MCB 3899
Undergraduate Learning Assistants for Biology Laboratory
BIOL 1107 - Principles of Biology I has a lecture component and a laboratory. The lecture and lab are always taken at the same time, and the lab portion of the course counts for 45% of the final course grade. Lab sections (24 students) are led by graduate instructors, usually PhD students in the department of molecular and cell biology. Typically, given sufficient student interest, each graduate student instructor is assisted by at least 1 undergraduate learning assistant. These learning assistants are, unfortunately, not paid for their work. Instead, they receive academic credit through an MCB 3899 - Independent Study course. In order to earn credit and their final grade, the learning assistants engage with the following:
Quizzes: Each week, a learning assistant (LA) is tasked with writing a quiz for their fellow LAs. Quizzes are 3-5 questions, usually short-answer or diagramming. The questions address both the lab exercise LAs will be assisting with and mentoring skills. Everyone takes the quiz, and we discuss responses during our 1 hour weekly LA meeting. An example quiz and student response is linked here (shared with permission).
Quizzes: Each week, a learning assistant (LA) is tasked with writing a quiz for their fellow LAs. Quizzes are 3-5 questions, usually short-answer or diagramming. The questions address both the lab exercise LAs will be assisting with and mentoring skills. Everyone takes the quiz, and we discuss responses during our 1 hour weekly LA meeting. An example quiz and student response is linked here (shared with permission).
Reflections: LAs are required to complete ~3 reflections per semester. Examples of prompts include:
- Please write ~250-500 words about your experience mentoring this month. Specific things to comment on:
- - what has been challenging in lab
- - how have you handled those challenges
- - what teaching skills do you think you are developing
- - what teaching skills would you like to work on this coming month
- - what have you learned from your mentees
- - what do you think are your strengths as a mentor and how do they help your mentees
- Please explain how you practice a “commitment to diversity” as a mentor. What challenges occur when you work with students who differ from you, and how do you address those challenges? If you have not encountered challenges, try to imagine how you would handle difference (racial, language, gender, or sexual orientation, etc.) when interacting with 1107 students.
- Please explain how you facilitate student learning. What is your “teaching philosophy”? This does not have to be more than a couple sentences. Focus more on your ideas about what good mentoring means and what you have done in the past during mentoring sessions.
Student Mentoring: LAs are expected to attend 1, 3-hour lab section per week in addition to the 1 hour weekly LA meeting. During their assigned lab section, they assist the graduate instructor with materials, answer undergraduate student questions, circulate through the lab to assess biosafety practices and offer guidance, reset equipment, and facilitate lab group cooperation.
Weekly LA Meetings: LAs are required to meet with me every week for 1 hour. In this hour, we walk through/semi-run the lab exercise, generate a list of anticipated challenges the BIOL 1107 students will face, and create a mentoring plan about how to address those challenges. This often looks like mentors sharing "this is what confused me when I did it" or "looking at the lab manual, the wording is confusing in this way" or similar troubleshooting thoughts. We often discuss the lab section rapport, graduate instructor interactions, and mentees' course experiences that they share with the LAs. It is a wonderful, lively environment, often more casual and social than most of my other interactions with students. I really enjoy these meetings!
There is much room for improvement in the structure of LA training and recruitment. As I continue to develop this program I hope to achieve the following
There is much room for improvement in the structure of LA training and recruitment. As I continue to develop this program I hope to achieve the following
- Make LAs a paid position - Using work-study or other funding lines will make this course much more equitable. Currently, only students who can afford to not have a job or can afford to give up work hours for MCB 3899 are able to participate, ensuring poor representation of students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
- Incorporate evidence-based teaching practices into LA training - While I am aware of the existence of literature on how to best train and use LAs in undergraduate STEM education, I have not yet revised my offerings to be in line with the field's recommendations.
- Ensure that LAs represent a diverse population of students in terms of race, ethnicity, languages spoken, experience in BIOL 1107, and other aspects of identity - Currently, I say "yes" to any student who expresses an interest in being an LA, because there are so many lab sections and every graduate student instructor would like to have an LA. The demand exceeds the supply of interested undergraduates. As I continue to improve this course, I hope to more strategically recruit students. Word-of-mouth, LA outreach, and my own announcements to BIOL 1107 students are the current means of LA recruitment.