Assessment in the College Science Classroom

Clarissa Dirks is an Associate Professor of Biology at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. She earned her PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Washington, conducting research in virology at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. She currently investigates the evolution of viruses and host viral-inhibitory proteins, as well as the distribution and biodiversity of Tardigrada species. As a Biology Education Researcher, she has implemented programs to improve retention of underrepresented students in first year science courses, conducted studies to better understand how students acquire and master science process and reasoning skills, and is developing assessment instruments to measure undergraduates science process skill acquisitions. She has received two Tom Rye Harvill Awards for the Integration of Art and Science, has been named a National Academies Education Fellow and Mentor in the Life Sciences, and is the recipient of two Biology Leadership Education grants. She works to provide professional development opportunities for faculty and post-doctoral scholars by serving on the National Academies Summer Institute for Undergraduate Science Education Committee, leading a Pacific Northwest Regional Summer Institute, and mentoring post-doctoral fellows as a regional field station leader for the Faculty Institute for Reforming Science Teaching. As a member of the National Research Councils Board on Life Sciences committee on Developing a Framework for an International Faculty Development Project on Education about Research in the Life Sciences with Dual Use Potential, she trains faculty in best practices for teaching responsible conduct of research in their countries. She is a member of the Editorial Board of the journal CBE-Life Science Education and a co-founder of the Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER).

Dr. Mary Pat Wenderoth is a Principal Lecturer in the Department of Biology at the University of Washington and teaches upper division animal physiology courses. She is a member of the University of Washington Biology Education Research Group, a group of twenty to thirty faculty, post-docs, graduate students, and undergraduate students who meet weekly to discuss the impact of innovative active learning practices on student learning. Dr. Wenderoth won the University of Washington Distinguished Teaching Award in 2001 and is a member o of the University of Washington Teaching Academy. Dr. Wenderoth has been involved with the faculty development efforts of the National Academies Scientific Teaching Alliance, NASTA) since 2006 and continues to be involved with the new regional summer institutes that began in 2011. In 2010, Dr. Wenderoth co-founded the Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER). SABER is a national network of faculty, post-docs, and graduate students who are conducting hypothesis-driven research in an effort to create a body of evidence-based teaching practices for undergraduate biology courses.

Michelle Withers is an Associate Professor in Biology at West Virginia University. Her research focuses on improving undergraduate science education, particularly evaluating the efficacy of different teaching methods in enhancing student learning. Another major focus of her program is training faculty and future faculty in scientific teaching. She runs the eh National Academies Summer Institute at West Virginia University, a regional offshoot of the National Academies Summer Institute on Undergraduate Biology Education (NASI). She serves as the Director for the National Academies Scientific Teaching Alliance (NASTA), and on the executive board of the Biology Directors Consortium (BDC), and is a founding member of the Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER). She graduated with a BS in Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and received her PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Arizona, Tucson.