Community College Anatomy and Physiology Research Project (CAPER)

Cohort 1 Cohort 2 Cohort 3 Cohort 4

NSF IUSE #2111119

Murray Jensen

Department: Biology Teaching & Learning

CAPER is a multi-layered program focused on evidence-based instructional practices (EBIPs) and educational research with Community College (CC) Anatomy and Physiology (A&P) instructors. At the foundational level, CC instructors will design classroom research projects to evaluate the impacts of EBIPs on student success and classroom engagement. The CC instructors will also administer questionnaires to their A&P students regarding their attitudes towards EBIPs, their sense of confidence in their academic abilities, and their level of anxiety in the classroom. This data will provide much-needed insight into the efficacy of EBIPs in CC A&P classrooms. Furthermore, the CAPER research team will administer interviews and questionnaires to CC instructors throughout the project to gain insight into changes in instructors’ beliefs and perspectives on teaching. An additional intention of CAPER is to create a long-term community of practice among CC A&P instructors around the US and to study the impacts of communities of practice on the instructors.

This five-year program will include four cohorts of ten to twelve CC A&P instructors. Each cohort will attend a semester-long pedagogy course followed by a semester-long research course. During this year, the A&P instructors develop their individual research plans. The second year is devoted to A&P instructors’ individual data collection, analysis, and dissemination of findings. After submitting their manuscripts to a peer review journal, select members of each cohort are invited to become mentors for the incoming cohort, thus continuing their involvement in the CAPER community of practice. 

Outputs of this project will include not only traditional dissemination activities such as conference presentations and peer-reviewed manuscripts, but also a network of opinion leaders and mentors from CAPER project alumni. This network will be positioned to champion pedagogical transformation within their institutions and professional networks. CAPER will actively connect CC instructors with professional communities of practice to support ongoing professional development.

Instructor Timeline

 

Research Team Bios

Murray Jensen is a faculty member in the College of Biological Sciences, at the University of Minnesota, where he teaches human physiology. Jensen has taught high school, community college, technical college, and university students, and now oversees 30 high school teachers in a dual enrollment physiology program.   Within the CAPER program Jensen is co-teaching the HAPS I course Teaching Practices for Anatomy and Physiology, and oversees all accounting matters for the project. Jensen’s areas of expertise include cooperative group learning, cooperative quizzes, POGIL, guided inquiry, and classroom management.

Murray Jensen Picture

 

Chasity O’Malley (Co PI) isis a faculty member at Boonshoft School of Medicine where she teaches physiology to first and second year medical students. She has taught at the community college level, four year private and public universities, and at the graduate level, giving her a wide range of experience. She is a graduate of the original CAPER project. Within the current CAPER project, Chasity oversees the mentors and is heavily involved in recruitment of the participants. She also is co-teaching the HAPS I course Teaching Practices for Anatomy and Physiology and is serving as a mentor for the first cohort. Her favorite EBIPs are case studies and problem based learning. She also has used clicker based modalities a lot throughout her teaching. 

Chasity OMalley

 

Ron Gerrits  (Co-Pi) is a faculty member at Milwaukee School of Engineering where he teaches mainly graduate courses in physiology, pathophysiology, and pharmacology. Ron’s role in CAPER is to coordinate the Educational Research course, instruct part of the Teaching Practices course, and contribute to overall coordination, planning, and support of instructor projects. His favorite EBIP is guided inquiry, which he uses extensively in his courses.

Ron Gerrits

 

Suzanne Hood is a faculty member in the Psychology department at Bishop's University in Sherbrooke, Canada. Her role in RE-CAPER is to provide research support to instructors as they design and execute their classroom projects. She is also involved in collecting data from Anatomy and Physiology students about their perceptions of EBIP use in the classroom.

Suzanne Hood

 

Kerry Hull is a faculty member in the Biology department at Bishop’s University in Sherbrooke, Canada, where she teaches Physiology.  She was the previous Editor in Chief of the HAPS Educator, the peer-reviewed journal of the Human Anatomy and Physiology Society, and thus serves as the writing mentor for RE-CAPER participants. She uses peer instruction, case studies, concept mapping, and guided inquiry in her classroom.

Kerry Hull

 

Melaney Birdsong Farr is a faculty member at Salt Lake Community college where she teaches Human Anatomy, Human Physiology, and runs the college cadaver program. Melaney was a member of the first cohort of CAPER participants, and she now serves as teaching mentor to this cohort of CAPER participants. She has experience with electronic student response systems, case studies, and Think-Pair-Share in the classroom. 

Kathy Bell is a faculty member at Salt Lake Community College where she teaches Physiology and Microbiology. She was a member of the second cohort of CAPER participants and is now helping this new cohort as a teaching mentor. She enjoys using cooperative quizzes, case studies, think-pair-share, and guided inquiry in her classes.

 Audrey Rose Hyson, PhD, currently works as a Research Project Manager for Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute, where she manages studies on opioid use disorder and type 2 diabetes among people who have experiences with incarceration or housing insecurity. She was previously a graduate research assistant and then a postdoctoral fellow in the College of Biological Sciences at the University of Minnesota. She has worked on multiple iterations of the Community College Anatomy and Physiology Education Research (CAPER) project.  

Megan Deutschman has a Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership, Policy & Development from the University of Minnesota. She has a 15-year career in education, and her research focuses on race and identity in the classroom. Megan is currently working as a Senior Study Director at Westat. Megan Bernier is a third-year Chancellor’s Scholar studying neuroscience at Bishop’s University. She worked as an intern in The Fernandes Lab: Laboratory of Neural Plasticity and Repair, where she examined the effect of exercise on hippocampal neurogenesis in mice within the context of aging and degenerative diseases. Her research interests include applied psychological research, including art and nature therapy projects. 

Kamie Stack  -  Kamie K. Stack is a PhD candidate in Curriculum and Instruction STEM education at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. She has a Master of Education in Curriculum and Teaching and a Master of Arts in Curriculum and Teaching: Secondary Mathematics from Columbia Teachers College. She is currently a graduate research assistant on the CAPER grant. 

Kamie Stack

 

 

Note: The new NSF grant’s title is Refinement and Expansion of the Community College Anatomy and Physiology Research - or RECAPER (NSF #2111119).  The original grant’s title was Community College Anatomy and Physiology Research Project - or CAPER (NSF #1829157).  We are calling the new grant “CAPER,” or “the new CAPER,” but technically it should be called RE-CAPER. For more information, here is a short article summarizing the work in the first CAPER grant.