This fall, Ballen is on sabbatical at Humboldt University of Berlin. She’ll be learning and expanding her research in Prof. Annette Upmeier zu Belzen’s biology education research group in the Institute for Biology. So grateful for the opportunity!
Headlines
Post-Doc Positions Available
The Biology Education Research team at Auburn University seeks TWO full-time quantitative postdoctoral researchers to collaborate on a number of projects related to undergraduate biology education – e.g., research on counter-stereotypical biologist role models, how ideological bias impacts science, and other influences on student experiences in biology and STEM. Additionally, the successful applicants will be encouraged to develop projects based on their own interests and collaborate with others in the lab and the IUSE research team.
Mentor:
Cissy Ballen, Associate Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Auburn University
Collaborators:
Robin Costello, Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, University at Buffalo
Melissa Kjelvik, Research Specialist, Michigan State University, MSU
Elizabeth Schultheis, Education & Outreach Coordinator, Kellogg Biological Station LTER, MSU
Marjorie Weber, Associate Professor, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan
Carolyn Graham, Graduate Student, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan
Requested Qualifications
- The position requires either a PhD in a Biology/Biology Education/STEM field with a demonstrated interest in science education or other related field.
- Candidates should have experience with study design development, evidence of scholarly writing skills, and the ability to work well as part of a highly collaborative team.
- Preference for this position will be given to applicants with strong skills in statistical analyses, such as regression, mixed modeling, structural equation modeling, as well as experience working with large datasets.
Note: If you are unsure if you will qualify, feel free to get in touch!
Location. Auburn is a fantastic, affordable college town, and the Department of Biological Sciences is a collaborative setting for discipline-based education research. We have a great community here to study education, including collaborative teaching faculty as well as our friends over in the chemistry education research lab (PI Jordan Harshman), the geosciences education research lab (PI Karen McNeal), the physics education research lab (PI Eric Burkholder) and mathematics education research lab (PI Melinda Lanius).
Information about applying. The appointment is for one year with renewal for a second contingent upon satisfactory performance. Review of applications will begin immediately and until the position is filled. Start date is flexible, and the successful candidate can start in Winter 2025 or Summer 2025.
Applicants should email the following as a single PDF to Cissy Ballen: mjb0100@auburn.edu
- Cover letter describing your interest and qualifications for this position, as well as any additional information you’d like us to know about you (~1 page)
- Curriculum vitae (CV)
- Contact information for two references
Article out of Michigan State University highlights the NSF-funded DataVersify project – check it out! Helping students hear the stories that data tell
The Ballen lab was delighted to host Dr. Sharday Ewell to discuss her work “Investigations into undergraduate biology syllabi: instructor omissions and recommendations” to the DBER groups across the college this week. Sharday is an Assistant Professor of Inclusive STEM Pedagogy at University of Mississippi and a former postdoc in the lab.
The USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture recently awarded a $3.9 million, five-year grant to a team of researchers, including Ballen, to enhance honey bee health. Ballen is collaborating with Auburn University associate professor Geoff Williams from the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology to apply methods from teaching and learning in biology education to the question: how and why do beekeepers accept or reject evidence-based bee keeping strategies? For those of you who know me, I’m married to a honey bee biologist also known as the PI of ‘the other bee lab‘ at Auburn. We’ve never published on honey bees together, even though there are plenty of honey bees in my life (e.g., we have a bait box atop our house). I’m totally delighted to finally work on a honey bee project – even if it’s with another honey bee researcher!
Received official award notice from the National Science Foundation about our Improving Undergraduate STEM Education grant, entitled Sharing Scientist Role Model Stories to Improve Equity and Success in Undergraduate STEM Education. Starting in the spring, this will support 4 yrs of research about the impact of humanized role models in biology classrooms with the brilliant developers of Data Nuggets and Project Biodiversify, as well as AU postdoc Robin Costello & alongside students and bio instructors!
Come join the DataVersify team! Postdoc positions available to start late 2024/2025!
Auburn News covers NSF fellowship awarded to Paula Adams! Check it out –> NSF awards STEM Education Individual Postdoc Research Fellowship to first recipient at Auburn University
Auburn University Undergraduate Research Fellow and Matthews Scholar Jordan Fluker is in Pheonix, AZ this week presenting his work on student help-seeking behavior at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists (ABRCMS). Jordan is co-advised by the Ewell Lab at University of Mississippi.
Congrats to postdoc Paula Adams for receiving a National Science Foundation STEM Ed Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for the project “Understanding instructor and student concepts of race to measure the prevalence of race essentialism in biology education”. This funding will extend Paula’s time with the lab for another few years – we are lucky to have her!
Huge thanks to University of Georgia Assistant Professor Dax Ovid for visiting Auburn last week and delivering a dynamite, interactive seminar on Instructor Talk in Biology. Cissy and Robin also had the pleasure of co-hosting a meeting to develop an Essay about role models in Biology with Dax and UGA graduate student Selorm Sovi.
Postdoc Ryan Dunk presented a keynote presentation on ideological awareness at the PULSE network workshop at Indiana University last week.
Updates from University of Bergen! Incoming PhD student Maria De Jesus is in Bergen this month to collect data and collaborate with Sehoya Cotner and bioCEED on projects related to biology education research.
Huge congrats to Emily Driessen for successfully defending her PhD yesterday. Emily is the first PhD student to graduate from the lab, and she’s a rockstar! We are going to miss her dearly. She is heading to the Lane Lab in the University of Minnesota’s Department of Biology Teaching and Learning to begin a postdoctoral research position. (Photo cred: M. Driessen)
Undergraduate research fellow Rachel Youngblood will be presenting her research this week at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Good luck Rachel!!!
We were delighted to host Elli Theobald from University of Washington as our BER seminar speaker this week. Her talk entitled “Mind the gap: active learning improves equity in STEM classrooms” was excellent!
Postdoc Robin Costello is at the Southern Sociology Society meeting in Myrtle Beach, SC, to participate in research group iEMBER‘s workshop on Defining Inclusive Education.
Congrats to undergraduate researcher Jordan Fluker! He was awarded an Auburn University Undergraduate Research Fellowship to work in the Ballen lab as a part of the inaugural group of Matthews Scholars. This research fellowship will be supported by the College of Science and Mathematics and the Matthews Scholar Program, a collaboration between the Office of Undergraduate Research, the Honors College, and the Office of Inclusion and Diversity.
Robin Costello presents at the MNT-conference in Stavanger, Norway. She is visiting and conducting research in Norway on an international mobility grant through the Research Council of Norway, in collaboration with Sehoya Cotner, Professor at University of Bergen and Centre Director of bioCEED.
We are SO excited for Maria De Jesus to join the crew as PhD student. They are currently at Florida State University and will be working in the lab this summer through an NSF Summers Scholars Internship Program. Welcome!
Ballen was awarded the 2022 Inclusive Excellence in STEM (IES) Award from the College of Science and Mathematics at Auburn University. Read more about it here!
Heading into Christmas, I want to share my early Christmas present- I am thrilled to announce that I have accepted a tenure track Assistant Professor position in the Department of Biology at the University of Mississippi starting August 2023!
— Sade! Shardae! Sharday! (@sweetesttaboo85) December 24, 2022
Totally delighted for postdoctoral researcher Dr. Sharday Ewell for her upcoming position as an assistant professor at University of Mississippi, starting Fall 2023!
Ballen and Postdoc Ryan Dunk presented work on ideological awareness at the National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT) conference in Indianapolis, IN. We co-presented with Dr. Jeremiah Henning and M.S. student Darrien Caudle from South Alabama through the support of the iEmber Research Coordination Network. Also – SNOW! We were happy to retreat back into the subtropics.
Postdoc Sharday Ewell is discussing her work on study habits in collaboration with the EDU-STEM network at the 2022 Western Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Las Vegas, Nevada!
Dr. Sharday Ewell selected for SEC’s Emerging Scholars Program! She’s at University of Missouri this week to participate in workshops that prepare future-faculty.
Robin Costello presents DataVersify research in a STEM Education Research symposium at the Centre for Excellence in Biology Education (bioCEED) in Bergen. Robin is in Norway studying the impacts of high stakes exams on Norwegian students in collaboration with Sehoya Cotner through mobility funds from University of Bergen.
Emily Driessen educated a different crop of students through Gross Out Camp last week, a science experience for campers entering first through fourth grade (ages 6-10). It’s taught by expert naturalists and instructors with advanced science degrees and the campers explore their world to discover zoology in the form of local critters!
Robin Costello is representing the lab at this year’s iEmber Conference in beautiful Billings, Montana! This meeting brings together folks from biology and multiple social science disciplines to collaborate and share ideas related to DEI in biology. She’ll be presenting results from our DataVersify project: studying the impacts of highlighting and humanizing scientists as role models in undergraduate biology courses.
Congrats to Sharday Ewell for being selected to participate in the SEC Emerging Scholars Program! The program is designed to encourage top scholars to pursue careers in higher education through professional development and networking opportunities.
Welcome to the lab, Ryan Dunk!! Ryan joins the lab as a postdoc after completing a BER PhD with the Wiles lab from Syracuse University. They just finished up a postdoc with Emily Holt from University of Northern Colorado.
The NSF DataVersify team in DC! We’ve been meeting fortnightly since 2018 over zoom, and are together for the first time to discuss next steps and big ideas.
We are at the NSF Summit for the Improvement of Undergraduate STEM Education in Washington DC this week – connecting with colleagues (IRL!) and presenting progress on our DataVersify project!
Congrats to postdoc Sharday Ewell for getting her M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction with a concentration in Adult Education! #ProudPI
Emily Driessen is representing the lab at AERA in San Diego, presenting a round-table discussion of open-note exams in undergraduate science.
New CourseSource article features research from the lab about gender and participation in Norway. Check it out! Gender and Classroom Participation: A Case for Quantitative Analysis
Undergraduate award! BIG CONGRATS to undergraduate researcher Rachel Youngblood who was awarded an Auburn University Undergraduate Research Fellowship to work with me, Robin Costello, and the Dataversify team. The fellowship supports her independent research over the upcoming Summer, Fall and Spring semesters.
Postdoc Abby Beatty and honorary labber David Boa participate in EmpowHER Conference, which celebrates girls in STEM.
University news covers the Auburn DBER network across the College of Science and Mathematics: COSAM Discipline-Based Education Research cluster seeks to investigate and improve learning.
Ballen and postdoc Abby Beatty featured in Auburn University news for NSF grant (Oct 2021): The impact of going beyond a ‘value-free’ biology curriculum with award from NSF.
Many congrats to postdoc Sharday Ewell for being selected to receive a 2021 Attendance Grant for the Cell Bio 2021 Meeting!
Received official award notice from the NSF about our Improving Undergraduate STEM Education grant! This kicks off 3 yrs of research exploring ideological awareness in bio classrooms with soon-to-be postdoc Abby Beatty, Jeremiah Henning, & alongside students and bio instructors!
Congrats to Enya Granados, a Master’s student working in the lab over Fall 2021-Spring 2022, for being awarded the National Association of Biology Teachers 2021 Outstanding New Biology Teacher Achievement Award. Excited to have Enya join the lab!
SABER 2021 is underway and we have some great presentations from the lab (and friends) happening over the next few weeks.
Friday, July 9: Emily Driessen (talk – check out recording!), Todd Lamb (poster)
Friday, July 16: Claire Tracy & Jenna Pruett (poster), Abby Esco (poster)
Friday, July 23: Sara Odom (talk), Shima Salehi (talk), Taylor Gusler (poster), Madison Nelson (poster), Sharday Ewell & Chloe Josefson (poster)
Friday, July 30: Lina Arcila Hernandez (talk)
Our annual Equity & Diversity in Undergraduate STEM (EDU-STEM) Research Coordination Network meeting took place June 29-30, 2021! Biology ed researchers and instructors from across the United States caught up and discussed projects, ideas, and future directions. It was great to see everyone and strike up some new collaborations!
Ballen interviewed for article on representation in chemistry textbooks for the news site c&en. Check it out! Chemistry textbooks still lack gender and racial representation.
Our “Fostering Ideological Awareness In Postsecondary Biology” collaborative earned an iEMBER Inclusive Teaching and Research Project Idea Award. This project is led by Abby Beatty and in collaboration with Jeremiah Henning (South Alabama), Sheritta Fagbodun (Tuskegee University), Randy Klabacka (AU), and Kimberly Mulligan (AU). Way to go team!
Lab members Todd Lamb and Cissy Ballen featured in Science Daily: Research network aims to improve learning outcomes for students underrepresented in STEM.
How students relate to scientists impacts student retention: A $1 million NSF funds a study to examine data literacy instruction with direct connection to STEM. Lab members Emily Driessen and Cissy Ballen in COSAM News! See the full story here.
Congrats to Abby Beatty for receiving COSAM’s Inclusive Excellence in STEM Award!
The Ballen lab and the Weber lab at Michigan State were awarded a 5-year collaborative grant from the National Science Foundation (IUSE) to develop biology materials with humanized and diverse scientist role models – and research those impacts! Excited to welcome postdoc Ash Zemenick, founder of Project Biodiversify, to the lab!
Many labbers are presenting research at this year’s virtual July SABER conference! Check us out (all central time)!
>Jul 10, 3pm, Sara Berk, Context matters: variation in psychosocial factors across three institution types
>Jul 17, 12pm, Cissy & Ash Zemenick, A scientist like me: demographic analysis of biology textbooks reveals both progress and long-term lags
>Jul 24, 12pm, Emily Driessen, Demystifying the Meaning of Active Learning in Undergraduate Biology Education
>Jul 31, 12:20pm, Jeremiah Henning, Hidden identities shape student perceptions of active learning environments
Jeremiah Henning and Ballen invited to co-present a plenary talk at the annual EDU-STEM meeting on July 22nd, 2020, entitled Addressing intersectionality in Biology Education Research: the power of collaborative networks.
Our latest paper in CBE-Life Sciences Education, led by Stepfanie Aguillon and Gregor Siegmund, was featured in the Cornell Chronicle!
Press coverage of new research on representation in undergraduate biology textbooks featured in BBC news, Science Magazine news in brief, Washington Post, IFLScience, Newsweek, Royal Society Blog, COSAM today, ScienceNews.
Emily Driessen delivered a webinar at University of South Alabama’s Conference on Teaching and Learning on her research about demystifying active learning in biology education research. Check out the recording here. Nice job Emily!
Undergraduate awards! Undergraduate researcher Taylor Gusler is AU’s 2021 nominee for the Be The Creed Award, an award that “was created to recognize Auburn students who exemplify the values of the Auburn Creed: hard work, honesty, sympathy, respect, helpfulness, obedience and good sportsmanship.” Additionally, undergraduate researcher Abby Esco was selected as a War Eagle Girl for 2021-2022 to represent Auburn University as a student ambassador. Congrats Taylor and Abby!
Ballen lab featured in EDU-STEM’s monthly spotlight: Breaking down barriers in biology.
EDU-STEM launches in Las Vegas! The network coordinates and researches evidence-based classroom experiences across biology curricula. For more information, check out the website for our network here.
November was an exciting month for visitors! Dr. Shima Salehi from Stanford University and Dr. Katelyn Cooper from University of Central Florida and came and discussed quantitative and qualitative approaches to studying equity in biology.
Ballen’s research featured in an article published in Cornell’s Ezra Magazine shows that students benefit from elements of active learning, and this in turn positively affects learning and student performance.
Ballen selected to receive the Totten Geoscience Education Research Award at the 2019 Geological Society of America annual conference.
Ballen lead author on paper quantifying equitable student participation in STEM: The Times Higher Education, Cornell Chronicle, UMN News, Science daily, Inside higher ed
Ballen featured in Auburn University’s COSAM Faculty Focus.
Ballen lead author on paper showing the impact of class size on performance gaps in STEM: Inside Higher ED, The Chronicle of Higher Ed, University of Minnesota – TC news.
Active learning enhances diversity in undergraduate science: Cornell chronicle, University of Minnesota- TC news, Featured in Cornell’s College of Arts & Sciences Innovative Approaches to Teaching
Paper published with Shima Salehi and Sehoya Cotner on the effects of test anxiety on performance: Stanford news, Quartz, Inside Higher Ed, NaturejobsBlog
Ballen & Sehoya Cotner featured in University of Minnesota’s Spring 2017 BIO magazine.
Ballen publishes with Harry Greene about ‘Walking and Talking the Tree of Life’: Phys.org, Science Newsline, EurekAlert! Science News