KCC FIG – Undergraduate Research as a High Impact Practice

Minutes of the Meeting of Fri, 12/2/2022, 10:00am via Zoom

Mary Theresa Ortiz – Facilitator

Present:  Grace Axler-DiPerte (KCC BIO Faculty), Christina Colon (KCC BIO Faculty),

Lilja Nielsen (KCC BIO Faculty),  Mary Theresa Ortiz (KCC BIO Faculty)

Meeting began at 10:00am.

1. Mary welcomed everyone and thanked them for coming.
2. Mary shared how her BIO2100 students did on their Bird Research Project reports. Some struggled with the content and format.  Next time she will share a module with her students she wrote on Writing a Lab Report.  It may help the students.
3. We discussed how students often do not read prompts or understand what they are reading. Opportunities can be given to re-submit work.  Flexible deadlines are an option but that could mean too much work grading at the end of the semester.  Revision can be critical to learning.
4. We discussed students often do not read other students posts.
5. One thing we do not accept is cheating.
6. Christina sent Grace her Next Generation Sequencing Data for use in a research project in BIO5000 in the spring of 2023.
7. Grace mentioned the Information Literacy class that Jeffrey Delgado offers in the library and online for classes. The Bridges/CSTEP students attend this class each spring early in the semester to help them with their literature searches for their summer research projects.
8. Christina shared that her non-majors Bio class did a great job with the literature search this semester. She has her students use Google Scholar.  Students picked great sources.  She has students gather data.  She discussed the structure of her paper and gives a template.  She also has her students do Peer Review.  It helps them.  She also has her students do a Self-Evaluation by having them complete a rubric.
9. We discussed taking students outside on the campus to gather data in BIO3300 (Non-majors Bio) and BIO5300 (Ecology). Christina took her BIO5300 class on several field trips last semester to the NY Aquarium, Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, Prospect Park, and AMNH to gather data on organisms.  She gets permission and an approved release form before the semester starts for all the trips at once.  The students meet her at each location and use the SEEK app.  Grace shared that she uses the SEEK app to identify lichens.  Christina does the trips during class time (12:40-4pm).
10. Mary will send out the minutes from this meeting and the Post-Semester Survey.
11. The next meeting of our FIG will be in the Spring 2023 semester.

Meeting adjourned at 11:00am.

Minutes respectfully submitted by Mary Theresa Ortiz

KCC FIG – Undergraduate Research as a High Impact Practice

Minutes of the Meeting of Fri, 10/28/2022, 10:00am via Zoom

Mary Theresa Ortiz – Facilitator

Present:  Grace Axler-DiPerte (KCC BIO Faculty), Shawna Brandle (KCC Hist/Phil/Pol Sci Faculty),

Christina Colon (KCC BIO Faculty), Jodie Delsol (KCC STEM Advisor), Mary Theresa Ortiz (KCC BIO Faculty)

Meeting began at 10:00am.

1. Mary welcomed everyone and thanked them for coming.
2. Grace shared her attempts to reach out to other CUNY faculty to do research with her BIO50 (General Microbiology) in the spring. Christina shared she has microbiome data she is willing to share on horseshoe crabs, Eukaryotes, Prokaryotes and sediments.  If Grace will not be able to collect data this spring, she will work with Christina to use these data.   Christina has data sets students can use on soil profiles.  Mary shared that she did this last spring when she used oyster data Kristin Polizzotto collected to have her BIO9100 (Biostatistics) students analyze and study.  Mary suggested Grace check with Craig Hinkley on analyzing genetic data as he is knowledgeable about Bioinformatics.
3. Shawna shared that she has a grant for a student research lab.  She will have three students working with her who have not been selected yet.  She will be studying in social science Historically Marginalized People in American Government.  She is working on getting IRB approval but has had difficulties because to sign up students she needs IRB approval, but she cannot sign up the students until she has IRB approval.  We discussed this situation.  Christina was able to get an IRB exemption for a cohort of students on a project. There was discussion on putting students as PIs on grants and putting names and changing them later through IRB revisions.  There is a new IRB Coordinator at CUNY Central.
4. There was discussion as Shawna is embarking on her research project and Grace, Christina and Mary offered insight/advice as follows:
   1. Give the students deadlines for various pieces of the work, or work with the students to develop deadlines to that the work progresses in a timely fashion.
   2. Start with more students so that by the end of the project you have enough students, because some may opt to discontinue.
   3. Students sometimes came become overwhelmed with the project. Look at what needs to be done and set mini goals so that over time the whole project is completed.
   4. Some students are more capable of higher-level thinking and can manage more than others. Tailor projects accordingly.  Use pictures, data, audio.
   5. Let the students know that we do not know what we are going to get when we do research, and that’s part of the excitement of it.
   6. Negative data are still data.
   7. Impress upon students the importance of maintaining constants so they do not become variables.
   8. Especially in a new project, rely on a collaborator. Be transparent.  Make scientists understand the abilities of the students.
   9. There are apps that may help depending on the area (ex. the Merlin app for bird chirps, the SEEK by iNaturalist app for identifying species).
5. Christina shared she uses Pivot tables in Excel and taught her students to use them as well in their research.
6. We congratulated Jodie on earning her Doctorate degree. She is helping to train new STEM advisors (E102).
7. Anyone wanting to use the STEM Lab (Library) for use with Melissa Riggio students, contact Michael Danza.
8. The next meeting of our FIG will be on Fri, Dec 2, 2022, at 10am via Zoom (Zoom info to be sent out).

Meeting adjourned at 11:00am.

Minutes respectfully submitted by Mary Theresa Ortiz

KCC FIG – Undergraduate Research as a High Impact Practice

Minutes of the Meeting of Fri, 10/7/2022, 10:15am via Zoom

Mary Theresa Ortiz – Facilitator

Present:  Grace Axler-DiPerte (KCC BIO Faculty), Mary Theresa Ortiz (KCC BIO Faculty)

Meeting began at 10:15am.

1. Mary welcomed Grace and thanked her for coming.
2. Mary shared that her students are doing better with the research project the BIO2100 – Comparative Anatomy class is continuing this semester; that is, identifying and cataloging the birds in the environs of the KCC campus. The students are getting into a routine for collecting data and are taking some really nice photos of the birds. Mary has encouraged her students to enter data into the data table as they collect them to avoid errors and to not be overwhelmed with this task later in the semester.
3. Mary shared the SEEK by iNaturalist app that Grace suggested at the last meeting with her Comparative Anatomy class to help them identify birds for their research project. The students have used it on their cell phones and have found it helpful with identifying birds they are not sure of.   The app uses your cell phone to take a picture of an organism and then identifies the species.  It is easy to use and free to download.
4. Grace shared that the Winogradsky project in Microbiology has not had the greatest results over the last several years. Mary and Grace brainstormed ideas for future class research projects.  Grace is working on several ideas for her BIO50 – General Microbiology class for the spring 2023 semester.  She hopes to have more details to share at the next meeting.
5. Mary had several websites with data available for research that she will share at the next meeting.
6. Mary will send out a Doodle to set up the next meeting.

Meeting adjourned at 11:00am.

Minutes respectfully submitted by Mary Theresa Ortiz

KCC FIG – Undergraduate Research as a High Impact Practice

Minutes of the Meeting of Fri, 9/23/2022, 10:30am via Zoom

Mary Theresa Ortiz – Facilitator

Present:  Grace Axler-DiPerte (KCC BIO Faculty), Mary Theresa Ortiz (KCC BIO Faculty)

Meeting began at 10:30am.

1. Mary welcomed Grace and thanked her for coming.
2. Mary shared the research project the BIO2100 – Comparative Anatomy class is continuing this semester; that is, identifying and cataloging the birds in the environs of the KCC campus. She shared that there are some issues she is dealing with this semester, such as the students not showing up to their designated observing locations, the students not getting clear photos of the birds (some have old phones that don’t take good photos), and lack of understanding about submitting valid data.  She is working with her class to work through these issues.
3. Grace suggested a phone app called, SEEK, from the Nat Geo site. It uses your cell phone to take a picture of an organism and then identifies the species.  It is easy to use and free to download.  Grace has successfully used it on several occasions, and it works well.  Mary has a hard copy bird reference from National Geographic that can be used to verify the students’ findings.
4. Grace and Mary discussed how important it is to impress upon the students how wrong falsifying data is.
5. Mary and Grace brainstormed ideas for future class research projects. More on this at the next meeting.
6. Mary had several websites with data available for research that she will share at the next meeting.
7. Our next (second) meeting will be on Fri, Oct 7, 2022, at 10:15am via Zoom.

Meeting adjourned at 11:30am.

Minutes respectfully submitted by Mary Theresa Ortiz