Development and evaluation of an intensive short course: the Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment Interdisciplinary Instructional Institute (QMRA III).

Quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) is a growing interdisciplinary field addressing exposures to microbial pathogens and infectious disease processes. Risk science is inherently interdisciplinary, but few of the contributing disciplinary programs offer courses and training specifically in QMRA. To develop multidisciplinary training in QMRA, an annual 10-day long intensive workshop was conducted from 2015 to 2019-the Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment Interdisciplinary Instructional Institute (QMRA III).

Who is the Practitioner in Faculty-Staff Sexual Misconduct Work?: Views from the UK and US.

This article maps and compares four universities' policies and procedures for addressing faculty and staff sexual misconduct in higher education in the UK and US. While universities have engaged in significant work to grapple with student-student sexual misconduct, attention to misconduct perpetrated, and experienced, by higher education employees is relatively nascent. In this paper, we explore the maze of institutional processes and actors that victim-survivors of FASSM might encounter.

Analogy Generation in Science Experts and Novices.

There is a critical inconsistency in the literature on analogical retrieval. On the one hand, a vast set of laboratory studies has found that people often fail to retrieve past experiences that share deep relational commonalities, even when they would be useful for reasoning about a current problem. On the other hand, historical studies and naturalistic research show clear evidence of remindings based on deep relational commonalities.

An actionable anti-racism plan for geoscience organizations.

Geoscience organizations shape the discipline. They influence attitudes and expectations, set standards, and provide benefits to their members. Today, racism and discrimination limit the participation of, and promote hostility towards, members of minoritized groups within these critical geoscience spaces.

College Student Conceptions about Changes to Earth and Life over Time.

While interdisciplinary collaboration is desired among researchers, traditional science instruction generally results in science disciplines being taught as separate entities. This study focuses on student understanding of concepts at the intersection of two isolated disciplines-geoscience and bioscience-across two purposeful samples of college-aged students (United States, Germany). Specifically, we explored: 1) how students conceptualize large-scale biologic and geologic changes on Earth over deep time; 2) the relationship between student's conceptions and their understanding of evolutionary and geologic theories; and 3) how those conceptualizations explicate the need for integration of concepts within school curricula.

Development of a measure to evaluate competence perceptions of natural and social science.

Interdisciplinary scientific research teams are essential for responding to society's complex scientific and social issues. Perceptual barriers to collaboration can inhibit the productivity of teams crossing traditional disciplinary boundaries. To explore these perceptual barriers, survey measures related to perceived competence were developed and validated with a population of earth scientists (n = 449) ranging from undergraduates through professionals.

Does the Room Matter? Active Learning in Traditional and Enhanced Lecture Spaces.

SCALE-UP-type classrooms, originating with the Student-Centered Active Learning Environment with Upside-down Pedagogies project, are designed to facilitate active learning by maximizing opportunities for interactions between students and embedding technology in the classroom. Positive impacts when active learning replaces lecture are well documented, both in traditional lecture halls and SCALE-UP-type classrooms. However, few studies have carefully analyzed student outcomes when comparable active learning-based instruction takes place in a traditional lecture hall and a SCALE-UP-type classroom.

Effects of a curricular revision on learner outcomes in veterinary clinical pathology.

A mixed-methods evaluation was conducted to study learner attitudes and knowledge about clinical pathology across a curricular change that instituted a stand-alone clinical pathology course in place of content within a previously integrated pathology course structure. Groups of pre- and post-change students were assessed three times across the two semesters leading up to graduation. At each time, rank-ordered and open-ended response items probed attitudes, and multiple-choice items assessed knowledge.

The utility of writing assignments in undergraduate bioscience.

We tested the hypothesis that engagement in a few, brief writing assignments in a nonmajors science course can improve student ability to convey critical thought about science. A sample of three papers written by students (n = 30) was coded for presence and accuracy of elements related to scientific writing. Scores for different aspects of scientific writing were significantly correlated, suggesting that students recognized relationships between components of scientific thought.

A test of the circumvention-of-limits hypothesis in scientific problem solving: the case of geological bedrock mapping.

Sources of individual differences in scientific problem solving were investigated. Participants representing a wide range of experience in geology completed tests of visuospatial ability and geological knowledge, and performed a geological bedrock mapping task, in which they attempted to infer the geological structure of an area in the Tobacco Root Mountains of Montana. A Visuospatial Ability × Geological Knowledge interaction was found, such that visuospatial ability positively predicted mapping performance at low, but not high, levels of geological knowledge.

Rise of the Andes.

The surface uplift of mountain belts is generally assumed to reflect progressive shortening and crustal thickening, leading to their gradual rise. Recent studies of the Andes indicate that their elevation remained relatively stable for long periods (tens of millions of years), separated by rapid (1 to 4 million years) changes of 1.5 kilometers or more.