This week, J was awarded an NSF (EHR Core Research):Buidling capacity in STEM education research (CSR:BCSER) grant to understand how student identities shape STEM retention across all STEM majors at South.  This grant will focus on exploring in-class interpersonal relationships among students and between faculty and students.  This award will fund J and education research at South for the next 2 years.

We are on the hunt for post-docs, graduate students, and undergraduates interested in STEM education research!

This afternoon, J presented some of the ongoing perceptions of diverse identities within STEM courses at the Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER). 

We are super excited to have Kaylin Bruening join the Henning lab! Kaylin is a geography major and marine sciences major and is interested in conversation and invasive species!  Kaylin is going to be working on documenting spatial structure in invasive apple snails in Langan Park prior to a large multi-million dollar removal effort in collaboration with Mobile Bay National Estuarine Program (NEP).  

J and Cissy Ballen were selected to co-present the plenary talk at the annual EDU-STEM meeting on July 22nd.  J & Cissy delivered a talk entitled: Addressing intersectionality in Biology Education Research: the power of collaborative networks. 

J was out with Mobile Bay National Estuarine Program (NEP) removing apple snails this morning.  In 3 hours, J was able to remove over 300 egg casings and collect over 50 adults from Langan Park!

The University of South Alabama and the College of Arts and Sciences recently spotlighted recent research by J and colleagues from University of Konstanz, Michigan State University, and Auburn University published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Biology (ProcB) on June 24th. J and colleagues explore the demographic makeup of commonly used Biology textbooks in Introductory Biology classes across the United States. Textbooks shape teaching and learning in introductory biology and highlight scientists as potential role models who are responsible for significant discoveries. Authors explore a potential demographic mismatch between the scientists featured in textbooks and the students who use textbooks to learn core concepts in biology. Authors found that while textbooks are filled with classic examples of early discoveries that were performed by white men, more contemporary examples reflect the inclusion of women and scientists of color within biology. However, the inclusion of contributions by female scientists of color in textbooks lag woefully behind their representation in the field.

For the full university press release click here, for the full article click here, and for a blog post by the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Biology click here.