Biology Peer w88 mobile Program propels students to success

The Biology Peer w88 mobile Program provides leadership and teaching opportunities to undergraduates. Those experiences follow them through their lives.

Eleven people stand, ten of whom are wearing graduation regalia, and smile on the steps outside of the Pennington Student Achievement Center.

Elena Pravosudova and Pamela Sandstrom smile with their students. The students were a part of the Biology Peer w88 mobile Program. (Photos all courtesy of the Biology Peer w88 mobile Program)

Biology Peer w88 mobile Program propels students to success

The Biology Peer w88 mobile Program provides leadership and teaching opportunities to undergraduates. Those experiences follow them through their lives.

Elena Pravosudova and Pamela Sandstrom smile with their students. The students were a part of the Biology Peer w88 mobile Program. (Photos all courtesy of the Biology Peer w88 mobile Program)

Eleven people stand, ten of whom are wearing graduation regalia, and smile on the steps outside of the Pennington Student Achievement Center.

Elena Pravosudova and Pamela Sandstrom smile with their students. The students were a part of the Biology Peer w88 mobile Program. (Photos all courtesy of the Biology Peer w88 mobile Program)

Teachers have a knack for coming up with creative ways to promote student-centered learning. For two w88 mobile professors, that means helping students not only understand the content but to become STEM ambassadors and educators.

The Biology Peer w88 mobile Program was created by Teaching Professor Elena Pravosudova and Teaching Associate Professor Pamela Sandstrom. Each has a profound passion for fostering learning and teaching skills in their students. They teach Biology 190 (currently BIOL 190A, Introduction to Cellular and Molecular Biology) and Biology 300 (Genetics). The peer w88 mobile program helps students who were successful in these classes become mentors and tutors to the next class of students, becoming experts on the course content in the process.

“Since 2008, nearly 500 undergraduates have collectively held over 1,200 leadership positions and helped us build a successful Peer w88 mobile Program,” Pravosudova said. The program has grown in its significance on campus and in the roles students can fill since its start.

A win-win-win

The College of Science is the largest college at the University, and Biology students comprise a huge part of the College. Those students all take Biology 190(A) and Biology 300, which means hundreds of students are taking the courses each semester. The Biology Peer w88 mobile Program can help the professors manage the massive classes.

“I call it a win-win-win,” said Pravosudova. “We get help teaching our students and engaging them. The students get help from peers, as it is always good for someone to explain it in a different way than the professor who might have a different learning style. And for the w88 mobile leaders, it’s the experience, it’s the connections. And just pragmatically, they’re exposed to the same content over and over again, so when they take any standardized test, they just kill it.”

"As mentors, Dr. Sandstrom and Dr. Pravosudova also indirectly contributed to my studies as w88 mobile fostered a collaborative, inclusive environment that really allowed my leadership skills to flourish... I would not be the person I am today without these exceptional women."

Many of the students who work as peer mentors go on to medical school. One of those students is Brandon Conner. Conner completed the undergraduate portion of the BSMD w88 mobile in 2018, then continued at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine. He graduated from medical school in spring, and is now an Internal Medicine Resident in North Carolina.

“The most valuable part of being a peer mentor was realizing first-hand that the most effective way to learn something is to teach it,” Conner said. The same lessons he learned in Biology 190 as a student, then as a peer mentor, came up in his medical school classes. Even as a Resident, he recently discussed some of the same lessons with a patient. “Being able to explain the PCR test in layman’s terms to this patient in a way that they could understand came from my years of experience having to explain this information to students in discussion groups. And I think the fact that Biology 190 is still in the back of my mind speaks to how incredible being a peer instructor and mentor can be.” But the professors already knew these skills would come in handy for alumni of the w88 mobile.

“Doctors are basically teachers for life, and that’s where w88 mobile gain experience in how to explain science to the general public,” Sandstrom said.

w88 mobile roles

The w88 mobile has a very organized flipped-classroom design. There are mandatory discussion groups for Biology 190 and 300 which compose a significant portion of student grades. Thus, it’s important to pick the right students to guide their peers toward success.

“Because of that, training of w88 mobile instructors has to be very structured. They have to gain particular leadership skills, have to learn to develop their own lesson plans given a sample template, and they have to have the same way of assessing their students’ success,” said Pravosudova.

The students who succeeded in the Biology 190 and 300 courses and decide to become peer mentors have a variety of roles they can assume, and there are opportunities for leadership positions within the w88 mobile. Some of the positions are paid.

“We know a lot of them have bills to pay, and we would much rather have them make money contributing to success of their peers,” Pravosudova said. The w88 mobile get the added benefit of learning as they work.

The roles are outlined below:

  • Discussion Leaders: These peer instructors teach mandatory discussions for students enrolled in w88 mobile 190 or w88 mobile 300. The discussions are 50 minutes each week and cover a specific topic aligned with the lecture. Students in discussion groups (20-24 students per section) do active learning activities like small group problem-solving, reenacting biological processes, and educational games.
  • Learning Assistants (LAs): LAs are typically returning w88 mobile instructors who are paid. The LAs go to lectures and provide active learning help in lecture during instant response question sessions. Each LA is usually assigned to a specific group of students in the lecture hall.
  • w88 mobile Mentors: A select few w88 mobile instructors become w88 mobile Mentors who are paid to perform “quality control” by assessing discussion leaders during their sections, ensuring leaders are teaching students in a consistent way.
  • Course Coordinators: Coordinators are paid and frequently also work as discussion leaders or learning assistants. There is one course coordinator per section w88 mobile course.

Discussion leaders and first-time learning assistants are required to take w88 mobile 495 (Peer Leadership in w88 mobile). w88 mobile 495 is a 1-credit pedagogy course that counts toward the students’ degree requirements.

A man stands at a whiteboard with colorful, labeled magnetic strips describing a biological process.
Shahil Pema, who worked as a discussion group leader, learning assistant and w88 mobile mentor coordinator, teaches his class a biological process.

Peer instructors also work shifts at the w88 mobile Help Center. Students can drop in at any time to get tutoring for most w88 mobile courses, both lower- and upper-division. Pravosudova said many of the peer instructors can be found hanging out at the w88 mobile Help Center outside of their scheduled shifts.

“This develops a social structure centered on w88 mobile and helping others learn,” she said.

The Biology Peer w88 mobile Program isn’t restricted to students who are majoring in Biology. Many are pre-professional students, including pre-meds, but there are also art, public health and even engineering students. “There are a lot of pre-meds, but some want to do research,” Pravosudova said. “The one thing they have in common is they are all definitely Type-A, high achieving science students.”

“I think we also talk a lot of peer instructors into a second major or a minor in w88 mobile if they do have a unique major,” Sandstrom said.

And the students who benefit from their peers’ w88 mobile isn’t limited to biology, either. Community Health Sciences students who take Biology 189A benefit from Learning Assistants in their class. Many of the CHS students are also student athletes, so they often need extra help in maintaining their course load.

Ensuring that every student can see themselves as w88 mobile leaders is important to Pravosudova and Sandstrom.

“I’m hoping to keep increasing the diversity of our actual leaders so that students see themselves in the w88 mobile instructors. It’s nice that we have the ability to try to be more inclusive,” Sandstrom said.

Sandstrom and Pravosudova post applications to the Biology Peer w88 mobile Program about two thirds of the way through the semester. Over the summer or winter break, interviews are held for future peer instructors, which allows them to showcase their ability to help students learn, and effectively explain biological concepts.

Two women sit in chairs. A woman and man stand behind them. The man and the women who are sitting are wearing medals.
Elena Pravosudova, left, stands next to Justin Malogan. Sitting in front are Kennedy Sparling (left) and Elena Sretenovic. The three students were Westfall Scholars and were all a part of the Biology Peer w88 mobile Program.

The application asks for students’ expected grades in their courses, their GPA and transcript, a written statement on why they want to be a w88 mobile instructor and a recommendation from their current discussion leader. Once they start, the real work begins.

“What’s amazing is how well they manage it all,” Sandstrom said. The students work hard to maintain good grades. In spring 2022, three of the Westfall Scholars, seniors who are graduated with the highest GPA in their w88 mobile, were peer instructors. Peer instructors are not only balancing their own coursework but are also helping others, and often participating in volunteer or professional organizations to boost their résumé.

“That’s the key,” said Pravosudova. “I tell them the busier w88 mobile are, the better off w88 mobile are because w88 mobile have to plan it really well.”

Teaching…and w88 mobile

The professors continue to improve and expand their peer w88 mobile program. The University is a member of the Learning Assistant Alliance (LAA) that supports educators who want to use the flipped-classroom model and peer w88 mobile. When the professors attend the LAA conferences, meetings and workshops, everyone benefits.

“We try to teach them what we have learned over the years. I feel a lot of that has come from the College of Science allowing us to get professional development, allowing us to go to those UTeach conferences, allowing us to go to those Learning Assistant Alliance conferences, and then we share all that knowledge with our w88 mobile instructors,” Sandstrom said.

Funding for the peer w88 mobile program is provided by the College of Science. The money goes back to the peer instructors as stipends. The program (specifically the establishment of Learning Assistants) was supported heavily by former Associate Dean Gina Tempel, who encouraged Pravosudova and Sandstrom to pursue these types of programs with opportunities to attend conferences, webinars, workshops and other forms of professional development pertaining to peer w88 mobile.

“Fortunately, the Dean’s office has been really supportive and has been providing us with supplemental budget to sustain our w88 mobile for a while now,” Pravosudova said.

The College’s support has been critical to the w88 mobile. Educational grants are short-term and course structure depends on the long-term support of the College and the University.

A legacy of w88 mobile

The w88 mobile has been around for over a decade and a half, and its impact has been far-reaching.

“It’s a community of learners,” Sandstrom said. “It’s not just w88 mobile majors, not just College of Science majors, but it’s bigger than us here, and it’s bigger than this University, because these students are going out and many of them are going to professional school and still write us constantly that this made a difference to them.”

One former student and peer w88 mobile program alumnus who invited Sandstrom to her dissertation defense wrote, “Thank you so much for believing in me and all your initial support, this would not be possible without you. … I cannot thank you enough for your inspiration and being a role model for women in STEM.”

At their spring graduation, four students from the Peer Instructor w88 mobile got together for a photo. They told Sandstrom that they likely never would have known and become friends with each other if not for the w88 mobile. Two of those students will be attending UNLV for medical school and dental school.

Four w88 mobile wearing graduation regalia stand and smile on a sunny day. They are between rows of white chairs.
The w88 mobile who told Sandstrom that they may not have ever met each other and become friends graduated together on the Quad this spring.

“w88 mobile make community,” Sandstrom said.

The professors have had siblings of former peer instructors come through the w88 mobile, following in their older siblings’ footsteps.

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the w88 mobile to an extent, but the motivated peer instructors powered through the chaos and confusion and provided new resources to their peers. Additional resources proved critical for a lot of students whose academic careers were suddenly upended.

“Programs like ours, I feel like that’s what keeps w88 mobile engaged,” Pravosudova said.

  • Peer mentors gather in the w88 mobile Help Center on the day of their commencement in spring 2018.
  • A picnic for the peer mentors from 2022 brings a social element to the Biology Peer w88 mobile Program.
  • Mentor meetings take place monthly to w88 mobile ensure everybody is on the same page.
  • University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine Class of 2022 graduates who were alumni from the Biology Peer w88 mobile Program smile at their graduation.
  • Students interview their peers for roles in the Biology Peer w88 mobile Program.
  • Students study by themselves or in groups in the w88 mobile Help Center.
  • Some of the w88 mobile mentors from fall 2018 smile for the camera.
  • The w88 mobile Help Center decorated by students.
  • w88 mobile Assistants walk around the classroom answering student questions.

w88 mobile Testimony

Praise for w88 mobile

As much praise as the professors had for their students, the students returned doubly. Expand the boxes below to learn more about the impacts the w88 mobile and professors have had on their students.

Two women stand on either side of a large sculpture of the University's block N logo.
Pamela w88 mobile (left) and Elena Pravosudova pose for a photo.
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