The Discipline-Based Science Education Research Center (dB-SERC) has awarded 10 Course Transformation Awards to faculty in natural sciences.
Since 2014, dB-SERC has supported natural sciences faculty members in developing projects to transform the way classes are taught by adopting evidence-based teaching practice to improve student learning outcomes.
Award recipients receive funds for equipment, student support or summer salary for faculty. Two mentor-mentee awards also were given out to support classroom innovation projects conducted by students and faculty working together.
Course Transformation Awards
Young Ahn, Department of Biological Sciences: “Head (think), Heart (feel), Hands (do): A holistic approach for large introductory biology courses”
In previous study, the “Heads and Hearts” hypothesis was tested which suggests that both students’ cognitive (heads) and affective (hearts) learning experiences must be purposefully constructed in classroom environments. The fall 2024 data support this hypothesis: Low-stakes assessments (quizzes, in-class activities, recitations) correlated positively with final scores. Engagement levels increased from 57% (fall 2022) to 94% (fall 2024) after incorporating inclusive teaching. DFW rates dropped from 19.2% to 15.5%, with withdrawals declining from 4.1% to 1.9%. These data imply a strong link between instructor warmth and student success. In this next study, the investigators assess whether combining high structure (heads) and inclusive teaching (hearts) with practical application (hands) can 1) further improve student engagement and motivation, 2) improve student performance, and 3) reduce achievement gaps.
Anusha Balangoda, Department of Geology and Environmental Science: “Designing Inquiry and Problem-based Field and Laboratory Assignments to Enhance Learning in Undergraduate Environmental Geochemistry Course”
This proposal seeks funding to implement inquiry- and problem-based assignments in an upper-level undergraduate Environmental Geochemistry course to enhance hands-on experience in field sampling, laboratory analysis, and geochemical modeling, ultimately strengthening workforce readiness and real-world problem-solving skills. Currently, the course lacks structured, inquiry-driven, and problem-based assessments, limiting students' ability to engage in field and laboratory investigations. This project will be implemented in GEOL 1516, a large-enrollment (approximately 75 students) Environmental Geochemistry course, offered in both the fall and spring semesters. The redesigned assignments will integrate field sampling, laboratory analyses, and geochemical modeling, bridging the gap between theoretical lecture content and practical environmental applications.
Margaret Vines, Department of Chemistry: “Not Just the How, but the Why and Real-World Applications of Chem 0120”
This proposal aims to restructure the Chem 0120 course to foster a deeper conceptual understanding of chemistry by balancing procedural problem-solving with real-world applications and the underlying "whys" of chemical processes. While students in General Chemistry II traditionally focus on calculations — covering thermodynamics, electrochemistry, equilibrium, and kinetics — this new structure will integrate concept-driven discussions and practical applications, bridging the gap between theory and practice.
Michelle Colvin, Department of Psychology: “Passion-Driven Statistics: A data-driven, project-based curriculum for Cognitive Psychology Laboratory to enhance student self-efficacy and data literacy”
The current project is the development and implementation of new curriculum for an advanced, writing-intensive Psychology Laboratory course. This redesign for the lab will largely be influenced and inspired by Passion-Driven Statistics, which utilizes students’ passion for psychology topics they are interested in to create empowering learning experiences with statistics. For the course transformation award, the investigator and a graduate student would develop formative writing assignments across three distinct phases of the course (exploration, proposal/analyses, and broader science), with each phase serving a unique goal for cultivating students’ ability to understand, produce, and communicate data effectively.
Jennifer L. Hirsch, Department of Psychology: “Enhancing personally relevant peer-to-peer active learning activities in Introduction to Social Psychology”
Students in Introduction to Social Psychology find the material engaging and personally relatable but have requested more peer-to-peer interaction during lecture to feel more engaged with one another. To address this problem, the investigator is proposing a course transformation to overhaul their current in-class activities to enhance personally relatable peer-to-peer active learning via the use of TopHat. The investigator will use TopHat and create almost an entirely new set of in-class activities, and will update the grading of the course to incorporate the in class activities as a formal part of the assessments.
Ben Rottman and Chris Schunn (Department of Psychology), Kiran Nihlani and Kristina Paris (Department of Statistics): “Transforming Stat 0200 to Increase Interest and Discipline-Based Examples for Psychology Students”
A fundamental challenge when learning statistics is being able to translate the concepts into a particular disciplinary context. The Department of Psychology has noticed that students, despite performing well in the intro to statistics courses, often do not understand how to use this knowledge in their psychology courses (i.e., poor knowledge transfer). This leads to considerable efforts reteaching what they have already learned, high variance among students that makes moving forward challenging, and frustration for students and faculty alike. This proposal involves transforming STAT 0200: Basic Applied Statistics to extensively use examples from various forms of psychology research. By using examples from psychology research, the investigators address both the challenges with knowledge transfer and with interest.
Edison Hauptman and Jeffrey Paul Wheeler (Department of Mathematics), Lizzie Heck (Department of Health and Human Development), Rafaella Sampaio de Alencar (Department of Informatics and Networked Systems): “Project Repository for Pitt’s Calculus Courses”
Calculus at the University of Pittsburgh is offered as a series of service courses focusing on developing student mastery of numerous techniques. Material is often covered quickly, especially in Calculus 2. Additionally, as the course structure places a large emphasis on exam scores, instructors often teach to the test and students do not get to explore interesting ideas. This course transformation will introduce student-selected projects into the math department’s calculus course structure. Either Calculus 1 or Calculus 2, depending on the preference of the Undergraduate Math Committee, will implement this course transformation on a trial basis for the fall 2025 and spring 2026 semesters. To create the necessary materials for this course transformation, investigators will coordinate graduate students and faculty across departments served by Pitt’s calculus courses to create a repository of about 100 projects. This will include a set of criteria to evaluate all projects as well as a general rubric for grading projects.
Jessica Brand, Department of Psychology: “Tests & Measurement: An Advanced Research Methods Lab Course in Psychology”
A course transformation award for Tests and Measurement (Psych 1025) will reintroduce an upper-level course within the psychology department that helps to address the need for additional advanced research methods courses and clinically relevant content. This course focuses on psychometric theory, test development, validation, as well as ethical and cultural considerations in psychological assessment. Students will gain proficiency in psychometric understanding and data analysis, in addition to experience in test design, evaluation, and refinement. The course is designed with a flipped classroom structure, fostering active learning through discussions, in class activities, and a capstone project that incorporates classroom-based research.
Arun-Balajiee Lekshmi-Narayanan, Xingshi Gao, Quentin King-Shepard, Chris Schunn and Timothy Nokes-Malach, Department of Psychology: “Transform Quiz Feedback Using Generative AI”
Teaching assistants (TAs) are key to providing feedback that helps students connect course topics to their broader learning experiences. However, different instructors and TAs use varying rubrics, so students enrolling in one iteration of a course one semester may not receive the same kind of feedback as students taking a different iteration. These inconsistencies in the feedback could potentially stop the students from meeting the generally expected learning outcomes for the course, such as developing conceptual sensemaking skills. One potential solution to this issue is to standardize feedback. This can be achieved through manual alignment of rubrics, additional training for TAs, or using tools like automated grading platforms (e.g., Grade Scope) and feedback management systems (e.g., Canvas, Blackboard). While these solutions can help with consistency of grading criteria, they often rely on predefined rubrics or templates that are rigid, requiring human interpretation to fully address the nuances of individual student responses. In contrast, generative AI tools offer a more dynamic approach of automatically generating personalized feedback based on quiz responses while maintaining consistency in tone and structure.
James Mueller and Dan Luo, Department of Physics & Astronomy: “Adapting QuILTs for a Modern Physics Course”
Quantum Interactive Learning Tutorials (QuILTs) were developed by C. Singh and the PER team at the University of Pittsburgh for use in senior-level Quantum Mechanics courses. This project seeks funding to adapt some of these tutorials for use in a sophomore-level Modern Physics course. The project will examine tutorials that might fit the material for a Modern Physics course and identify elements that would require physics and math background that would be expected of a first term sophomore. Selected tutorials will then be adapted so as to retain the conceptual benefits of the original tutorial, while making them more appropriate for a Modern Physics course. The revised tutorials can then be tested in an existing course.
Mentor/Mentee Award s
Mentor: Linda O’Reilly / Mentee: Kelly Zeng, Department of Biological Sciences: “Bringing biochemistry to life through comics strips”
Introductory biochemistry, in addition to being a required course for biological science majors, is typically a prerequisite for graduate and professional health programs. Biochemistry students often struggle conceptually with the mechanisms of enzyme reactions and regulation. Anecdotally, many students also express feeling intimidated by both the volume and the level of difficulty of course content. This project will utilize short comic strips to illustrate and personify biochemical concepts. The goal is to enhance student engagement and learning by demystifying complex biochemical concepts with this innovative teaching tool.
Mentor: Jennifer Hirsch / Mentee: Emily O’Brien, Department of Psychology: “Enhancing classroom intrinsic motivation through strengthening peer and instructor relatedness”
In the classroom, intrinsic motivation — the doing of something for the inherent satisfaction and interest in that behavior — predicts students’ interest in learning, confidence in their academic abilities, and better conceptual understanding of course material. However, research suggests that academic intrinsic motivation tends to significantly decline over the course of college. Therefore, it is important to develop pedagogical strategies to enhance intrinsic motivation, thereby fostering an engaged classroom. To address this issue, within my Close Relationships seminar course (PSY 1137), investigators propose a classroom intervention designed to boost feelings of relatedness among students and the instructor. Relatedness can be cultivated through the asking and answering of personal questions. Thus, investigators propose a semester-long intervention where they will implement a “thought warm-up” once per week to invite students to discuss fun/reflective questions that allow the sharing of personal information. From these warm-ups, students can identify similarities between themselves, their peers, and their instructor, fostering relatedness.