Kimberly Tanner to be keynote speaker at AIBA 2015

The Alberta Introductory Biology Association will be having its annual meeting on the North Campus of the University of Alberta on May 12, 2015. We are very pleased that Dr. Kimberly Tanner will be our keynote speaker. The Center for Teaching and Learning, Faculty of Science, and Department of Biological Sciences are supporting her visit to Edmonton and in return, Dr. Tanner will also be hosting a couple of workshops and presentations on the day before our AIBA meeting, May 11, 2015.

Dr. Tanner is a perfect fit as keynote speaker for AIBA. AIBA is an organization of biological educators in higher education who come together each May to share teaching practices, innovations and simply enjoy each other's inner BIO geekiness. Good grief we love biology! And we love to share our love of biology with our students through our teaching. Dr Tanner was trained as a biochemist and neuroscientist and has since become a researcher and advocate of student learning in general and the biological sciences in particular.

Here is her detailed biography:

Kimberly D. Tanner is a tenured Professor of Biology and the Director of SEPAL: The Science Education Partnership and Assessment Laboratory within the Department of Biology at San Francisco State University (SFSU). Trained as both a biochemist and a neuroscientist, she received her B.A. in Biochemistry from Rice University in 1991 and her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in 1997. She was awarded an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Science Education (PFSMETE) from 1998-2000, during which she pursued additional training in science education research methodologies, investigating the impact of involving scientists in K-12 science education partnerships. After completing her fellowship, she joined the UCSF Science & Health Education Partnership (SEP), her fellowship study site, as a Senior Academic Coordinator from 2000-2004. Most recently, she was hired at SFSU in January 2004 as a tenure-track faculty member with a specialization in biology education, the first such hire across the SFSU science departments. Her research group – SEPAL – investigates how people learn science, especially biology, and how teachers and scientists can collaborate to make science teaching and learning in classrooms – Kindergarten through university – more like how scientists work. SEPAL research addresses a couple of lines of inquiry:

1. developing novel assessment tools to better understand conceptual change and misconceptions in biology that can guide strategies for curriculum improvement and teaching reform,  
2. studying the impact of involving scientists in science education, whether in K-12 classrooms, as undergraduate or graduate teaching assistants, or as college and university Science Faculty with Education Specialties (SFES). 

SEPAL also offers courses designed to teach scientific trainees how to teach the science they know and programs that promote science education partnerships between scientific trainees and instructors from Kindergarten through community college. Dr. Tanner is a founding member of the Editorial Board for CBE: A Journal of Life Sciences Education and co-author of the Approaches to Biology Teaching and Learning series, which translates education research and pedagogical strategies into language accessible to undergraduate biology faculty. Professionally, she has served on committees for the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the National Research Council, the Society for Neuroscience, the American Society for Cell Biology, and the National Association for Research in Science Teaching. Her scholarly activities have been funded by multiple NSF grant awards, an NIH Science Education Partnership Award, and multiple, internal SFSU awards. Most recently, Dr. Tanner received a prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER research award, was elected a Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences and received the 2012 Outstanding College Science Teacher Award from the Society for College Science Teaching, an affiliate of the National Science Teachers Association.

This is a list of articles she has published in CBE-Life Sciences Education. My personal favourites discuss student metacognition in the classroom, how to assess to make room for active learning, and how to deal with student resistance to active learning teaching strategies:

• John D. Coley and Kimberly Tanner. Relations between Intuitive Biological Thinking and Biological Misconceptions in Biology Majors and Nonmajors. CBE Life Sci Educ March 2, 2015 14:ar8; doi:10.1187/cbe.14-06-0094
• Jeffrey Schinske and Kimberly Tanner. Teaching More by Grading Less (or Differently). CBE Life Sci Educ June 2, 2014 13:159-166; doi:10.1187/cbe.CBE-14-03-0054
• Gloriana Trujillo and Kimberly D. Tanner. Considering the Role of Affect in Learning: Monitoring Students' Self-Efficacy, Sense of Belonging, and Science Identity. CBE Life Sci Educ March 3, 2014 13:6-15; doi:10.1187/cbe.13-12-0241
• Shannon B. Seidel and Kimberly D. Tanner. “What if students revolt?”—Considering Student Resistance: Origins, Options, and Opportunities for Investigation. CBE Life Sci Educ December 2, 2013 12:586-595; doi:10.1187/cbe-13-09-0190
• Kimberly D. Tanner. Structure Matters: Twenty-One Teaching Strategies to Promote Student Engagement and Cultivate Classroom Equity. CBE Life Sci Educ September 4, 2013 12:322-331; doi:10.1187/cbe.13-06-0115
• Kimberly D. Tanner. Promoting Student Metacognition. CBE Life Sci Educ June 4, 2012 11:113-120; doi:10.1187/cbe.12-03-0033
• Sara E. Brownell and Kimberly D. Tanner. Barriers to Faculty Pedagogical Change: Lack of Training, Time, Incentives, and…Tensions with Professional Identity? CBE Life Sci Educ December 3, 2012 11:339-346; doi:10.1187/cbe.12-09-0163
• William B. Wood and Kimberly D. Tanner. The Role of the Lecturer as Tutor: Doing What Effective Tutors Do in a Large Lecture Class. CBE Life Sci Educ 2012 11:3-9; doi:10.1187/cbe.11-12-0110
• John D. Coley and Kimberly D. Tanner. Common Origins of Diverse Misconceptions: Cognitive Principles and the Development of Biology Thinking. CBE Life Sci Educ September 4, 2012 11:209-215; doi:10.1187/cbe.12-06-0074
• Kimberly D. Tanner. Reconsidering “What Works”. CBE Life Sci Educ December 1, 2011 10:329-333; doi:10.1187/cbe.11-09-0085
• Julia I. Smith and Kimberly Tanner. The Problem of Revealing How Students Think: Concept Inventories and Beyond. CBE Life Sci Educ 2010 9:1-5; doi:10.1187/cbe.09-12-0094
• Kimberly D. Tanner. Order Matters: Using the 5E Model to Align Teaching with How People Learn. CBE Life Sci Educ 2010 9:159-164; doi:10.1187/cbe.10-06-0082
• Kimberly D. Tanner. Talking to Learn: Why Biology Students Should Be Talking in Classrooms and How to Make It Happen. CBE Life Sci Educ 2009 8:89-94; doi:10.1187/cbe.09-03-0021
• Katayoun Chamany, Deborah Allen, and Kimberly Tanner. Making Biology Learning Relevant to Students: Integrating People, History, and Context into College Biology Teaching. CBE Life Sci Educ 2008 7:267-278; doi:10.1187/cbe.08-06-0029
• Jonathan D. Knight, Rebecca M. Fulop, Leticia Márquez-Magaña, and Kimberly D. Tanner. Investigative Cases and Student Outcomes in an Upper-Division Cell and Molecular Biology Laboratory Course at a Minority-serving Institution. CBE Life Sci Educ 2008 7:382-393; doi:10.1187/cbe.08-06-0027
• Kimberly Tanner and Deborah Allen. Cultural Competence in the College Biology Classroom. CBE Life Sci Educ 2007 6:251-258; doi:10.1187/cbe.07-09-0086
• Deborah Allen and Kimberly Tanner. Putting the Horse Back in Front of the Cart: Using Visions and Decisions about High-Quality Learning Experiences to Drive Course Design. CBE Life Sci Educ 2007 6:85-89; doi:10.1187/cbe.07-03-0017
• Kimberly Tanner and Deborah Allen. Approaches to Biology Teaching and Learning: On Integrating Pedagogical Training into the Graduate Experiences of Future Science Faculty. CBE Life Sci Educ Spring 2006 5:1-6; doi:10.1187/cbe.05-12-0132
• Deborah Allen and Kimberly Tanner. Rubrics: Tools for Making Learning Goals and Evaluation Criteria Explicit for Both Teachers and Learners. CBE Life Sci Educ 2006 5:197-203; doi:10.1187/cbe.06-06-0168
• Deborah Allen and Kimberly Tanner. Infusing Active Learning into the Large-enrollment Biology Class: Seven Strategies, from the Simple to Complex. Cell Biol Educ Winter 2005 4:262-268; doi:10.1187/cbe.05-08-0113
• Kimberly Tanner and Deborah Allen. Approaches to Biology Teaching and Learning: Understanding the Wrong Answers—Teaching toward Conceptual Change. Cell Biol Educ Summer 2005 4:112-117; doi:10.1187/cbe.05-02-0068
• Deborah Allen and Kimberly Tanner. Approaches to Biology Teaching and Learning: From a Scholarly Approach to Teaching to the Scholarship of Teaching. Cell Biol Educ Spring 2005 4:1-6; doi:10.1187/cbe.04-11-0052
• Deborah Allen and Kimberly Tanner. Approaches to Cell Biology Teaching: Learning Content in Context—Problem-Based Learning. Cell Biol Educ Summer 2003 2:73-81; doi:10.1187/cbe.03-04-0019
• Kimberly D. Tanner, Liesl Chatman, and Deborah Allen. Approaches to Biology Teaching and Learning: Science Teaching and Learning Across the School–University Divide—Cultivating Conversations through Scientist–Teacher Partnerships. Cell Biol Educ Winter 2003 2:195-201; doi:10.1187/cbe.03-10-0044
• Kimberly Tanner and Deborah Allen. Approaches to Biology Teaching and Learning: From Assays to Assessments—On Collecting Evidence in Science Teaching. Cell Biol Educ Summer 2004 3:69-74; doi:10.1187/cbe.04-03-0037
• Deborah Allen and Kimberly Tanner. Approaches to Cell Biology Teaching: Mapping the Journey—Concept Maps as Signposts of Developing Knowledge Structures. Cell Biol Educ Fall 2003 2:133-136; doi:10.1187/cbe.03-07-0033
• Kimberly Tanner and Deborah Allen. Approaches to Cell Biology Teaching: A Primer on Standards. Cell Biol Educ Winter 2002 1:95-100; doi:10.1187/cbe.02-09-0046
• Deborah Allen and Kimberly Tanner. Approaches to Cell Biology Teaching: Questions about Questions. Cell Biol Educ Fall 2002 1:63-67; doi:10.1187/cbe.02-07-0021

More information may be found at the AIBA and CTL websites. I hope to see you on the North Campus of the UofA on May 11 and/or 12.