KCC FIG – Undergraduate Research as a High Impact Practice

Minutes of the Meeting of Fri, 10/9/2020, 11:30am via Zoom

Present:              Grace Axler-DiPerte (BIO), Christina Colon (BIO), Jodie Delsol (PHY SCI), Mary Ortiz (BIO),

Farshad Tamari (BIO), Midori Yamamura (ART)

Meeting began at 11:30am.

1. Mary welcomed everyone and provide a short history of how this FIG came about.
2. Mary thought we would share research experiences we are doing in the classroom remotely and began by sharing the research project the BIO2100 (Comparative Anatomy) students are doing.  For 7 years BIO2100 students have been identifying/cataloguing birds in the environs of the KCC.  Since this was not possible to do this semester, she modified the project.  Students were asked to select a location and identify/catalogue all the vertebrates they observe each week.  It gives the students a research experience and allows them to observe live vertebrates.  Mary will send everyone the documents she provides her students (directions for the project, ppt slide, etc.)
3. Christina shared “Fish Ethogram”.  This is an application where you can observe fish in an aquarium.  She has her students pick one organism and observe its’ behavior.  It is remote, and students can do observations.  She has them observe for 15 minutes each session.  They can form hypotheses (ex. organism will spend most of its time eating).  This can be a group project is each does the observations.  Discussion followed.
4. Grace shared “Cincinnati Zoo Animals” and “National Zoo – Panda Camp”.  Can use technology to do field work.
5. Christina shared “Phrenology” – a site especially good for plants (ex. oak trees, seeds, leaves).
6. Christina shared “iNaturalist” – an app and a website good with plants.  You can take a photo and the site will ID it for you.  You can set up an account and use it for Biodiversity.  The site has a map to indicate where samples are found.  She mentioned “50 Fungi in the Neighborhood”.
7. Mary mentioned “Star Chart” – an app for identifying what is in the sky (planets, starts, etc.).
8. Farshad shared that he has shifted his research to help students because his research is done in a lab and there is no access right now.  He shared how creating good OERs takes time and work.  Funding is also an issue.  Mary and Farshad shared how working on an OER with a committee is different from working on one when you teach single section course.
9. Midori shared the Art project she is doing with her students in Art History.  There will be a curated exhibition in Spring 2021 on Art and Homelessness.  Students are working on this interdisciplinary project.  They receive an image and discuss social background, green economy.  A former homeless person is scheduled to speak.  The students are more engaged in thinking and learn about neighborhoods.  The students are thinking differently.
10. Christina has microbiome/eukaryotic/prokaryotic/genomic data that she is currently analyzing using BLAST but is looking for better analysis sites/apps to use. She has data on horseshoe crab sediment, gut, and fecal samples.  This can be a resource for students to do data analysis.  Mary suggested dividing up the data and have a class work on a part of it.
11. Christina and Midori discussed having art students work on biology figures.
12. Next meeting: Fri, 10/30/2020, 11:30 via Zoom.  We will continue discussion/bring new ideas.

Meeting adjourned at 12:30pm. Minutes respectfully submitted by Mary Theresa Ortiz