I attended the National Association of Biology Teachers last week (my excuse for not posting last Wednesday) in Cleveland. In addition to my first experience with “lake effect snow,” and a reception at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame…
In one of my earlier lives, I was a research associate for a USDA scientist in Auburn, Alabama. At the time, my husband was a graduate student in the Fisheries Department at Auburn University. I had been teaching physiology to…
As we approach the end of the third quarter of the semester, I tend to get bogged down thinking about all the students who don’t get it. Conversations with colleagues circle around stories of amazement over student mistakes, including missed…
I listened to a webinar today, hosted by Instructure Canvas. My college uses Canvas as our LMS (learning management system), so whenever they have a new initiative, I pay attention. This time, they were publicizing “Canvas Commons,” which will give…
As I continue my exploration of online repositories, I get recommendations from other HAPS members. For example, Hiranya Roychowdhury, co-chair of the Curriculum and Instruction committee, made me aware of the University of Wisconsin learning object repository at A quick…
I wrote last week about attending the SoftChalk User Conference in Baltimore. At the end of 2 days of workshops, I attended a presentation about competency-based education. This is something of a buzz word, as nontraditional certification programs develop ways…
Hello from Baltimore. I managed to convince both my dean and my distance ed director to stake my trip to the SoftChalk User Conference. So far, I’ve managed to learn a few useful items, had some nice beer, and scored…
Over the last two weeks, I’ve describe my online resources, and voiced a concern that my assets may not have a permanent home. This concern led me to explore online repositories specific to biology. What, I wondered, is already out…
Have you ever thought, ‘Gee, I bet I can knock out an animation of that process in no time!’ only to find, 15 hours later, that a 5- minute animation isn’t yet perfect? Okay, well, maybe that’s just me, then.…
When I first pondered what I would share in the HAPS blog, I considered my prior forays into online resources. I’d like to tell you about my first, not only so you can make use of it, but also for…