Stupendous eigenvectors

Poster Presentations
Often at conferences, there is a wide range in the quality of work that constitutes the subject matter of a poster. During the SABER poster presentations, all the projects seemed to be very well thought out and were very well explained. Posters generally reflect incomplete work where some data has been gathered but there is still much to be done. In this way, posters reflect projects that are in an intermediate stage of completion. These intermediate projects are the eigenvectors of biology education research that compose what will eventually become principle projects. In other words, biology education research is relatively new and these incomplete projects show the direction of where the field is going as they represent the new initiatives that are just now getting off the ground. Eventually many of the poster presentations will become established projects that continue to impact how we think about biology education. Here are two of my favorites, the stupendous eigenvectors.

Development of an analytic rubric to evaluate undergraduate student graphs and diagnose difficulties in graph choice and construction - Stephanie Gardner from Purdue University has condensed the opinions from faculty and literature on how graphs should be made to represent data into a rubric. This rubric answers the question of what the education community thinks makes a better graph, where students fall short and how students with limited experience and training can be informed on how they can improve.

Evaluation of the pre-matriculation program at the University of Minnesota-Duluth Medical School - Abigail Whitney from the University of Minnesota-Duluth is interested in how social and study networks impact student self efficacy and persistence. 1st and 2nd year medical students were surveyed to identify the top three peers whom they socialize with and the top three peers whom they study with. The data was process using the Gephi program. Patterns emerged that were surprising. Students do not necessarily study with their friends, and the study groups are academically homogenous (top students study with top students, bottom with bottom). Therefore, some students exclude their friends from their study groups. Future study will be to monitor social and study network trends over the full four years of medical school, paying close attention to grades, gender and minority homogeneity.