The Labster Podcast

In this episode, our special guest Dr. Edgardo Sanabria-Valentín shares the story of how his mother’s experience as a first-generation college student shaped his approach to teaching biology and continues to inform his leadership as Associate Director of PRISM, the Program for Research Initiatives in Science and Math at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, a Hispanic-Serving institution within the City University of New York (CUNY). You’ll hear exactly how PRISM intentionally “meets students where they are” by actively recruiting undergraduate forensics students for faculty mentoring, career research, and professional development opportunities. PRISM increases student persistence and completion and has been recognized as a model for excellence for improving the number of underrepresented students in the STEM pipeline by the National Science Foundation and the National Academy of Sciences. We first got to know Edgardo when he began teaching with Labster, and we’re proud to say that he was a 2022 winner of the Labster STEM Excellence Award. Stay tuned for the end of this episode, when Edgardo flips the script and interviews SJ!

In this conversation, Bonnie Nieves, M. Ed., shares how she “shrinks” class sizes, differentiates instruction with creative grouping, and guides her students to use ChatGPT prompts as a tool to track and summarize their research in a way that helps them to flesh out their own, unique ideas. This episode is Part Two of SJ’s conversation with Bonnie Nieves, M. Ed., a biology teacher at Nipmuc Regional High School in Massachusetts and author of the book Be Awesome on Purpose.

In this conversation, we meet Bonnie Nieves, M. Ed., a high school biology teacher who has taken an evidence-based, iterative approach to optimize student learning outcomes without increasing her time spent outside of class. Listen as Bonnie tells the true story of the aha! moment that followed her painful realization that her students were signing out bathroom passes more often when she was talking than at any other time during class. Equipped with nothing more than a gradebook, student feedback, and her own observations, Bonnie put her hypotheses to the test and experimented with student-driven, self-directed learning. You’ll hear everything she tried to reach the point where learning outcomes in her project-based course now rival the outcomes of traditional, teacher-driven courses - while still targeting the same content standards.

What is the “best” way to teach with Labster simulations, according to the data? Dr. Bruno Poellhuber wanted to find out. Bruno is a professor of education and Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Montreal. Partnering with co-researchers at the University of Montreal and six other colleges, he ran an experiment with 6,000 students and 39 instructors who participated over the course of three terms. Bruno’s team noticed the most successful instructors leaned into using tools based on the pre-briefing, briefing, integration, and debriefing phases from the Jeffries model of teaching with simulation in the nursing field. They observed that instructors with highly engaged and motivated students shared specific pedagogical practices, which you’ll hear about in this episode.

Meet Matthias Polte, the first public high school teacher in Germany to teach with Labster. Motivated by his belief that students need to learn more than just facts, Matthias sought out tools and techniques that would allow his students to build 21st-century skills like creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration. In this episode, Matthias tells how he spent years advocating for funding to provide at-school internet access for every biology student at RHG Krefeld. Today, Matthias is successfully teaching with digital learning tools and active learning strategies that help his students understand science at a deeper level - and training new teachers to do the same.

Do you have a science student with an interest in biotechnology, invention, and making a positive difference in the world? Encourage them to apply to this unique, no-cost, virtual program that connects students from different backgrounds and challenges them to develop interest, confidence and capabilities in STEM. Biotech in Action is a collaboration between the Biogen company and the nonprofit Lemelson MIT program. Labster is proud to sponsor the science simulations for Biotech in Action. In this episode, we reflect on the impact of two years of the Biotech in Action program with two faculty members, Nia Gipson of the Lemelson MIT program and Alex Cameron of the Biogen Community Lab, as well as Dr. Stephanie Couch, the executive director of the Lemelson MIT program. Biotech in Action is open for applications. As Nia Gipson says, “Take a chance, you might just learn something.” Students can register for free at https://lemelson.mit.edu/biotech-action.

In part two of our conversation with Dr Lori Banks, she tells us why making sure that students feel welcome in the lab is a prerequisite to preparing them for careers in science. Her own experience as a student convinced Lori of one thing: her role as an educator is to build self-confidence as much as it is to teach them biology. And for Lori, creating a “nerd army” that will change the world means teaching beyond the textbook, including the use of learning technology like Labster in her program at Bates College.

We discuss what the liberal arts have to offer students majoring in the sciences in this first part of a special two-part episode with Dr. Lori Banks. We’ll hear about Lori’s project to develop a “cultural cheat sheet” to help first-gen students prepare for the culture of graduate school. In 2020, Dr. Lori Banks was named to a list of 1000 inspiring black scientists by Cell Mentor. She is an assistant professor of biology at Bates College, where she dedicates her teaching to instilling a love of biology and actively works to embrace pedagogies of equity, inclusion and anti-racism.

Are you looking for practical ideas from master teachers about how to integrate Labster into your high school course plan? You can use this episode as a resource for thinking and talking about professional development coaching with your district administrators. SJ and Carlin, a returning friend of the podcast, speak with Liz Russillo about what to expect from PD workshops and one-on-one coaching. Liz is the 2020 Teacher of the Year for the state of Rhode Island as well as an instructional coach at BetterLesson, which provides PD for high school science educators who teach with Labster.

Having a faculty mentor can make a world of difference to a student looking for guidance on how to pursue a career in STEM. In this episode, we’ll get to speak with Professor Lucia Santacruz of Bowie State University who combines her love of teaching with her passion for mentoring her students. Lucia shares her thoughts about how faculty mentors can help their students find the right path to a rewarding STEM career. This is especially important guidance if a well-meaning parent is pressuring their STEM student to become a doctor without exploring other options! SJ and Lucia close the session with a reflection on how mentoring can help close the diversity gap in STEM.