Penn State Science Journal 12-15_FINAL

8/17/2019 Penn State Science Journal 12-15_FINAL

1/68

December 2015

Transition StatePG 1

ReinventingStatistics

EducationPG 1

Thriving on

StressLearning from Lizardsin Tracy Langkilde's Lab

PG


2/68

T ab l eof C ont ent s

FEATURE STORIES:

4 Exploring the Nature of Stress Follow Tracy Langkilde as she looks at how certain animals adapt to stress in

their environments.

12 Transition State Learn about the change in leadership in the Department of Chemistry.

16 Reinventing Statistics Education Discover how faculty in the Department of Statistics are transforming the way we

teach statistics.

24 Research in Action Read short briefs about some of the amazing research projects happening now inthe college.

COLLEGE NEWS:

Doug Cavener Named VerneM. Willaman Dean

Teaching New Pedagogy

Strategy in China

Transforming Science

Education with Tombros

Fellowships

Intellectual Property Focus

Climate & Diversity Corner

College Welcome Day

Staff Highlight

Faculty Highlight

Years of Service Recognition

DEPARTMENT NEWS

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT:

Faculty Awards and Honors

Faculty Promotions

New Faculty

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT:

Undergraduate Student Awards

and Honors

Commencement

Summer 2015 Student Marshal

Undergraduate Scientists

Above and Beyond: Focus on

Graduate Students Editor: Tara ImmelWriters: Barbara Collins, Whittney Gould,

Carley LaVelle, Carrie Lewis, Brenda Lucas,

Joslyn Neiderer, Samantha Schwartz, Sam

Sholtis, and Bill Zimmerman. Special thanks to

all of our other contributors!

Design: Carley LaVelle, Penn State Science

Marketing Ofce

Printer: Watkins Printing

ALUMNI NEWS:

Weinreb Family Endows EarlyCareer Professorship

College Welcomes New Director

of Development

Outstanding Alumni

All Science Tailgate

Snapshot of Philanthropy

C.I. Noll Award for Excellence in

Teaching

Millennium Society

Share Your News

Upcoming Events

Penn State Eberly College of Science22


3/68

Dear Friends of the College,

It is with great pleasure that

I welcome you to this issue in

my new role as dean of theEberly College of Science.

Over the last few months, I

have had the opportunity to

immerse myself in our college

community and promote

our mission. I am struck by

the passion that our faculty and students have

for learning, discovery, and problem solving; the

dedication of our hard-working staff in keeping the

college running efciently and in collegial manner;

and the engagement and generosity of our science

alumni.

My transition has not been the only one in recent

months; we have recruited, hired, and also shifted

some of the best faculty and staff into pivotal roles

that will help the college succeed in achieving

its strategic objectives. As you will read in this

issue, Barbara Garrison, the former head of the

Department of Chemistry, has passed the torch to

Tom Mallouk, Evan Pugh University Professor of

Chemistry. Mallouk will continue his research and

teaching while enhancing faculty development,

working on educational improvements, and

managing the daily administrative duties as head.

The college has also hired a director of

undergraduate research, Tomalei Vess. Thi

newly created position manages the Ofce o

Science Engagement and will help transform thscience undergraduate experience by providin

students with co-curricular experiences, such a

research, internships, and co-ops, that will enric

their education by enabling them to apply an

practice what they learn in the classroom.

We also have new leadership in the alumn

relations and development ofce. Joyce Matthew

has joined our team as the new senior director o

development. Joyce has 15 years of fundraisin

experience, most recently in the College o

Information Sciences and Technology. I loo

forward to her leadership during the next capita

campaign, which begins in summer 2016.

We have a great foundation on which to buil

future success in the college. As the new dean,

will continue to reach out to our college communit

as we build and shape the future of our college

Please join me in transforming the Eberly Colleg

of Science to achieve its full potential as a vibran

and diverse scientic and educational communit

that is internationally renowned for excellence

and for improving the world through its discoverie

and solutions to life’s most pressing challenges.

Sincerely,

SCIENCE JOURNAL December 2015


4/68

C over S t or y



5/68

Exploringthe Nature of

It’s only getting more stressful in our

stressful world, particularly if you are an

animal trying to deal with a pesky invasive

species or the impacts of humans in your

environment.

Associate Professor of Biology Tracy

Langkilde’s career thrives on that

stress. Langkilde conducts research in

evolutionary ecology by studying the stress

caused by global environmental change,

and how animals are able to deal with

these stressors.

By Whittney Gould



6/68

Get Twitchy With It

One of the animals Lang-

kilde studies is the east-ern fence lizard, a spe-

cies commonly found in

the southeastern United

States. For thousands of

years, when fence lizards

faced adversity, they had

a pretty simple approach

to survival: laying very still and blending into

their surroundings. This was quite a successful

approach for them—until re ants invaded their

territory.

Fire ants were not deterred by frozen-in-place

eastern fence lizards, and proceeded to bite and

sting the lizards anyway. Sometimes, the lizards

died from these attacks. The survival behavior

that had worked for their species for years was

no longer protecting them from predators.

Some lizards broke from the standard ap-

proach and started to twitch to ick off attack-

ing ants off or run away, which was a much more

successful way to survive. Stressing out about

survival fueled this adaptive behavior.

“Fire ants have a venomous sting and act as

both a novel predator and a novel toxic prey to

many animals, including fence lizards,” says

Langkilde. “They are predicted to eventually

occupy over 50 percent of the terrestrial surface

of the earth, so many animals are going to have

to deal with these threats.”

Langkilde noticed that in areas where re

ants had lived for years, a higher percentage of

lizards exhibited the twitching and icking be-

haviors than in areas where re ants had not

yet invaded.

“Getting constantly attacked by re ants

seems like it should be stressful,” Langkilde

said. “We tested this by capturing lizards from

re ant–invaded and uninvaded sites and tak-

C over S t or y

ing blood samples.”

They discovered that the populations of liz-

ards who live among re ants on a regular basiswere, in fact, more stressed.

Langkilde then tested whether there were

any benets to these higher stress levels. By

applying drops of the stress hormone corticoste-

rone mixed with oil to the lizards’ backs, Lang-

kilde could mimic the stress caused by re ant

attacks.

“We can make unresponsive lizards from un-

invaded sites very responsive to re ants simply

by stressing them out. By being stressed out,

lizards from populations dealing with invasive

re ants are primed for future encounters with

predators,” Langkilde said.

Her team began to monitor the health of the

lizards exposed to varying levels of stress. Their

ndings showed that the duration, intensity,

and frequency of stress were key factors in de-

termining whether it was benecial for the liz-

ard or not.

“Chronic stress, usually dened by stress oc-

curring over a long period, is generally thought

to be bad,” said Langkilde. But Langkilde’s

team found that this really depends on how

much stress is experienced. “A small amount of

stress every three days for nine days total was

good for the lizards,” Langkilde said, “in that it

enhanced the immune system.”

But more stress than that can be bad for the

lizards, she said. When the lizards were given

higher amounts of the stress hormone, at the

same frequency and over the same duration,

they experienced negative effects. “This higher-

intensity stress caused the immune system to

crash,” Langkilde said.

“We generally expect long-term stress to pro-

duce negative consequences, but our results

demonstrate that really intense stress can pro-

duce a similar result," said Gail McCormick,

TRACY LANGKILDE



7/68

Gail McCormick , a Ph.D.

candidate in the Langkilde lab,

works closely with Langkilde

on the stress research, focusing

on the effects of stress on the

eastern fence lizard, both

within an animal’s lifetime and

across generations, resulting from exposure to re ant

invasion.

“What about stress produces negative consequences?

When do they occur, and how do frequency, intensity,

and duration of the stress contribute to those

consequences? And how does an animal’s previous

experience with stress affect how they respond? Those

are some of the questions I’m investigating,” she said.

Evolutionary biology and ecology research provide

room for interdisciplinary collaboration, which

McCormick is happy that Langkilde encourages. “I’ve

been able to work with other faculty members across

Penn State on topics that interest me.” McCormick and

Langkilde work closely with Alumni Professor of Biology

Katriona Shea on the application of disturbance theory

to their stress response research, and are currently

working with Associate Professor of Biobehavioral

Health Sonia Cavigelli from the College of Health

and Human Development on the impacts of stress on

development.

Outside of the lab, McCormick has many interests.

Her passion for science sparked an interest in science

communication and led her to an internship with Penn

State Research Communications. It has been a great t

and she thinks science communication could be a big

part of her future career.

She also has a very creative side. She enjoys theater,

both performing on stage and being behind the scenes

as a stage manager. “Performing is a different kind

of creative outlet for me,” she said. It’s made all the

sweeter by the support of her Langkilde lab family,

including Langkilde herself, at her performances.

In addition to her theater skills, McCormick is a very

accomplished paper artist. She cuts paper by hand

and layers it to create highlights and shadows in her

pieces. “It has a photographic effect,” she said of her

work. Recently, she’s been commissioned to create this

art, both for clients with personal requests and for an

editorial spread in a magazine. You can view her paper

art at gailmccormick.wordpress.com.

P

t

G

i l

MC

i k

a graduate student in the Langkilde lab who is

leading this project. “This matches up with what

we know about post-traumatic stress disorder in

humans—that a short but intense stressor canproduce lasting consequences.”

Langkilde’s team was curious about how the

high levels of stress experienced in re ant–in-

vaded areas might affect the next generation.

They are currently testing the effects of stress

on both pregnant lizards and the babies they

give birth to. They want to know whether stress

during pregnancy could make the offspring bet-

ter prepared for life’s stresses.

“We are putting the offspring of lizards that

experienced high and low stress during preg-nancy into high- and low-stress eld enclosures

that vary in the presence of re ants,” Langkilde

said. “We predict that babies of stressed moms

will do better in high-stress environments.”

While Langkilde isn’t sure yet whether it’s

a behavioral reaction of the mothers to stress

or something the offspring experience during



8/68

C over S t or y

development, pregnant lizards exposed to high

stress gave birth to bigger babies that survived

better than the offspring of pregnant lizards ex-posed to lower-stress environments.

“Hormones can be important regulators of

fetal growth. High levels of stress hormones

circulating in stressed mothers could be passed

directly to their offspring. Or it may be that

high-stress moms are eating more and allocat-

ing more nutrients to their young,” said McCor-

mick.

Research Langkilde has conducted on “beard-

ed lady” fence lizards, or female lizards who

display a more masculine, colorful appearance,

could also be worth ex-

amining in the context of

stress response. “Males

really don’t like these

bearded ladies. So they

breed later and invest

less energy in reproduc-

tion, but their babies are

tougher, having a higher

survival rate. Bearded

ladies also sprint much faster than more femi-

nine lizards,” said Langkilde.

Could these adaptations make bearded ladies

or their offspring better able to deal with stress?

“In high-stress lizard populations, 90 percent

of the females are bearded, so it’s possible,” she

said.

Who Needs Noise-Canceling Headphones?

Langkilde took these questions about stress

and applied them to a different species: wood

frogs native to the northeastern United States.

Sound is very important to this species, because

they use calls to nd mates and detect incom-

ing predators. For wood frogs that live nearer to

sound pollution like road noise from high-traf-

c roads, this can complicate things and cause

stress.

“We exposed wood frogs from quiet Penn-

sylvania woods to road noise,” said Langkilde,“and found that this dramatically increased

their stress levels.”

Road noise also has effects on the immune

function of these frogs, making them less likely

to produce antimicrobial peptides, compounds

in the frog’s skin that defend against pathogen

invasion. Langkilde found that road noise also

had effects on female wood frog reproductive be-

havior. Road noise impaired their ability to lo-

cate calling males. Wood frogs have a very short

reproductive window, breeding for only a few

days each spring.

“This could have important implications for

their mating success,” she said.

Langkilde wanted to know whether wood

frogs could adapt to a noisy environment. “Peo-

ple living near train tracks or highways often

tune this noise out over time,” Langkilde said.

“We wanted to know if frogs could do the same.”

Her team took wood frog eggs from both noisy

environments such as forests adjacent to New

York interstate highways, and quiet countryside

environments. They raised the tadpoles under

common conditions in the lab until they became

frogs. Then they compared the stress responses

of each group to prolonged exposure to high lev-

els of road noise.

As with their previous study, the “country

"WE GENERALLY EXPECT LONG-TERM STRESS

TO PRODUCE NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES,

BUT OUR RESULTS DEMONSTRATE THAT

REALLY INTENSE STRESS CAN PRODUCE A

SIMILAR RESULT."



9/68

frogs” were really stressed by the road noise,

and weren’t able to tune it out over the course of

the eight-day experiment. The “city frogs,” how-ever, were not at all stressed by the noise.

This is very interesting because these frogs

were raised in the same environment, and the

only change was that one group of eggs was col-

lected in a more stressful environment than the

other, says Langkilde. “It is possible that frogs

from roadside ponds have evolved to be desensi-

tized to road noise, in order to avoid the costs of

being stressed.”

Langkilde’s research will continue to exam-

ine the consequences of stress caused by envi-

ronmental change. “What is the effect of stress

within a lifetime and across generations? Can

animals adapt to high-stress environments, and

how do they do so? How can we predict when

stress will become bad? Those are questions I’mworking to investigate further,” she said.

Her ndings are all the more important be-

cause they could inform topics of stress and hu-

man health.

Enthusiasm for Mentoring

Mentoring students is a much-loved part of

Langkilde’s job as principal investigator of her

lab.

“She's very easy to talk to and enthusiastic.

I like the freedom to ask interesting questions

and explore them in a variety of different ways,”

said Christopher Thawley, a graduate stu-



10/68

C over S t or y

"BY BEING STRESSED OUT,

LIZARDS FROM POPULATIONS

DEALING WITH INVASIVE

FIRE ANTS ARE PRIMED FOR

FUTURE ENCOUNTERS WITH

PREDATORS."



11/68

dent in the Langkilde lab.

“She’s done a great job of creating a lab where

everyone can work to their strengths and helpeach other out,” added graduate student Caty

Tylan.

Her graduate students like her commitment

to a low-stress environment.

“You never have to worry about coming to her

for help, even if it’s something you messed up

on,” said Dustin Owen, also a graduate stu-

dent in her lab. “She’s really good about helping

you and providing feedback without making you

feel stupid or uncomfortable.”

“She is conscious of the needs of students and

researchers to have a good balance between pro-

ductive work and a healthy social life,” added

graduate student Braulio Assis.

Since coming to Penn State, Langkilde has

mentored more than 50 undergraduate re-

searchers in addition to the graduate students

she advises.

“Their involvement is critical to the success

of my projects, and they benet from the experi-

ence,” Langkilde said.

“Dr. Langkilde has been by far my greatest

mentor at Penn State,” said undergraduate re-

searcher Mark Herr. “She doesn’t merely allow

students to act as lab technicians for the various

graduate students in the lab. From the begin-

ning, she’s encouraged me to conduct my own

projects.”

“She’s taught me how to write scientic pa-

pers. She’s edited grant proposals of mine and

assisted me with funding at every step. It’s tru-

ly incredible, especially when you consider that

she has lots of other undergraduates in the lab

and does the same for them,” he added.

In addition to eld and lab work, the Langkil-

de Lab works to hone their writing skills, which

postdoctoral researcher Chris Howey nds ex-

tremely helpful.

“The members of the Langkilde Lab are very

supportive and helpful with regard to writing

manuscripts and other job-related documents.Meeting every week to discuss these manu-

scripts continually pushes each of us to make

progress on these assignments until they are

published,” Howey said.

Langkilde Lab members also use their writ-

ing skills to write the lab blog, The Lizard Log

(thelizardlog.wordpress.com).

“We wanted to share our love of research and

the thrill of discovering new things with the

general community,” said Langkilde. “My grad-

uate students started the blog back in 2011 as a

way to show people what eldwork was like. It’s

taken hold and is read by 900 people per month.”

The blog showcases posts and pictures of the

lab members with updates on their research,

travels, and even updates about past members

of the lab.

“I hope that the blog gives readers a glimpse

into how science is performed. Most people don’t

have a good understanding of the scientic pro-

cess, so hopefully readers can get a sense of how

we’re doing our research so that they can better

understand the results,” McCormick said. “And

see just how cool our research is!”

As the blog updates indicate, Langkilde’s con-

nection to her lab members doesn’t stop when

they graduate. A recent trip to a conference with

a few of the lab members was planned to include

a stop to visit Brad Carlson, Langkilde lab

alumnus and current assistant professor of biol-

ogy at Wabash College. Langkilde is also proud

to announce lab alumna Lindsey Swierk was

recently awarded a Gaylord Donnelly Postdoc-

toral Fellowship at Yale—the same fellowship

that Langkilde herself received as a postdoc.

“I love seeing what they achieve when they

leave,” she said. “We all still stay in touch.”



12/68

12

F eat ur eS t or y

TransState:A Change of Leadershipin the Departmentof Chemistry



13/68

ition B y C a r r i e L e w i s



14/68

F eat ur eS t or y

Passing the Torch

Tradition at Penn State is deeply rooted, and

changes in the leadership in the Department

of Chemistry are no exception. Since 1983, the

chemistry department has rotated department

heads on a regular basis, generally every three-

to-ve years; earlier this year, the transition

from Barbara Garrison to Tom Mallouk

was made. Garrison is well known in the chem-

istry department, and across the country, as a

well-respected leader in chemistry, as she has

held this position not once but twice, with f -

teen years between her two terms.

“Our chemistry department has a great tra-

dition of excellence, and we are indebted to Bar-

bara Garrison for her remarkable leadership of

the department that included eleven years as

department head and construction of the Chem-

istry Building,” said Doug Cavener, professor

and Verne M. Willaman Dean of the Eberly Col-

lege of Science.

Garrison, Shapiro Professor of Chemistry,

earned her bachelor’s degree in Physics, grad-

uating summa cum laude from Arizona State

University in 1971, and her Ph.D. in Physical

Chemistry from the University of California,

Berkeley. She then went on to complete her

postdoctoral studies in physical chemistry at

Purdue University where she met her husband,

Nick Winograd, Evan Pugh University Pro-

fessor of Chemistry, Penn State.

The physical sciences are notorious for being

male-dominated elds, especially twenty-ve

years ago, but that didn’t stop Garrison frommoving into high administrative roles. “I wasn’t

really thinking about it. I was aware that there

weren’t many women, but my department head

at the time was very supportive,” said Garrison.

Just ten years after joining the faculty at Penn

State, Garrison became one of the rst women

in the United States to be chair of a major chem-

istry department at the age of 40 and served

her rst term for ve years, from 1989–1994.

Rather than focusing on the downsides of being

in the minority as a woman in science, Garrison

noted that she had a lot of doors opened for her

because she was a female department head—

she took part in external reviews for chemistry

departments at multiple universities and served

on various advisory committees, such as for the

National Science Foundation and the Governing

Board for the Council of Chemical Research.

In 2009, Garrison said yes to the job again be-

cause she enjoyed it so much the rst time and

knew it was a way she could contribute back to

the department. The second time around was a

bit easier, she said, which she largely credits to

those around her. “I had already learned how to

do a lot of things, like making decisions in cer-

tain situations and supervising staff, but more

importantly, I had lots of great collegial faculty

and staff members to help out and do things,

which made delegating much easier,” said Gar-

rison.

In addition to serving as the department head,Garrison was instrumental in the design of the

Chemistry Building, as she chaired the plan-

ning committee. The planning process started

in 1995, and the building was ready for occupa-

tion in 2004. (Ironically, at the same time, Gar-

rison and her husband had just nished build-

ing their own house.) As chair of the committee,

TOM MALLOUKBARBARA GARRISON



15/68

Garrison was involved in writing the program

statement for the building, which included list-

ing all of the requirements for the building,such as the number of rooms, amount of space

in each room, and utilizations and contents of

each room. She worked closely with Ken Feld-

man, professor of chemistry, who meticulously

enumerated the needs of the labs and put the

whole building design in the program Chem-

Draw. Garrison commented that she found the

process fun and enjoyable because they were

constructing a building for the future that was

for the entire department.

While fullling numerous administrative re-

sponsibilities, Garrison continued to run an ac-

tive research lab, having thirty publications in

her rst ve years at Penn State. In fact, she

had started her research program before even

coming to Penn State by initiating collabora-

tions. “I collaborated a lot, especially with Nick.

I did it before it was fashionable!” said Garrison.

The Garrison Lab collaborates with numerous

other groups as they work on modeling reac-

tions on surfaces. One example is they create

computer simulation models to better under-

stand secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS),

an analytical process used to characterize the

composition of solid surfaces. These molecular

dynamic simulations mimic the ejection of mol-

ecules in layered compounds to help determine

depth proles and create elemental images that

interface with experimental results.

During Garrison’s rst term as department

head, she hired Tom Mallouk from the Univer-sity of Texas to join the Penn State faculty, and

twenty-two years later, he has now moved into

the position himself. As associate head for the

department, the transition was obvious. “Bar-

bara is leaving the department in very good

shape, and its improved dramatically over the

last twenty years,” said Mallouk. “There are

still some challenges, though.”

One of the rst goals that Mallouk has is to

improve the undergraduate experience. “Thereis a recognition that active learning is very im-

portant in the classroom, so we are trying to

do more of that, as well as research experience,

early on in the undergraduate experience,” said

Mallouk. He further explained that rather than

just having students learn the content of science

to become competent for a test, it’s important

that they also learn the process of science. Other

goals Mallouk has during his term as depart-

ment head are to hire great people, build pro-

grammatic strength in the department, and im-

prove diversity.

“I am very pleased that Tom Mallouk agreed

to take over the reins as department head, and

I can report that he is already immersed in

faculty development, working on educational

improvements, and tending to a myriad of ad-

ministrative responsibilities while maintaining

a cutting-edge research program,” said Cavener.

In addition to his administrative responsibili-

ties, Mallouk also balances his research lab and

teaching. He believes that staying active in the

lab and teaching ensure he stays connected to

the primary mission of what they as a depart-

ment are trying to do. His research group fo-

cuses on synthesizing nanoscale inorganic ma-

terials and understanding what they can do

with them, particular in the areas of energy,

electronics, and catalysis.

Mallouk is an Evan Pugh University Profes-

sor of Chemistry, Physics, Biochemistry andMolecular Biology. He graduated with his bach-

elor’s degree from Brown University and a Ph.D.

from the University of California, Berkeley.



16/68

R e i n v e n t i n g

STATIST ICS

E d u c a t i o n

F eat ur eS t or y

By Tara Immel



17/68

DDennis Pearl has a CAUSE, and his goalis to improve statistics education and teaching.CAUSE, which is the Consortium for the Ad-vancement of Undergraduate Statistics Educa-tion, is a national organization whose mission isto support and advance undergraduate statisticseducation through resources, professional devel-

opment, outreach, and research. Pearl, who is a

professor of statistics at Penn State, also serves

as the director of CAUSE, where he has been

working to develop a redesigned foundation for

statistics education across the country.

“To effectively impact all students, there must

be a way to personalize each instructor's teach-

ing possibilities and each student's educational

experience,” Pearl said. “Support for statisticseducation at Penn State and across the country

is high right now, and technology is continually

improving and becoming more accessible. These

elements are making it possible for that type of

personalized education to be feasible.”

" To ef fect ively impact al l student s, t here must be a way

to personalize each instructor's teaching possibi l ities and each st udent's educat iona l exper ience..."



18/68

F eat ur eS t or y

Relevant Resources

CAUSE has served as a catalyst for changing

the way educators teach statistics by providing

free resources to personalize pedagogy and con-

tent for different learners. Through the CAUSE

website (causeweb.org), webinars, workshops,

an electronic conference, as well as an in-person

conference, the organization, and Pearl, have

been making every effort to improve the way

statistics is taught and learned.

The CAUSE website offers a multitude of re-

sources to statistics educators worldwide. The

resources are free to use and have everything

from recordings of webinars on teaching meth-

ods and activities, to web app-based activities,

data sets, and fun resources, such as videos,

cartoons, and songs that can help facilitate

learning.

Webinars have served as a way to help edu-

cate statistics educators without them need-

ing to leave their desks. The webinars, which

now come to dozens per year, are broken down

into three areas: activities series, teaching and

learning series, and research series. One fromeach series is offered each month and is record-

ed so that they can be viewed on demand any

time. Industry partners, such as Minitab, Pear-

son Higher Education, W.H. Freeman Publish-

ing, and SAS, help to cover the cost so that edu-

cators can access the webinars free of charge.

“Webinars offer a great way to present the new-

est innovations in teaching and learning statis-

tics and CAUSE is grateful for the support from

volunteers and sponsors who make those effortsa reality,” Pearl said.

CAUSE also hosts a biennial Electronic Con-

ference On Teaching Statistics (eCOTS), which

occurs on even number years. The next, to be

held in May 2016, will focus on “Changing with

Technology.” The conference, which is chaired

by Kari Lock Morgan, assistant professor of

statistics at Penn State, is intended to spark

new ideas for how educators can change with

technology and provide a virtual meeting space

for educators to engage with and learn from

each other. eCOTS 2016 will feature keynote

speakers, virtual panel discussions, breakout

sessions, workshops, virtual posters, and afli-

ated mini-conferences taking place around the

country.

In addition, CAUSE hosts a biennial United

States Conference On Teaching Statistics (US-

COTS), which is held on odd number years, and

is well attended by the statistics educator com-

munity. Last held in May 2015 at Penn State

and attended by about 450 people, the confer-

ence featured plenary sessions, active breakout

sessions, poster sessions, and a dozen associ-

ated workshops disseminating the work of NSF-

funded projects in statistics education. Both the

eCOTS and USCOTS serve as a mechanism to

invigorate the statistics education community

on a regular basis and also provide the infra-

structure for the dissemination and sharing of

information from educators on teaching experi-ences, research results, and hot topics, such as

data science.

Making Statistics Fun

Pearl’s personal education research currently

focuses on the latter aspect of the available re-

sources: for teaching applied probability and for

DENNIS PEARL KARI LOCK MORGAN



19/68

using fun resources in teaching statistics. “Proj-

ect UPLIFT (Universal Portability of Learning

Increased by Fun Teaching) questioned whether

or not the use of cartoons and songs would im-

prove student learning and decrease anxiety,”

Pearl said.

CAUSEweb.org hosts the largest collection

of fun resources for college statistics teachers,

which includes cartoons, jokes, quotes, songs,

poems, word puzzles, magic tricks, and videos.

Pearl and his colleagues at University of Texas

at El Paso and Georgia Perimeter College as-

sessed the materials throughout the three-

year study, by observing students in three ur-

ban settings and interviewing them to gather

their attitudes towards introductory statistics.

In one experiment, all students took a pretest

and post-test measuring their anxiety about

statistics. Students were randomly assigned to

either the experimental group, where they were

exposed to cartoons or songs inserted into short

content items, or the control group, where they

only received the content. The researchers ana-

lyzed the data to see if students who received

the extra fun content would perform better on

related embedded multiple-choice exam ques-

tions, or experience a greater decrease in statis-

tics anxiety over a semester.

The data showed that song items had a higher

percent of correct answers among students who

viewed the lesson in conjunction with the song

compared with the control students who saw the

lesson alone. The use of cartoons did not show

any differences between groups on test item

performance – but, along with songs, may have

helped reduced student anxiety.

Building on their ndings from project UP-

LIFT, Pearl and colleagues are beginning a new

project, Project SMILES (Student-Made Inter-

active Learning with Educational Songs), which

was just approved for funding by the National

Science Foundation. This project will develop

and experimentally test an innovation in online

learning where students create a song by lling

in key words (like Mad Libs) associated with a

learning objective. The songs are played back

though synthetic voice technologies and can be

shared between students. “I’m really excited

A CARTOON FROM THE CAUSEWEB.ORG RESOURCES. It is suitable for a course website that makes use of a boxplot

to display an outlier and also uses the term "statistically signicant" in its punch line. The cartoon is free to use in theclassroom and on course web sites under a creative commons attribution-non-commercial 2.5 license.

Credit: The cartoon is number 539 from the webcomic series at xkcd.com created by Randall Munroe.



20/68

F eat ur eS t or y

about how these interactive songs are being de-

signed to challenge students to construct exam-

ples and/or context thereby fostering statistical

literacy and reasoning skills,” Pearl said.

While Pearl primarily focuses on cultivatingthe resources, professional development, out-

reach, and research available to statistics edu-

cators across the country, Kari Lock Morgan

is specically focusing on improving how Penn

State students learn statistics by redesign-

ing introductory courses and rening teaching

methods to make them more effective.

Redesigning Statistics Education

For many, statistics stirs up a mental picture

of memorizing mathematical algorithms andcomputations but never really understanding

them. Students have been taught through plug

and chug type courses and retained information

long enough for an exam, then disregarded it

and moved on to the next topic. Although the

content and teaching methods have not changed

much over the last few decades, Lock Morgan is

on a mission to change the perception, as well

as the content and way that students learn sta-

tistics.

Traditionally, statistics has been taught such

that students memorize mathematical equa-

tions, theory, and distributions. Although this

method has worked for statistics majors and

those who are very motivated and very inter-

ested in learning about the topic, it has been

very difcult for students who need basic statis-

tics knowledge on their way to another degree.

Many non-statistics students develop only su-

percial understanding and do not retain much

of the information learned in class. These stu-

dents can repeat theories and solve basic prob-

lems, but most are doing it through conditioning

and memorization. Students may not actually

understand the numbers they are calculating.

Lock Morgan, who was named a 2015 Eberly

College of Science Center for Excellence in Sci-

ence Education Tombros Fellow, has dedicated

her career thus far to teaching statistics in a

more intuitive way so that students comprehend

the information and can apply it. “I am grateful

that the fellowship allows me to focus more of

my time where my passion truly lies; on making

statistics more about conceptual understanding

and solving real-world problems,” Lock Morgan

said.

For her fellowship project, Lock Morgan chose

to overhaul STAT 250: Introduction to Biosta-

A CARTOON TO TEACH ABOUT THE CAPTURE-RECAPTURE

METHOD. This is part of a three cartoon set from Dr.

Weaver that took rst place in the cartoon category of

the 2007 A-Mu-sing competition. It is free to use in the

classroom and on course web sites.

Credit: Cartoon by John Landers (www.landers.co.uk) based on an idea

and sketch from Sheila O. Weaver (University of Vermont).



21/68

tistics. Rather than relying on formulas and

theoretical distributions, she is introducing in-

ference via simulation methods, which includebootstrap condence intervals and randomiza-

tion hypothesis tests. With today’s technology,

statistics students are able to utilize computing

to get answers in a simpler and more intuitive

way. This provides students with a more gen-

eral way to approach statistical problem, focus-

ing on the big picture and helping students ap-

ply the methods to real world problems. It also

builds conceptual understanding so students

better understand their results, and can better

interpret statistics they may encounter in other

situations. The changes she is working on are

in both content and pedagogy. “Incorporating

real-life scenarios into teaching encourages the

students to relate to the material and therefore

be more engaged in class and the learning pro-

cess. Students who have a solid understanding

of the foundational aspects of this method are

able to effectively collect data, analyze data, and

interpret conclusions drawn from data and see

the real-world value of statistics,” Lock Morgan

said.

She aims to help students develop a strong

intuitive understanding of inference through

randomization methods. Once this ground work

is established and students have a conceptual

understanding and appreciation for the results,

they can then compute using the more tradition-

al methods of statistics, including t-tests and

chi-square tests.

A Family Affair

Lock Morgan is not alone in her quest to improve

statistics education; her father, mother, and two

brothers are also statisticians who have a pas-

sion for statistics and education. As a team, the

ve wrote Statistics: Unlocking the Power of

Data, a textbook for introductory statistics. “It

may be unusual to write a book with your entire

family, but for us it has worked really well, prob-

ably because we all like each other a lot. Wegenerally agree on big picture things, but each

bring our own unique perspectives and opinions

on the ner details, which ultimately improves

the nal product,” Lock Morgan said. The book

has been heavily adopted in academia; teachers

across the county are utilizing the innovative

approaches in the text to help teach more effec-

tively and assist students in actually learning

and using the material.

Additionally, the Locks have developed a

website, lock5stat.com, that provides resources

to support their textbook and statistics educa-

tion as a whole. Their online software, StatKey,

a collection of web-based statistics applications,

accompanies the textbook. Their website also

provides data sets in several formats that edu-

cators can use in their classrooms. These data-

sets help teachers provide real-world examples

to help students see the practical applications of

statistics. As of July, StatKey has had 8 million

page views, with over 1,000 sessions per day,

and has been used in 138 countries.

Lock Morgan herself uses the datasets in her

A FAMILY OF STATISTICIANS. Pictured below are Patti

Frazer Lock, Robin H. Lock, Dennis F. Lock, Kari Lock

Morgan, and Eric F. Lock

Credit: Photo from lock5stat.com



22/68

F eat ur eS t or y

classrooms and shows students how statistics

applies in real life. As part of the Tombros Fel-

lowship, Lock Morgan has organized each classand lab to focus on answering a relevant scientif-

ic question, hoping to emphasize that statistics

is an important tool in science. Several of these

datasets and questions come from researchers in

the biological sciences at Penn State, in an effort

to give students an idea for how statistics may

be used in their own departments. Additional-

ly, she embraces innovative teaching methods,

such as active learning and the use of learning

assistants, to get students more engaged in class

and the learning process. In STAT 250, Lock

Morgan requires

students to use the

i>clicker system.

The use of clickers

in the classroom

encourages more

class interaction

and discussion, leading to better understanding

and information retention.

Revising course content and changing peda-

gogical strategies not only helps with conceptual

understanding, but improves student problem-

solving abilities and their transfer of learning.

Trying different approaches often leads to bet-

ter understanding and helps students learn bet-

ter.

Teamwork Approach

Lock Morgan, Pearl, and Matt Beckman, who

will be joining the statistics faculty in January2016, all recognize the need train high school

teachers and better prepare students to use

and understand statistics before they go to col-

lege. “Matt will provide a terric boost to Penn

State’s growing stature as a center for statistics

education expertise,” said David Hunter, head

of the Department of Statistics. “Even before of-

cially starting at Penn State, he has already

gotten involved as a co-principal investigator on

a statistics education grant proposal with Kariand Dennis.”

Beckman is a Penn State graduate himself,

having earned a bachelor’s degree in mathemat-

ics in 2006, along with a Pennsylvania certi-

cation in secondary mathematics teaching.

He later earned a master’s degree in statistics

from the University of Minnesota, and since

that time he has been working as a practicing

biostatistician and statistical consultant, while

simultaneously completing a doctorate in sta-

tistics education, working with two leading ex-

perts in that eld.

Together, the statistics trio is working on a

NSF proposal to improve outreach and teacher

training. Their goal is to help students be bet-

ter prepared for statistics by improving how it

is taught in high schools, while also rening

the content and taking advantage of computing

technology. The Common Core State Standards

in Mathematics recognize both the increased

importance of statistics and the intuitive ben-

et of introducing inference via the simulation

methods enabled by computers, so the team

aims to prepare teachers to teach more statis-tics and teach it in this conceptual way, particu-

larly because many teachers will not have seen

this approach, even if they have taken a statis-

tics courses. “It’s fantastic that high schools are

aiming to teach more statistics, and very excit-

ing that the Common Core is promoting the use

of simulation methods. We want to do what we

“...I’M ESPECIALLY PROUD OF THE WORK WE’RE

DOING TO CONTINUALLY IMPROVE THE TEACHING

WE DO IN THE STATISTICS DEPARTMENT. ”



23/68

can to help make this happen!” Lock Morgan

said.

It’s no surprise that with passionate and mo-tivated faculty, and resourceful, dedicated staff,

the Department of Statistics is becoming a well-

known leader in statistics education. “Statistical

literacy has always been a vital component of a

broad scientic education, and it is all the more

so in today's era of 'big data'. This fact makes

the educational mission of our department more

important than ever; and Penn State statistics

has such a huge footprint not only in Pennsyl-

vania but beyond the Commonwealth through

our World Campus programs that we are well-

positioned to play a strong leadership role in the

practice of statistics education. In this context,

I’m especially proud of the work we’re doing to

continually improve the teaching we do in the

statistics department. Adding experts like Kari,

Dennis, and soon, Matt to our faculty not only

enhances our day-to-day teaching but ensures

that Penn State will remain at the cutting edge

of research in statistics education,” said Hunter.

The outstanding research, resource, and edu-

cational improvements would not be possible

without support and collaboration. Staff mem-

bers have been essential in helping the faculty,

department, and even CAUSE function on a

daily basis. Hunter, Pearl, Lock Morgan, and

the rest of the statistics faculty recognize the

important roles that the statistics staff perform

in helping them to achieve their objectives and

in elevating the department stature.

“Moving CAUSE from Dennis’s previous homeof Ohio State here to Penn State in 2014 was a

highly complex task. We’ve hired two addition-

al staff members, half of whose time is devoted

to CAUSE-related tasks. Lorey Burghard

joined our department in December 2014 and

serves as CAUSE’s program coordinator, and

Bob Carey came on board in May 2015 to sup-

port CAUSE’s IT presence. Meanwhile, Kathy

Smith, who was already on our staff, took on a

huge additional workload almost from the day

Dennis joined Penn State to tackle the Hercu-

lean task of moving the web hosting for CAUSE

from Ohio State to Penn State. There’s so much

overlap now between the statistics department’s

various missions and CAUSE’s mission that our

newly enlarged staff has worked seamlessly into

the life of the department. So we have CAUSE

to thank not only for increased visibility in the

statistics education community but for some ex-

cellent new staff hires as well!” Hunter noted.

Teamwork has a been a key component for

the successes that the statistics department

has achieved. By using an inclusive approach,

the department has been able to make great

strides in improving statistics education

through collaboration in resources, teaching,

and learning.

A CARTOON SUITABLE FOR USE IN TEACHING

the idea that association does not imply

causation. Free to use in the classroom

and on course web sites under a creative

commons attribution-non-commercial 2.5

license.

Credit: The cartoon is number 552 from the webcomic

series at xkcd.com created by Randall Munroe.



24/68

A typical day for Doug

Cavener, the new dean

of the Eberly College of

Science, is anything but

typical. While he spends

most of his week attend-

ing to administration

and fundraising duties

for the college, one may

also nd him sitting at

a microscope looking at uorescent pancreatic

beta cells with one of his graduate students

or analyzing giraffe genome sequences at his

computer. That’s because in addition to his ad-

ministrative responsibilities, Cavener runs a

research lab focused on the developmental and

physiological regulatory processes that are im-

portant in the regulation of metabolic and neu-

rological diseases.

Recently, the Cavener lab received a four-

year, $1.3 million grant from the National In-

stitutes of Health to study insulin regulation.

Maintaining a narrow range of circulating in-

sulin is critical to ensuring normal blood glu-

cose levels and preventing the onset of diabetes

and its plethora of negative downstream effects

on human health. “The regulation of insulin

has been intensely studied since its discovery

in 1921, but the molecular and cellular mecha-

nisms that integrate insulin synthesis, quality

control, trafcking, and secretion are poorly un-

derstood. The goal of our work is to understand

these mechanisms and apply them to the treat-

ment of diabetes,” said Cavener. Barbara Mc-

Grath, senior research associate in the Cavener

lab, added, “This new award from the NIH not

only provides us funding to keep our momentum

going, but it also signals to us that many of our

peer researchers share our enthusiasm. That is

enormously gratifying!”

Cavener and McGrath, along with postdoc-

toral researchers and graduate and undergrad-

uate students, have been studying the function

of the protein PERK, an eIF2α kinase, since

its discovery in 2001. PERK is among a small

number of genes that is so important for pancre-

atic beta cell function that its absence results

in permanent neonatal diabetes in humans and

mice. Permanent neonatal diabetes appears

within the rst six months of life for humans

and persists throughout the lifespan due to the

body’s inability to make enough insulin. Stud-

ies from the Cavener lab over the last few years

have implicated PERK as a critical coordinator

of insulin folding, quality and quantity control,

trafcking, and secretion. This newly awarded

grant from the NIH will allow Cavener’s team to

reveal the mechanisms by which this important

regulation is achieved and then apply these dis-

coveries to the treatment diabetes. —Carrie

Lewis

Research

in Action

R e s e ar c h

Br i ef s

NIH Grant Enables Cavener Lab to Discover Mechanisms to Improve Insulin Regulation



25/68

A four-year grant from

the National Science

Foundation (NSF) is al-

lowing scientists in the

Eberly College of Science

to better search for Earth-

like planets outside of our

solar system.

Jason Wright, associ-

ate professor of astronomy

and astrophysics and principal investigator on

the grant, is searching for exoplanets, or plan-

ets that exist outside of our solar system and or-

bit a star instead of our sun. To do this, Wright

and his team use data from some of the largest

telescopes in the world: telescopes from the W.

M Keck Observatory in Hawaii and the Hobby-

Eberly Telescope in Texas.

The Hobby-Eberly Telescope is a joint ven-

ture between Penn State and three other uni-

versities, and was designed by Larry Ramsey,

distinguished senior scholar and professor of

astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State. Be-

cause the Hobby-Eberly Telescope was built in

the late 1990s, it is getting a series of major

hardware upgrades to make it even better at

searching for exoplanets, which in turn requires

updated software to collect the telescope’s data,

says Wright. “We are working to develop new

software for the Hobby-Eberly Telescope’s high-

resolution spectrograph so that it performs at a

world-class level.”

The $356,000 grant makes the high-resolu-

tion spectrograph software upgrade possible.

The upgraded software will increase the Hobby-

Eberly Telescope’s precision and will also take

advantage of new data analysis techniques to

retroactively improve the data from the tele-

scope’s former spectrograph.

To discover exoplanets, Wright and his col-

leagues use Doppler spectroscopy, or the wobble

method, to nd Jupiter analogs, or exoplanets

that are similar in size to Jupiter in our solar

system. Jupiter analogs are large and exhibit

some gravitational pull on their star, causing

the star to “wobble.” Using the spectrograph,

Wright can measure the radial velocity and

Doppler light shifts of a star to determine if Ju-

piter analogs exist in that star’s system.

“Using this method, we can determine which

stars are likely to have planets like Earth,” he

says. “We can also nd the Jupiter analogs or-

biting stars already discovered to have Earth-

sized planets by NASA's Kepler spacecraft.”

Searching for Jupiter analogs is an important

step in the search to nd Earthlike planets. “We

can’t nd things like the Earth yet, but we are

starting to nd things like Jupiter, and that’s a

game of patience, because Jupiter takes twelve

years to go around the sun,” Wright says. “The

goal of the grant is to nd the Jupiter analogs

as signposts for the interior planets that might

be like Earth that we can’t detect yet.” —

Whittney Gould

NSF Grant Helps to Further the Search for Earthlike Exoplanets



26/68

C ol l e g eN e w s

6 Things to Knowabout Our New DeanFor the rst time in 16 years, the Eberly College of Science has a new

dean. Dean Douglas Cavener took the position after being head of

the Department of Biology for fteen years.

Diabetes and…Giraffes?

While he might be most known for

his research on diabetes, Cavener

is working with the Nelson Mandela

African Institute to sequence the giraffe

genome. “We wanted to choose an

iconic African animal,” he said. Through

this work, he may have recently iso-

lated the gene that gives giraffes their long

necks.

Music Man

Cavener began col-

lege as a music ma-

jor before switching

to science. “I had the

passion for music, but itdidn’t take me long to

realize that I didn't have had enough talent,”

he said. These days he just enjoys playing

Chopin at home on his 1915 Steinway grand

piano.

Biology of Eco-Health

His rst trip to Tanzania

sparked inspiration. “Af-

ter my rst trip there, Ithought this would be a

fabulous experience for

our students,” he said.

He created BIOL 498A:

The Biology of Eco-

Health, a class that involves Cavener travel-

ing to Tanzania with students every year.

One Man, Many Jobs

In addition to the hefty job of being dean,

Cavener still runs his research lab and men-

tors ve graduate students. He is also an

adjunct professor at the Nelson Mandela

African Institute of Science and Technology

in Arusha, Tanzania.

Class Photographer

His BIOL 498A students are

fortunate to have his

photography skills during

the class, as he is an avid

photographer. You can

see some of his photos

framed on the wall in the dean’s ofce.

Bountiful Harvest

Growing up on a farm introduced Cavener

to the wonders of a home garden. He now

has a bountiful tomato and peach harvest

and even grows a variety of Chinese veg-

etables for his wife Lan. He can rattle off the

names of them in Chinese, but doesn’t know

much of the language otherwise: “I know

200–300 words in Chinese, but they are all

related to food.”



27/68

Cavener Named New Dean of the

Eberly College of Science At their July 17 meeting,

the University Board of

Trustees approved Doug-

las R. Cavener as the

new dean of the Eberly

College of Science.

Cavener has been serving as the college’s in-

terim dean since January. He has been profes-

sor and head of the Department of Biology at

Penn State since 2000 and has served as an

adjunct professor of life sciences at the Nelson

Mandela African Institute of Science and Tech-

nology in Tanzania.

“Through strategic investments and recruit-

ment of outstanding faculty, staff and students,

the Eberly College of Science experienced a me-

teoric rise in national ranking under the lead-

ership of Dan Larson, our former dean. I am

therefore deeply honored to be appointed as the

new dean of our college and truly believe that

the best is yet to come,” Cavener said. “Our col-

lege mantra is excellence in everything we do

with emphasis on the integration of teaching

and research. As scientists and teachers, our

chief enterprise is discovery and translating

those discoveries to real life solutions. I look for-

ward to working with my colleagues to achieve

great success in the Eberly College of Science.”

As head of biology at Penn State, Cavener

expanded the department’s research and teach-

ing in neuroscience, ecology, plant biology, evo-

lutionary biology, infectious disease dynamics

and genomics.

His previous experience includes serving as a

faculty member at Vanderbilt University’s mo-

lecular biology department from 1982 to 2000.

“Our process of searching for new deans is a

very comprehensive, inclusive and rigorous pro-

cess, which attracts many outstanding candi-

dates. However, when the outcome is that one of

our accomplished faculty leaders emerges as the

successful candidate, as in the case with Doug,

we think that speaks volumes about both him

and the depth of talent we have at Penn State.

I very much look forward to working with him

in his new role,” said Nicholas Jones, Penn

State’s executive vice president and provost.

Cavener’s research focuses on the regulation

of metabolic and neurological processes that are

particularly prone to maladaptions that lead to

diseases such as metabolic syndrome and neu-

rodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s

disease. His work, which has received support

from a number of agencies including the Nation-

al Science Foundation and National Institutes

of Health, has direct biomedical implications

for several human diseases, including diabetes,

neurological disorders, cancer, osteoporosis and

growth defects.

In addition, Cavener is leading a team of sci-

entists to sequence the genome of the giraffe for

the purpose of determining the genetic basis

of the giraffe’s unique morphology and turbo-

charged cardiovascular system.

He is a fellow of the American Association for

the Advancement of Science and a recipient of

the Dobzhansky Prize from the International

Society for the Study of Evolution.

Cavener holds a bachelor of arts degree in

biology from Pasadena College, a master of sci-

ence degree in genetics from Brown University

and a doctorate in genetics from the University

of Georgia. —Bill Zimmerman



28/68

C ol l egeNews

When four Penn State Science faculty mem-

bers, along with four undergraduate students,

departed for a whirlwind trip in July to teach

pedagogical concepts and practices at Fudan

University in China, they were not completely

sure of what to expect. The group, which in-

cluded faculty members Sarah Ades, associate

professor of biochemistry and molecular biol-

ogy; Wendy Hanna-Rose, associate professor

of biochemistry and molecular biology; Jackie

Bortiatynski, director of the Center for Excel-

lence in Science Education (CESE); and Mer-

edith DeFelice, senior lecturer of biochemistry

and molecular biology; along with learning as-

sistant (LA) students Sarah Chang, Nathan

Shugarts, Nathan Kramer, and Scott Ber-

man, were on a mission to help Chinese fac-

ulty learn about the what it requires to teach

science effectively and to provide hands-on,

heads-on experience about how to implement

this knowledge. Although they were condent

in the content and workshop activities they had

organized, the team was anticipating some re-

sistance to the paradigm shift that they were

planning to present.

Ji Yang, associate dean

for undergraduate educa-

tion in the School of Life Sciences

at Fudan University, teamed up with the Penn

State faculty to organize the workshops and

worked diligently to recruit the best and bright-

est life sciences faculty in China to engage with

the group. Faculty from the top universities

in China were invited to attend the three-day

workshop taught by the Penn State faculty and

student LAs. These Chinese faculty represented

20 universities across the country and were ex-

cited about the opportunity to engage with Penn

State and develop more effective teaching skills.

While this trip was a rst for most of the

group, this was not the college’s rst experience

with Fudan University. Hanna-Rose chose to

do her sabbatical there, and has returned every

year since then.

“I did my sabbatical at Fudan University in

2013 where I taught a class for Fudan students

using active learning elements and a highly

interactive style. As faculty leader for a Penn

State Global Programs short-term experience,

I returned to teach at Fudan with Penn State

students in 2014. While my Fudan students

were responsive to my teaching style, it was

evident that they had relatively less experience

than the Penn State students with active learn-

ing in the classroom. So I approached Dean

Yang about sharing my pedagogical expertise

with Fudan faculty in a series of workshops. He

was enthusiastic about the idea but asked me

to consider leading a workshop to target faculty

from all over China. I realized this larger objec-

tive would require extra help and I turned to

my colleagues from CESE who share my pas-

sion for implementing best pedagogical practic-

Teaching New Pedagogy Strategy

in China



29/68

es in higher education science classrooms. They

agreed to accept the challenge and we started

planning the workshop,” Hanna-Rose said.

The goal of the workshop was to educate fac-

ulty of a shift happening in teaching style and to

aid them in implementing new teaching strate-

gies. This new vision for teaching, known as ac-

tive learning, changes the way faculty teach by

engaging students; it encourages active partici-

pation and discussion rather than just passive

listening. While it is commonly thought that

this requires more work on both the part of the

faculty member and the student, Hanna-Rose

disagrees. “For faculty these teaching methods

mean doing things differently, not necessarily

taking more time. Faculty must gain a deeper

understanding of how students learn in order to

tailor classroom activities towards things like

guided practice with feedback. And students

don’t have to spend more time either—they just

have to do things differently.”

For the students, it means actively listening

and contributing in class and doing more than

just reading course material or memorizing in-

formation for exams. By absorbing and under-

standing the material and actively participating

in class or team discussion, students are more

likely to retain information and be able to apply

it to real-life situations.

Changing years of teaching strategy isn’t

easy. Rather than asking, “How can I teach

this,” faculty are challenged to ask themselves

“how can the student learn it?” This model of

instruction changes the traditional teaching

mindset of providing information to learn mate-

rial to putting more responsibility on students

to learn through participation. This participa-

tion includes exercises, such as engaging in case

studies, debating, and class discussions.

Active learning techniques not only help stu-

dents learn material more effectively, it also

gets them engaging with other students, allows

them receive immediate feedback from instruc-

tor and peers, provides them with an opportu-

nity to talk about and process material while

still in class, and increase motivation to learn

because students know they will be actively par-

ticipating in class.

In order to more effectively present the mate-

rial, the Penn State instructors and LAs split

the faculty into small groups to learn about ac-

tive learning hands on. For three days, faculty

worked in small group sessions to discuss dif-

ferent aspects of the new way of teaching and



30/68

C ol l egeNews

understand ways to apply them.

The LA students were a key component in the

sessions, providing a student perspective and of-fering feedback on a student outlook of learning.

Because the four Penn State students were all

experienced LAs, they were well trained in new

pedagogical ideas and served as group facilita-

tors. As faculty discussed potential changes to

make to their courses, the students also acted as

sounding boards to consider how certain chang-

es ideas may be perceived in the classroom.

At the end of the workshop, each Chinese

faculty member left with a product and in-

structions; they learned the skills necessary to

change their way of teaching and committed to

incorporating it in a portion of their fall courses.

The resistance that the group had anticipatednever transpired; the Chinese faculty were very

accepting of the information and were excited

about making changes in their classrooms.

Due to the success and positive feedback

about the workshops, Yang hopes to host the

group again next summer to help inuence

more faculty to embrace active learning and

other pedagogical activities to improve student

engagement and knowledge. —Tara Immel

Every year, the Center for Excellence in

Science Education (CESE) selects three Tom-

bros Fellows. In addition, this year the Ofce

of Digital Learning also awarded a Tombros

Fellowship to a faculty member interested in

transforming online education. These Tombros

Fellows are interested in developing, transform-

ing, and creating new and innovative courses,

using new teaching methodologies, and nding

more effective ways to assess teaching success

for classes in the Eberly College of Science.

The four Tombros Fellows for 2015 are Kari

Lock Morgan, Philip Bevilacqua, Charles

Anderson, and Louis Leblond.

Lock Morgan, an assistant professor of sta-

tistics, is using her time as Tombros Fellow to

transform STAT 250, Introduction to Biostatis-

tics. The course satises the general education

quantication credits requirement, but gener-

ally draws students from science majors. She is

Transforming Science Education with

Tombros Fellowships

Kari Lock Morgan Philip Bevilacqua Charles Anderson Louis Leblond



31/68

changing the class to incorporate a simulation

methods approach to teaching, rather than us-

ing a traditional approach that relied on heavybackground knowledge and can seem discon-

nected from the concept being taught.

“This approach is visual, intuitive, intrinsi-

cally linked to the main concepts, the same for

all statistics, generalizable to new situations,

and it requires less background knowledge,” she

said. “So it’s better for conceptual understand-

ing and allowing students to better focus on the

big picture.”

Bevilacqua is working to transform CHEM

110H, an honors section of the general chemis-

try class CHEM 110, often a general education

requirement. Bevilacqua is infusing new tech-

nologies like screen casting, YouTube, and the

interactive whiteboard app Doceri into the class

to better teach complex ideas.

“I am able to show a demonstration and talk

through it to my students,” he said. “It really

cuts down on time and is a good way to explain

difcult concepts.”

He is also able to assign lectures outside of

class because he has recorded them with the new

technology, allowing time to cover more content

in the class over a semester than he would have

without the use of this new technology.

Anderson is focusing on the development of

a new rst-year research course titled “Fast

Farming.” Students in Anderson’s proposed

class will use real-time rainfall, temperature,

and soil data obtained from GIS platforms and

social media outlets, in particular Plant Vil-

lage, a community created by Penn State pro-

fessors David Hughes and Marcel Salathé.

Students will use this data to determine plant

tolerance for a variety of stresses that could

affect agricultural productivity and communi-

cate this information to agricultural producers

around the world through the Plant Village on-

line community.

“By empowering freshman undergraduates to

do real research, without pre-determined out-comes, and to connect this research to tangible

challenges that they can read about in the news,

the class aims to clarify the connection between

basic scientic research and its application for

the benet of human societies,” Anderson said.

“This connection can sometimes seem very ab-

stract for students who are in the early stages

of their college careers, but the connection is

always there, even if it is not immediately obvi-

ous.”

Leblond’s project is different than the other

three in that his World Campus physics students

are typically adult learners continuing their

education online from home while working and

raising a family instead of traditional-age resi-

dent students. He is using a tool called IOLab,

which is a small portable Bluetooth-enabled de-

vice with sensors that can measure physics data

such as force, acceleration, light, and sound.

“With the IOLab, you can do in the comfort of

your home almost all the experiments that we

currently do in our introductory physics course

sequence,” said Leblond. “The IOLab enables

quality hands-on physics labs for students tak-

ing online courses. The quality of the data is of-

ten even better with the IOLab and comes at a

fraction of the cost.”

All of these class transformations use real

data to show students a real-world application

for the skills being taught.

“My hope is that by using real data from the

students’ own elds, the students come to see

the class as a subject that is useful, important,

and relevant and applicable to their own lives

rather than just a requirement they have to get

through,” Lock Morgan said.

—Whittney Gould



32/68

C ol l egeNews

The rst year of college

can be difcult and confusing

for any new student, but par-

ticularly for those choosing to

study challenging science orengineering curriculums. But

there is extra support for Penn

State freshmen in STEM ma-

jors in the form of a program

called the First Year in Science

and Engineering (FISE) pro-

gram.

The program puts rst-year

students in science and en-

gineering majors—from the

Eberly College of Science, the

College of Earth and Mineral

Sciences, and the College of

Engineering—together in a

special on-campus multicultur-

al housing community where

they can take advantage of in-

house tutoring and mentoring.

The mentoring takes place

through both resident assis-

tants, like a traditional on-

campus housing experience,

and special FISE program as-

sistants. FISE program assis-

tants are usually former FISE

participants who mentor the

rst-year students and help

them get their college experi-

ences off to a strong start.

“The program assistants

played a signicant role in

my transition to Penn State,”

said Bukola Toyobo, a cur-rent FISE program assistant

and biology major. “They were

my role models that year and

helped me set a solid founda-

tion in my scholarly pursuit for

success. Because they had such

a positive inuence on me, I

wanted to do the same and

more for future communities of

the FISE program.”

“The program assistants

helped me tremendously be-

cause I was an out-of-state

student,” said Samantha For-

tier, a biobehavioral health

major who is now also a FISE

program assistant. “They guid-

ed me through the process of

becoming a successful student

and made sure I did not make

that many mistakes.”

Toyobo, Fortier, and their

fellow program assistants plan

programs to help their stu-

dents succeed. FISE programs

cover topics ranging from aca-

demic acclimation and leader-

ship development to planning

Climate &

Diversity CornerFostering a Close-Knit Academic Community withthe First Year in Science and Engineering Program



33/68

Research Leading to Practical

Benets for SocietyBreast cancer survival rates have increased steadily

over the last decade. As quoted by the American

Cancer Society, on average, a stunning 100 percent

of patients with stage I breast cancer survive for atleast ve years after diagnosis. However, this average

survival rate falls to 72 percent for those with stage

III and 22 percent for those diagnosed with stage IV

breast cancer.

From these statistics, it is obvious that new methods of

treatment are desperately needed to help increase

survival rates of late-stage cancer patients. What

is not readily apparent is the suffering experienced

those who undergo widely used cancer treatments

like chemotherapy and radiation.

Unfortunately, for many cancer types, including

breast cancer, cytotoxic treatments are considered

the best line of defense or are the only option avail-

able.

Two Eberly College of Science faculty researchers, Dr.

Yanming Wang and Dr. Gong Chen, seek to change

this bleak reality for the over 1.6 million Americans

diagnosed with cancer last year. Chen and Wang

developed novel intellectual property that includes

a small molecule therapeutic that allows the body to

ght cancer naturally. This exciting intellectual prop-

erty is protected under an issued U.S. Patent, grantedto the Penn State Research Foundation on behalf of

the inventors.

— Melissa Long, intellectual property and technology

transfer liaison

What if our body had a natural

switch, that when ipped,

could help reverse cancer

tumor growth?

“This switch exists,” says Wang,

who has been studying thePAD4 enzyme for over eight

years. While the Wang lab has

discovered how PAD4 can help the body ght bacterial

infection, they have also found this enzyme to be com-

monly overexpressed in cancerous tissue. When they

studied it further, Wang and his colleagues discovered

that overabundance of PAD4 results in the silencing of

tumor-suppressor genes, the body’s natural defense

against cancerous cell growth.

In collaboration with Department of Chemistry faculty

member Gong Chen, Wang developed a new smallmolecule chemical inhibitor to limit the activity of the

PAD4 enzyme. When this inhibitor was tested in mouse

models, the team discovered it to be very successful

in reversing tumor growth. In fact, the PAD4 inhibitor re-

duced tumor size just as effectively as the most common

chemotherapy drug with a 70 percent tumor shrinkage

rate. But unlike this chemotherapy treatment, the PAD4

inhibitor did not alter normal (noncancerous) cell devel-

opment and function.

Based on these exciting results, Chen and Wang think

that the PAD4 inhibitor may represent a new potentiallynontoxic chemotherapy treatment that helps the body to

ght cancer naturally. They are currently working to raise

the funding needed in order to move the small molecule

inhibitor into FDA-recognized clinical trials. —Whit tney

Gould

CANCER CELLS Photo Credit:

National Cancer Institute

for STEM research opportu-

nities and a successful career

fair visit.

Toyobo has a leadership

role in the programs covering

STEM research opportunities

and leadership development.

“The goal of the STEM re-

search opportunities program

is for students to know what re-

search looks like in their eld

of interest, understand the

process of applying to research

laboratories on campus, and

interacting with graduate stu-

dents during lab tours,” Toyobo

explained.

During the leadership pro-

gram, FISE students learn to

strengthen ve qualities es-

sential for good leadership:

delegation, condence, com-

munication, commitment, and

perseverance.

Toyobo believes these pro-

grams are valuable due to

her own experience as a FISE

student: “FISE is essential in

guiding freshmen on paths of

scholarly pursuits. I can per-



34/68

C ol l egeNews

Since 2008, the Ofce of

Postdoctoral Affairs on campus

has organized and coordinated

the Postdoctoral Research Ex-

hibition on campus.

This event, a showcase of re-

search conducted by postdocs

at the University, is an oppor-

tunity for postdocs to present

their research in poster format

and be judged by their fellow

postdoc peers.

“The research exhibition is a

showcase of the research being

done by postdocs across Uni-

versity Park, but also an exer-

cise of science communication,”

said Pallavi Eswara, progam

coordinator in the Ofce of

Postdoctoral Affairs. “Postdoc

presenters are presenting their

research to people outside their

expertise and have to learn to

communicate their science ef-

fectively.”

Postdocs help Eswara to or-

ganize and judge the event.

This year, 27 postdocs judged

the work of 32 postdoc present-

ers. For the last four years, the

exhibition has given prizes for

the top-performing postdocs at

the exhibition. The rst place

winner this year took home

$500, the second-place winners

received $300, and the third-

place winners $100.

Two of the three third-place

winners, Sarah Rajtmajer

and Marta Tomaszkiewic,

are from the Eberly College of

Science.

Rajtmejer presented her re-

search, titled “An Evolutionary

Game Model for the Spread of

Noncooperative Behavior on

Social Networks and Associ-

ated Longitudinal Effects on

Global Network Topology.”

“It was wonderful to see

what other postdocs are do-

ing throughout the Univer-

sity, and to have the oppor-

tunity to share my work as

well,” said Rajtmajer. “I had

some thoughtful conversations

with postdocs and faculty from

various departments about the

relationship between my re-

search and their own elds of

interest.”

Tomaszkiewic’s research

poster was titled “Comparative

Analysis of the Hominine Y

Chromosome Genomes.”

“It was a

Documents

Penn State Science Journal 12-15_FINAL