Biology
2018-2019 Program Review

The Biology Program is composed of dedicated educators with broad educational and professional backgrounds. The Biology Program serves students 1) who are planning to work in allied health fields, 2) who plan to transfer to a 4 year university, 3) major in biological sciences, 4) and/or students seeking to fulfill general education requirements for transfer or for local degree requirements. The Biology Program faculty are committed to maintaining and updating curriculum to serve these varied groups of students. In addition to the development of an in-depth detailed knowledge base, our purpose also includes development of both student critical thinking and experimental skills to ensure our students are competitive in university courses, internships, and job opportunities. The Biology Program also strives to help students increase their scientific literacy, connect science to their daily decisions, and understand the interconnectivity they have to the biological world. Finally, the Biology Program faculty act as mentors for the development of student life skills and continue to be support for them as they navigate their educational careers within and outside the Biological Sciences.

Our Mission American River College places students first in providing an academically rich, inclusive environment that inspires critical thinking, learning and achievement, and responsible participation in the community. American River College, serving the greater Sacramento region, offers education and support for students to strengthen basic skills, earn associate degrees and certificates, transfer to other colleges and universities, and achieve career as well as other academic and personal goals. The biology department strongly supports the mission statement of American River College. First, our classes fulfill the GE requirement for both ARC degrees and transfer requirements for CSU and UC systems. To facilitate student success we have created an Associate in Science for Transfer (AS-T) that can be completed in 60 units. The department now offers non-majors lecture and lab classes in both hybrid and fully online modalities. We also recognize students face a variety of challenges and come from diverse backgrounds. We strive for equitable learning through inclusive instruction techniques. One of the department’s key contributions is that we require students to think critically by analyzing scientific data and engaging in current biology topics to encourage more informed civic engagement. We make use of a variety of support services to help students strengthen basic and critical thinking skills such as STEM tutoring, MESA, Learning Resource Center and Beacon as well as the Science Success Center, which many of us help to staff. Instructors work creatively with DSPS students to ensure that accommodations are met in classroom, laboratory, and field experiences. To the extent possible with available funding, we utilize Instructional Assistants and in-class tutors to help ensure success of all students. We are committed to transfer student success. For example, our faculty were on the organizing committee for the Transfer Student Success Conference at UC Davis in 2018. ARC faculty organized and moderated a panel of current and post-transfer students for the conference. The focus of this panel was to discuss the challenges of transferring to help inform faculty and administration on how to better prepare our students for transfer. Finally, the biology department is student-centered in its decision making, creating curriculum that challenges students to learn at a high level. We strive to recognize and address the individual needs of each student.

Progress on EMP objective #1: strengthen collaborations within and between American River College and our transfer institutions. Below are our efforts to date: • Helped organize UCD Transfer Student Success Conference. • Collaborated with CSU on a grant to build authentic research experiences into biology curriculum. • Created curriculum for BIO 415 in collaboration with UCD resulting in a new AS-T degree. • Collaborated with several American River College departments: o Natural Resource faculty to fill internships/job opportunities. o Physics Department on balloon-launch program with NASA. o Design Technology Department to create 3-d models for the classroom. o Art Department to create science-based ceramic art displays. Progress toward EMP objective #2: improve course scheduling and accessibility. Below are our efforts to date: • Launched BIOL 415, allowing students to schedule courses to complete the biology series in 1 year as opposed to 1.5 years. This reduced both time commitment and student costs. This also helped to address the impaction of the biology program at Sac State. • Reduced the financial burden on ARC students by using the same textbook in the second semester majors course that students had already purchased for the 1st semester. • Hired 3 full-time replacement faculty positions. • Participated in the design process for a lab space to be built in the next few years. This participation supported the ARC foundation in seeking new funds. • In BIOL 430 and 431 we attempted to standardize schedules to maintain consistency of instructor and class time across both semesters. Progress toward EMP Students First objective #1. facilitate student engagement and faculty communication outside of the classroom. Below are our efforts to date: • Supported several new field study purchases, including radios, plant presses, and a tour-guide communication set through Science Endowment Fund. • Purchased PASCO water-quality sensors to improve field lab experiences. • Designed trips to Cosumnes River Preserve, Cal Academy, and Sacramento Zoo. • Hired new part-time and full-time Instructional Assistants who directly assist with students in class and facilitating review sessions. • Developed more assignments involving graphing to help students better “analyze data using quantitative reasoning and mathematical concepts.” Shared with all faculty in BIOL 300 and BIOL 310. • Developed a successful assignment in which students are asked to “assess information from a variety of sources for scientific validity and meaning.” Shared with instructors of BIOL 310. Progress toward EMP objective on safety: improving faculty safety. Below are our efforts to date: • Participated in active shooter training for faculty and staff. • Completed training in chemical hygiene and blood-borne pathogens. • Completed sexual harassment training. Progress toward EMP objective to "Reflect Community Diversity": identifying, developing, and implementing programs that reflect community diversity. Below are our efforts to date: • Implemented culturally relevant material in lectures, labs and on field trips that highlight marginalized groups. • Highlighted significant contributions from diverse communities.

Program Strengths: The biology department is a collaborative unit that supports innovative teaching practices. We value the interpersonal relationships that strengthen department morale and create an environment that encourages faculty success. Students benefit from having engaged and supported instructors. We offer a wide range of Biology courses that meet the needs of our diverse student body. Opportunities: The biology department recognizes the need to provide more research opportunities for undergraduate students and is partnering with four-year institutions to develop these opportunities. In partnership with The Design Hub, the department is improving student access to models. Challenges: The biology department strives to provide a strong laboratory and research experience for students despite working in outdated and antiquated laboratory space. There is not enough lab space available to be able to offer enough sections of courses with labs to meet the needs of our students. The inadequate lab space limits innovation and research opportunities for students and faculty. Furthermore, we find ourselves somewhat challenged in creating and maintaining a faculty pool as diverse as our student body. Equity gaps: Research on student outcomes indicates disproportionate impacts for African-American and Hispanic/Latino students. Influencing factors: Influencing factors include inadequate classroom and lab space. Student preparedness is highly variable and impacts success in courses. Data limitations: Faculty have limited access to data and are unable to see success rates for individual courses. Data including information regarding transfer student success would be helpful in assessing course curriculum. Areas for further research: We would like to compare enrollment, demographics and success in online classes compared to in-person classes and hybrid courses. Data regarding disproportionately affected groups compared to the same programs at other colleges may help to better inform department efforts. It would also be instructive to look at data to examine the significance of keeping a diversity of non-majors course offerings. The department is also interested in success rates in courses with varied scheduled times such as 7:30 AM vs 10 AM and on-campus vs satellite campus offerings.

The biology department has been successful in meeting the needs of most of our students. However, there are significant challenges that we are motivated to address with future action. The research office has provided evidence of disproportionate impact for African-American and Hispanic/Latino students and this is cause for concern and action. This will be one of our main goals for improvement as a department. In addition, we have experienced slight losses in enrollment (-1.6 % from Fall 2012-Fall 2017). We would like to offer more sections in nontraditional formats and timeframes to increase enrollment, including online, weekend, and summer courses. With more classroom space, there would be more options and scheduling flexibility for students. We are improving our use of technology and incorporating new technology. We also need to expand our outreach to high schools. We will continue to connect students with jobs, research, and service opportunities within the field of biological sciences in the public and private spheres.

Our goal is to reduce differential success among our student population by revising course curriculum and improving access to campus resources for student success. We intend to preserve the current diversity of non-majors offerings and explore new course curricula. While all non-majors classes fulfill the GE and transfer requirements, each has a unique emphasis, which meets the needs of a diverse student body. Our aspirations include continuing to offer high quality in-person, online, and hybrid instruction to serve students in a variety of modalities. We intend to continue to provide collaborative learning experiences for our faculty, such as Teaching and Learning Seminars at ARC for faculty and book clubs that help us stay current in our fields and update our pedagogy.

Objective: Modernize facilities In order to increase student success and effectively engage our diverse student population we need to update our laboratory facilities. Effective instruction in the sciences is uniquely dependent on access to modern equipment and our current facilities are outdated. Intention: The Facilities Master Plan includes new biology lab space and equipment. We plan to work in concert with the Planning to design modern biology lab facilities to meet the future needs of our students. We also plan to continue to make safety and technological improvements to rooms with cadaver/preserved specimen use. Measurement: We will measure success as the participation of and communication by faculty in the planning process for new STEM buildings that include Biology room use. Furthermore, success can be measured by cataloguing improvements to classrooms, laboratory preparation rooms, and associated spaces. Objective: Measuring student success Increase student access and success in historically impacted courses (BIOL 430, 431, 440, and 442). Increase student interest and success in non-majors classes. In all classes, reduce the differential success among our students. Intention: Increase access to historically impacted classes by increasing our flexibility in scheduling courses. We intend to use the new scheduling software (AdAstra) to inform our scheduling choices and to increase the number of lab spaces available in the expected new building space (see above). We intend to increase access to open lab by optimizing scheduling for the existing BIOL 430 and 431 open labs with more consistent times, and by allocating space and resources for a BIOL 440 open lab. Reach out to organizational centers on campus (such as TRIO, MESA, Umoja Sakhu) that work with underrepresented and disadvantaged groups to develop effective tools that promote equitable educational experiences in the STEM classroom. Establish a point of contact with particular instructors and organizations on campus to facilitate conversations, increase visibility and initiate trust with specific groups on campus. Preserve the diversity of non-majors offerings we now have, and strategically increase this diversity of offerings to attract new students with culturally relevant content. Measurement: We will measure success by measuring participation in open labs, monitoring feedback from enrolled and waitlisted students, and evaluating relevant enrollment numbers in laboratory classes. We will communicate with directors and administrators in these centers to assess effectiveness of our efforts. We will also elicit feedback directly from students and monitor the success of disproportionately impacted students in our classes, especially across different modalities and offerings. We will more closely monitor data from our classes to evaluate success of different subpopulations of students. Objective: Research Opportunities Research experiences have been demonstrated to be critical for student development, but providing research opportunities in biology is challenging at community colleges due to a lack of facilities and institutional support for research. Intention: Our goal is to acquire resources and expertise to develop more research opportunities for students both in general education and biology-majors courses. We plan to collaborate with CSU-Sacramento on an NSF grant to develop course-based research experiences at American River College. Measurement: We will enumerate and assess quality of research experiences of students in our classes. Objective: Integrate Biotechnology Since the fields of molecular and cellular biology advance rapidly, it is essential to expose students to cutting-edge ideas and laboratory techniques. This knowledge and skill set is desirable for employers in the biosciences and helps students understand the social impacts of new technologies. Intention: Integrate more biotechnology concepts into existing Biology courses such as BIOL 400, BIOL 440, and BIOL442. We intend to incorporate laboratory and other activities that get developed through collaboration with the Biotechnology program Measurement: We will enumerate the biotechnology activities that are developed and incorporated into our classes. Objective: Campus resources promoting student success There are existing programs at American River College that effectively develop student study skills particularly in the sciences, such as the Science Success Center, MESA, and BEACON Tutoring. These programs are essential for increasing equity and accessibility for students and we support increased student access to these programs. Intention: Continue to increase visibility of these programs through recommendations and classroom presentations. Encourage the participation of Biology faculty in these programs. Measurement: We will collect numbers of participating faculty and participating students. We will correlate student participation with grades or other measures of course success.

While increasing the number of course offerings for traditionally impacted biology courses (BIOL 400, BIOL 430, BIOL 431, BIOL 440, and BIOL 442) would not specifically meet the needs of our underrepresented student cohorts, it would be the first step toward providing access for more students overall. When you couple this increase in section number with non-traditional scheduling times, such as weekend and evening classes, the biology department should be able to reach students whose personal and professional commitments prohibit them from attending during the more traditional course times. Additionally, by preserving the diversity of offerings in the non-majors courses, we can meet the needs and interests of the widest range of ARC students, and in doing so, allow students to take courses that better suit their needs. The biology faculty will continue to promote awareness of, and encourage the participation in the various student support programs at ARC. Students who are at risk, or perhaps not as academically prepared as they could be should benefit from the academic and life skills provided by such programs as the Science Success Center, TRIO, MESA, and Umoja Sakhu. Biology instructors’ continued collaboration with the students and the administrators of these programs should provide even greater insight into how we as a department can provide equitable classroom environments and curriculum. We as a department also acknowledge that we have more to learn about promoting social justice and equity in the biology classroom. As such, we will actively seek out new information and strategies to help our students succeed. We will seek out workshops, both on and off campus, which will help us to enhance our educational and cultural competencies.