Week 9-10 Recap: Moving right along…

At this point in the course, students are suppose to have the basic content of the course under their belt and their projects firmly established. despite us being mostly remote, for the most part we are where we should be. We have learned a lot from our scientists that joined us. We all have experience filming. We have worked through filming setups, animals not doing what we want, and the students have projects they are working. It is pretty impressive what the students are doing this semester at home with their iPhones, some basic supplies, and invertebrates. I’m planning on sharing at the end of the semester what they have all been doing. The focus of the course shifts at this point from scaffolding to student-driven inquiry. My role is to be a mentor to them as they conduct research, it’s a bit tougher remotely, but it is working. The projects this semester may not be publishable, may not have the sample sizes, or be ideal, but again, I’m impressed with what the students are accomplishing.

Week 9 had us focusing on collecting videos and starting to digitize. There was an assignment at the start of week 9 where students had to submit an example video, the digitized point, and the resulting performance/kinematics. Aside from some glitches in Tracker that we figured out, the videos, tracked points and resulting performances look good. This is one of the checkpoints I have in the class to ensure we can get the data we hope to, which has become more important working remotely. On Monday, I gave a short lecture on presentation skills using some slides from Amy Cheu. Thank you Amy for posting those, as I am not artistic and her presentation is really helpful. This short presentation was in preparation for the students presenting during the rest of the semester. Wed. of  Week 9  saw our first set of live, virtual student presentations where they summarized a paper from the primary literature. These went well given the virtual environment.

Week 10 started with a small lecture on what an annotated bibliography is as that will be our next large assignment. There was a Research Proposal VoiceThread presentation due at the start of class Monday. This is one thing I changed due to the nature of the class. Normally there are only 4 or so presentations as students are working in groups. Since everyone is working independently, we would have 10 presentations. Instead of doing it synchronously, having more Zoom time, I turned it into a VoiceThread assignment. Students uploaded their presentations to VoiceThread and commented over their slides for their presentation. This worked well, aside from some formatting issues with VoiceThread. They can do the presentations at their own pace without having to sit online more. Students continued to collect videos and worked on projects, at home for most. The students coming in continued to collect videos of their animals. Wed. saw our second set of student presentations, summarizing articles from the primary literature.

A fairly uneventful two weeks, which is perfectly fine. The class is building up to larger projects, so I want to make sure they have the time (in class or at home) to complete those. As most students are finishing up data collection, we’ll turn our focus to data presentation and analysis.

 

Week 1-2 recap: I heard you missed us, we’re back?

Whew. That felt like an entire semester. And we’re only 2 weeks done. Let’s recap teaching this research based course in a pandemic.

Remember, the University was allowing and pushing for some face-face classes. We were one. A hybrid.

Week 1 started off with an email to the faculty and students the Saturday before, that classes the first week would be remote due to a high number of positive Covid-19 tests. Every one returning had to take a test or provide results of one. So, already had to pivot for the first week. The only thing the students would really miss was an in class experiences working with high-speed cameras that weren’t their phones. In the back of my mind, I knew this is it for the semester. The first day was introductions and organizing. Monday is designed as a long class period for in class time to do research, instead after about an hour and a half, I let them go to work on small assignments at home. The first assignment is getting a high-speed video of something. I normally do this in class the first few weeks to get them use to using the equipment, instead they learned to use their phones. Students submitted videos to a VoiceThread and turned in great examples (highlight of my week). Spray aerosols, lighters, sandcrab flipping, pets, their eye blinking, partners drumming, ink in water. So, even though they weren’t learning to use high end cameras in class, they were learning how to use their devices.

Wednesday’s class was a lecture but was preceded by another email from the University that the entire semester was remote, with exceptions. Students that just moved in…had to move out. I filed to be an exception as some students really want lab/research experience. Several students are part of our Animal Behavior major and many of their internships were cancelled this summer. This might be the only hands on experience they get. Wednesday’s lecture was fine, but from my perspective it is different. I was in the classroom to give me (and them) the perspective of being in class. But I lectured to an empty room and a screen. With an owl staring at me. It’s hard to gauge how fast I’m going, if student’s understand the material, and open the class for discussion. I don’t envy the students who have to do this for all their classes, likely on different platforms (Zoom, Webex, Blackboard, oh my). It’s tough.

Week 1 went okay, despite the changes. Students were submitting videos. They were commenting on VoiceThreads on material we normally discuss in lab. The goal of the week was to understand how to get a high-speed video and what makes a good one for analysis.

Week 2 started out a bit rougher. We got approval as an exception to remote learning for at most 6 students to come in. I set up a sign up sheet on blackboard and 3 decided to come in. The building was suppose to be unlocked….it was not. I set Zoom up to be 1am not 1pm, so the link was hard to find. As I lecture I have to deliver the material, man the waiting room, and chat room. I might see if one of the ULAs can assist with this. At least I had some students in class, but I had a mask on, making it a bit more difficult to lecture. It was short lecture to introduce the week’s topic, learning how to track animals. So, afterwards I kept Zoom open and the three students in had a 1:1 ratio of student to teacher/ULA. I had some crickets, crayfish and fiddler crabs in for them to practice filming with and tutorials how to use the equipment so I didn’t have to be close. It all worked out well. But it was exhausting. There is another assignment this week to submit a video of an animal moving, some will use the videos from class some will upload their own.

Wednesday’s class was a bit smoother. I had the right zoom time to start. I lectured from my office on my computer, taking the time to have powerpoint, Zoom participants and chat open, so I could see them all at once. We discussed factors that might affect performance. The highlight of Wed. was our first Scientist Spotlight. Dr. Kristin Winchell from Washington University in St. Louis joined us virtually to tell us about her journey as a scientist and her research. The class read her recent paper on urban evolution (Winchell et al. 2018), submitted questions before hand, and asked them after her talk. She gave a great talk on her journey as a scientist, her research, provided videos for the class to see how it can be tough to motivate animals, and had some great messages throughout. I’ve never done anything like this, but thought it was great and hope to do it more, even not when we are all remote. We have a few more Scientist Spotlight’s coming up throughout the semester.

So, a rough, changing start to the semester, but we’re off and running……

Research Abstract Movie Trailer Assignment

Well the class has been in data collection mode. I am there for support, but the student’s are busy finishing collecting videos and digitizing. We learned about data analysis and presentation these past weeks.

This week I had the students create and submit a movie trailer for their research. I wanted to give the students a creative assignment, highlight their videos, and advertise their research. Since I am a big fan of movies (and love when new trailers come out), I thought I would try this as an assignment. I created a rubric to ensure that the student’s were aware their research needed to be the focus, but that it should be creative and fun. They needed to clearly state their hypothesis, show some methods, and have fun with it. Every group submitted theirs and on the Monday before Thanksgiving, I made some popcorn and we all previewed them. I wasn’t aware that iMovie actually had movie trailer templates, so several groups used those, which helped with editing, creativity, and creative commons music (which we discussed). They were a bit skeptical of the assignment, not sure of what I was looking for, and asked if I had ever done one, which I had not. But, since we had an unexpected snow day the Thursday before, I decided to try my hand at it and created one for them. This was a really fun assignment, every group did a great job at showcasing their research and creativity. As a bonus, I will be sharing their videos with the faculty and staff here as advertisements for each group’s poster coming up at our Dept.’s annual fall poster day. The group that gets the most faculty to visit (they’ll have sign in sheets) based on their trailers will get some bonus points. I’ve also considered giving a bonus to the group that has the most views on social media as they are posted on youtube and twitter. Below are the trailers, get some popcorn and enjoy!

 

 

First up, my trailer for the assignment. I’m not a horror movie fan, but felt it was appropriate:

 

Second, team water strider takes a sci-fi suspense approach, can these scientists save mankind from the invading water striders?

 

Next, team stink bug examines the “super” flight abilities of invasive marmorated stink bugs.

 

Team crayfish introduced the world to the crayfish olympics.

 

And last, but certainly not least, team jump draws inspiration from the Hunger Games to examine the Jumping Games:

 

 

Week 9-10 recap

Well, the class is really up and running now and we are in the midst of data collection. During week 9 we spent Monday collecting videos. Everyone has been working really well and are getting some great videos. On Wed. of week 9, we had our first set of presentations by students summarizing a paper relevant to their research project. I used this rubric to grade the presentations and we learned about different crayfish escapes, crayfish facial recognition, and grasshopper jumping. I also extended the deadline for their video, digitized point, and kinematic test, so we spent some of Wed. going through their kinematic code to make sure they are getting data.

Here is a video of team jump.

 

Week 10 started off with more data collection, teams came in and started working. Groups also started working on digitizing their videos and getting kinematics. The goal is to have all our videos collected by Thanksgiving, so we can move on to data analysis. In a few weeks I’ll give a short lecture on data analysis and presentation, since all groups will be presenting at the Department of Biological Sciences poster day on Dec. 7. On Wed, each group gave a short presentation on their proposed research, graded following this rubric. We also had another student present a paper on water strider jumping performance.

Here is a video from Team Water Strider

Week 5-6 recap

Things are moving along in the course. Week 5 started off with another cancelled field trip due to weather. But, as I’m learning with this course, we adapted and instead spent time trouble shooting R. None of the students have ever used R, so it was a lot to ask of them. I made a simple code for them to get displacement, velocity, and acceleration from the point they digitized on their video in MTrackJ. There is a learning curve to R, so we spent the first part of Monday’s class making sure everyone can run their point through and get some data. And we did. I also asked them to get mean velocity and acceleration, not giving them the code, but pointing them to online resources.

Students then went back out to the Glenn Arboretum to collect some invertebrates with Aaron and Jess. They came back with a bunch of organisms. Instead of filming, I wanted to give them time to talk about project ideas. So, I had them brainstorm. We wrote all the ideas on the board and started thinking about experimental design, sample sizes, and feasibility. They had an assignment due the next Monday on an initial project idea with citation. Starting to move from learning about animal movement and research to conducting research. In class on Wed. we had a lecture on jumping and discussed a paper on hindlimb length and jumping in leafhoppers.

Week 6 began with weather finally on our side! So, we headed out to Oregon Ridge Park to try and collect. Students had submitted initial project ideas, so we had some target species. Many students went with Jess to catch crayfish in a creek, and they were successful, capturing ~23 in an hour. I went with several students to sample the fields, and we got some crickets and grasshoppers. Students in the creek also realized there were water striders, so they caught a bunch of them. We then sat in the pavilion and students rotated around discussing project ideas, while Aaron and Jess caught all the invasive stink bugs on the pavilion. We started to organize into groups and project ideas. Seemed there was a group that wanted to work with crayfish, a group wanting to work with water striders, another on crickets/grasshoppers and one that was open. We headed back to campus, Aaron and Jess took care of our new animals.

On Wed. we spent the first few minutes finalizing groups. They have a proposal abstract due next week, as a group. We are switching over to more group work now. We then discussed movement in the air and read a paper on bee flight performance. We’re suppose to head back to Oregon Ridge on Monday to target grasshoppers and crickets, and our midterm on Wed. Then, it is all about research.

Week 1-2 recap

Well, we made it through week 1 and 2 of the new course. As they say, so far so good. Going in to the week I was 50% excited, 50% terrified. I get to teach a class similar to my research, instruct students on how to film animal movement using high-speed cameras and talk about topics close to my interests and research (50% excited). However, since this is a authentic research experience based on student driven research questions and hypotheses, I have no idea what they will come up with, what performance or function they will ask, how feasible it will be, and since we are relying on locally collected invertebrates (plus some from a colleague and biological supply companies), I am concerned we will not get enough specimens. So, 50% terrified.

However, we got into class on Monday and got the ball rolling. We spent Monday going over logistics of the course, introductions of the class, some basic camera principles, and then got into filming. Every student held a hissing cockroach (good for an organismal course), and every student captured a high speed video of something moving. The video was part of their first assignment, worth 5 points and based off the following rubric I created to ensure they understand what makes a good video for analysis (Video test rubric).

 

On Wed. I got in some animals from a biological supply company, including fiddler crabs, crayfish, dragon fly nymphs, damselfly larvae, American cockroaches and German cockroaches. In class we discussed the morphology, performance fitness paradigm and spent time defining terms. Lecture and discussion was based off chapter 1 in Animal Athletes.

Monday was a holiday, so no lab time. On Wednesday students submitted their first paper summary, where they had to find a paper from the primary literature relevant to the class. The following rubric was used (Paper Summary Rubric). Lecture focused on the factors that can affect performance and we discussed a recent paper, Winchell et al. 2018.Linking locomotor performance to morphological shifts in urban lizards. Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Next week we will practice getting videos on animals, introduce digitizing and kinematics, and discuss muscle physiology.

Welcome!

Welcome to the homepage for the new Organismal Form & Function Lab at Towson University. I will be using this site to provide information on the class, update on our progress and post high speed videos student’s will be collecting throughout the semester. Stay tuned as I work on the class and this site.