My biology education research broadly aims to understand how teaching practices influence student learning and development of scientific thinking. Scientific thinking skills, such as data analysis, evaluation, forming scientific arguments, and problem solving, are a key component of a biology education, but understanding when and how these skills develop requires more investigation. Currently I am interested in how students develop critical thinking skills, and how their understanding of biology research is influenced by engaging in research experiences. I collaborate with Dr. Stanley Lo to investigate these questions in biology lab classes here at UCSD.

Another area of interest for me is how teaching practices influence student learning and development of writing and the ability to form scientific arguments. Two current projects are collaborations with colleagues here at UCSD (Sarah Stockwell, Emily Grossman, Stanley Lo, Stephanie Mel) to investigate the impacts of two interventions on student’s writing and scientific argumentation. The first is looking at how the incorporation of opportunities for students to explore academic integrity, in the context of a biology class writing assignment, influences their writing. The second is looking at how the incorporation of writing and peer review impacts the quality of student’s constructed scientific arguments and the quality of the reviews they provide to peers. Both of these projects aim to contribute to our understanding of the teaching methods we can employ to improve the development of knowledge and skills that are necessary to be successful biologists.