me know. We meet M 1-4:30 and W 3-4:50 (EST). I can provide more information. My hope is that if we are limited in “doing” research, maybe we can have more discussions about research with others from all over. Again, I’m happy to reciprocate, and contact me if interested or for more details.
More information on the class can be found on these webpages and in Oufiero (2019). Towson University is Maryland’s largest comprehensive university situated just outside the Baltimore City limits. The class is all undergraduates from all of our majors, including concentrations in Functional Biology of Animals; Ecology, Evolution and Conservation; Cell and Molecular; as well as other majors in Bioinformatics, Animal Behavior and Environmental Science.
So, this is the “plan.” I have to remind myself, as I learned first time around, to expect the unexpected and be flexible.