Grants and Publications
SimBio regularly receives competitive grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. Our grants and the resulting collaborations have allowed us to extend the range of our simulation programs and to perform research on student misconceptions in biology and how to overcome those with simulated labs. We're especially excited about the educational research aspects of our projects and welcome collaborations with other biology education researchers. We also work with academic and non-profit groups on educational projects and provide biological models for researchers using our core modeling framework.
Publications
Members of SimBio conduct and participate in research studies on biology teaching and in basic and applied biology. Here is a list of some papers co-authored by SimBio employees and collaborators that are directly related to our work at SimBio.
- Abraham, J.K., Perez, K., Downey, N., Herron, J.C., Meir, E. 2012. Short Lesson Plan Associated with Increased Acceptance of Evolutionary Theory and Potential Change in Three Alternate Conceptions of Macroevolution in Undergraduate Students. CBE Life Sciences Education Volume 11 Number 2, 152-164.
- Allan, W.C., J. L. Erickson, P. Brookhouse, and J. L. Johnson. 2010. Teacher Professional Development Through a Collaborative Curriculum Project—an Example of TPACK in Maine. TechTrends 54: 36-43. A paper discussing our EcoBeaker: Maine Explorer project for middle school science as part of the laptop program in Maine.
- Abraham, J.K., Meir, E., Perry, J., Herron, J.C., Maruca, S., Stal, D. 2009. Addressing Undergraduate Student Misconceptions about Natural Selection with an Interactive Simulated Laboratory. Evolution: Education and Outreach 2: 393-404.
- Perry, J., Meir, E.,Herron, J., Stal, D., Maruca, S. 2008. Evaluating Two Approaches to Helping College Students Understand Evolutionary Trees Through Diagramming Tasks.CBE Life Sciences Education
- Mundt, A. 2008. Report on EvoBeaker Labs for Use in the Evolution Class at the University of Denver [PDF 323K]. This is a report commissioned by Dr. Diana Tomback from a masters student in science education to help Dr. Tomback design her undergraduate evolution class.
- Meir, E., Perry, J., Herron, J., Kingsolver, J. 2007. College Students' Misconceptions About Evolutionary Trees. ABT Online, Volume 69 Number 7, September 2007
- Meir, E., J. Perry, D. Stal, S. Maruca, and E. Klopfer. 2005. How Effective Are Simulated Molecular-Level Experiments for Teaching Diffusion and Osmosis? Cell Biology Education (4) Fall 2005.
- Reed TE, Schindler DE, Hague MJ, Patterson DA, Meir E, et al. (2011) Time to Evolve? Potential Evolutionary Responses of Fraser River Sockeye Salmon to Climate Change and Effects on Persistence. PLoS ONE 6(6): e20380. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0020380.