KCC FIG – Undergraduate Research as a High Impact Practice
Minutes of the Meeting of Tue, 5/23/2023, 11:00am via Zoom
Mary Theresa Ortiz – Facilitator
Present: Grace Axler-DiPerte (KCC BIO Faculty), Shawna Brandle (KCC HIS Faculty), Dmitry Brogun (KCC BIO faculty), Christina Colon (KCC BIO Faculty), Kathy Giaimo (KCC Institutional Advancement), Carrie Jedlicka (KCC Library), Lilja Nielsen (KCC BIO Faculty), Mary Theresa Ortiz (KCC BIO Faculty), Mike Rosson (KCC Library)
The meeting began at 11:00am.
- Mary welcomed everyone, thanked them for coming.
- Mary shared there have been some issues with the research project her Biostatistics class is doing. One student dropped the class, two students have stopped coming. Half the class lost a week of data due to the recent water main break at KCC. Instead of each student having 8 weeks of data, they have 7, 8 or 9 weeks of data. Discussion took place on what to do with the data (how many weeks to include, which weeks, etc.). Suggestions included: charting when the students collected their data to see if they did it on the same days/times, using 7 weeks and letting the students who have 8 or 9 weeks of data to submit their analysis for extra credit, in the future using a Google doc to have the students submit their data each week, letting the students discuss and decide what to do. Mary will share the report with this FIG group she and her class submit to the KCC Sustainability Committee. Shawna shared the report could be put into CUNY Academic Works, and explained how the Works works. She also shared the website: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/
- Christina gave an update on the climate monitoring station that will hopefully be placed at the KCC dock by Rich Rivera, a former KCC student and current doctoral student at the CUNY Grad Center in conjunction with his research for his degree. Ed Rios, NOAA and the KCC Maritime Program are working on this with Rich.
- Christina shared she is planning two horseshoe crab tagging dates at Plumb Beach, Wed 5/31/2023 and Wed 6/7/2023, both 1-3pm. All are welcome to come and participate. The US Fish and Wildlife Service is working on tagging, too. Mary will mention this to her BIO3300 class if they would like to earn extra credit.
- Shawna asked if we knew of anyone at KCC who could help her find support for undergraduate research. We suggested she speak with Mable Chee.
- Christina discussed doing remote research. She gives students data chips with data to work with. She doesn’t see the students much. Lilja mentioned a similar problem. There are lost samples doing online sequences, and students having a lack of lab skills. Mike suggested using Microsoft Teams and simulations. Mary suggested speaking with Grace or Marie McGovern regarding writing quality simulations. Christina uses SimBio. SimBio gives instant feedback, makes it difficult to be dishonest, and runs experiments. There is a fee ($25), and the students pay the fee. It gives the students experience with data, developing a hypothesis, etc. Lilja mentioned there could be a problem with the fee in a multiple section course such as BIO1100. Christina the following website: https://www.biointeractive.org/
- Shawna shared that her department is in the final stages of hiring an Environmental Politics Assistant Professor. She will have more to share in Fall 2023.
- Mary will send out the End of Semester Survey and the minutes from this meeting.
- The next meeting of our FIG will be in Fall 2023. Mary will send out a Doodle poll in the Fall.
- Mary thanked everyone for their participation in this FIG this semester.
Meeting adjourned at 11:35am.
Minutes respectfully submitted by Mary Theresa Ortiz
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