Education and Professional Development

The GSA Education Committee has started an initiative to compile PowerPoint® slides to help teach genetics and genomics at the undergraduate and graduate level. The Committee envisions curating donated slides that will be categorized and distributed via GSA PREP, the Society’s peer-reviewed education resource portal. The slides must not contain copyrighted material, and most elements should remain editable. Presenter notes within PowerPoint are encouraged. The slides, like all original resources at GSA PREP, will be licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 international license. To learn more about potential subjects or to contribute slides, please email Education Committee member John Schimenti.

While numerous studies have shown that active learning pedagogies are more effective than lecturing, the latter still dominates across undergraduate science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses. Educators at the University of Wisconsin–Madison performed a meta-analysis of 225 studies comparing lecturing and active learning across STEM curricula. The analysis revealed that failure rates for lecture courses were 34 percent on average, compared to an average of 22 percent in courses with at least some active learning. Active learning also improves exam performance, in some cases enough to change grades by half a letter or more. This integrated analysis provides even stronger support for institutional-level changes in education.

Funding, Fellowships, and Awards

The National Science Foundation (NSF) will open nominations for the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM) beginning June 2, 2014. PAESMEM recognizes outstanding mentoring of individuals from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, women, individuals with disabilities, and those from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds or certain geographic regions. Awardees must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Individual awardees will receive $10,000 in cash, while organizational awardees will receive a $10,000 grant. Deadline for nominations is in October 2014—nominate your deserving colleagues for this prestigious award!

Policy

The U.S. House and Senate are in the midst of discussions about the fiscal year (FY) 2015 federal budget, which will begin on October 1. The Senate Appropriations Committee has approved $325 million in funding for the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative, the competitive extramural research funding program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This represents an increase of $9 million (2.8 percent) over the FY 2014 funding level.

NIH has agreed to accept the recommendation of a recent report from the Institute of Medicine that NIH’s Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RAC) not be required to review all gene therapy protocols. In a statement, NIH Director Francis Collins agreed that RAC review will only be required when protocol review cannot be “adequately performed by other regulatory or oversight processes” (such as an institutional review board or biosafety committee) and the protocol poses particular concern for novelty or risk.

• Could less pain lead to a longer life? Mice who lack the pain receptor TRPV1 live longer and maintain higher glucose tolerance
• Longevity is most likely influenced by interactive effects among nuclear DNA, mitochondrial DNA, and diet at least as much as by the single effects, according to Drosophila researchers, who say their findings may affect caloric restriction studies
• The genetic basis of a rare jaw tumor, unlocked through RNA sequencing, has implicated two developmental pathways already targeted by FDA-approved cancer drugs
• Saving seeds from the sea: island plants tend to have bigger seeds, suggesting a protective evolutionary mechanism to prevent castaways
• Cheesy microbial signatures: RNA sequencing distinguishes different producers of an Austrian Alpine cheese

And finally…

Recent highlights from the GSA’s social networking platforms. Keep up with the buzz by joining us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn:

• Say it ain't so: red wine and chocolate may not actually be as healthy as we'd hoped, according to findings from the recently published InCHIANTI study
• Have you profiled your microbiome? Read a postdoc's 'gut' feeling after 2 commercial scans of her personal ecosystem
• Everyone loves a good teacher, but how do we reward good teaching? The Teagle Foundation showcases their grantees’ efforts to change academic culture
• Confessions of a scientist: "Scientists go to great lengths to disguise how little we know, how uncertain we feel, and how much we worry that everyone deserves to be here but us." Can you relate?
• Strange Brews: The Genes of Craft Beer – genes from more than 240 brewing strains sequenced by two research teams and featured in The New York Times
• An international call to arms against antimicrobial resistance, including slashing excessive antibiotic prescriptions and use of antibacterial agents
• “American science is becoming a private affair”: The Atlantic strikes a discussion on the implications of greater private support for research
• NIH Director Francis Collins talks with the USA TODAY Editorial Board, raising concerns about tight budgets: "We have a serious risk of losing the most important resource we have, which is the creative energies of this generation of scientists."
  
  

Deadline for next issue: June 6, 2014. Send items to GSA's Communications and Engagement Manager, Raeka Aiyar, raiyar@genetics-gsa.org.