Rebecca Price (she/her/hers)

Professor

Rebecca Price

B.S. Zoology, University of Washington, Seattle
Ph.D. Geophysical Sciences, The University of Chicago

Office: UW2-220
Phone: 425-3523666
Email: beccap@uw.edu
Twitter: @ProfBeccaPrice
Website: http://faculty.washington.edu/beccap/
Mailing Box: 358530, 11136 NE 180th Street, Bothell, WA 98011-1713

Teaching

I aim to provide a dynamic and interdisciplinary perspective of the natural world. Class time is an opportunity to capture students’ interest, and I constantly adjust my approach to ensure that they are engaged. We use discussions, writing assignments, presentations, laboratory activities, and field trips to learn the material, working together and learning as a team. Course assignments offer the opportunity for me to judge student performance, but also for me to evaluate my effectiveness as an instructor so that I can improve. The most rewarding part of teaching is when students understand a topic that had been intimidating; they become proud, confident, and interested.

Courses Taught

BES 301 Science Methods and Practice
BIS 285/BBIO 285 Seminar in Biology
BIS 499 Portfolio Capstone

Research/Scholarship

I study how people learn and how people learn to teach. Some of my research is based on how college students learn evolution and science in general. My colleagues and I have developed a series of tools that help instructors identify the conceptually challenging aspects of evolution, and we have also created strategies that help students overcome those challenges. As the executive director of the Science Teaching Experience for Postdocs program, I’ve also begun studying how postdocs learn state-of-the-art and inclusive teaching strategies, as well as other issues relating to postdoc success.

Selected Publications

  • Price RM, Kantrowitz-Gordon I, Gordon SE. 2018. Biomedical postdoctoral fellows’ discourses on scientific identity. CBE-Life Sciences Education. 17: ar29. DOI:10.1187/cbe.17-08-0177
  • Price RM and Perez KE. 2018. Many paths toward discovery: A module for teaching how science works. Journal of College Science Teaching. 47: 78-87.
  • Martinková P, Drabinová A, Liaw Y-L, Sanders EA, McFarland JL, Price RM. 2017. Using DIF analysis to reveal potential equity gaps in conceptual assessments. CBE-Life Sciences Education. 16: rm2. DOI:10.1187/cbe.16-10-0307
  • McFarland JL, Price RM, Wenderoth MP, Martinková P, Cliff W, Michael J, Modell H, Wright A. 2017. Development and validation of the Homeostasis Concept Inventory. CBE-Life Sciences Education. 16: ar35. DOI:10.1187/cbe.16-10-0305
  • Price RM and Perez KE. 2016. Beyond the adaptationist legacy: updating our teaching to include a diversity of evolutionary mechanisms. American Biology Teacher. 78: 101-108. DOI: 10.1525/abt.2016.78.2.101
  • Price RM, Pope DS, Abraham JK, Maruca S, Meir E. 2016. Improving students’ understanding of genetic drift and their ability to correct misconceptions: the positive impact of a computer-based simulation. Evolution: Education & Outreach. 9: 1-14. DOI: 10.1186/s12052-016-0059-6
  • Price RM, Andrews TM, McElhinny TL, Mead LS, Abraham JK, Thanukos A, Perez KE. 2014. The Genetic Drift Inventory: a tool for measuring what undergraduates have mastered about genetic drift. CBE-Life Sciences Education. 13: 65–75. DOI: 10.1187/cbe.13-08-0159
  • Abraham JK, Perez KE, Price RM. 2014. The Dominance Concept Inventory: a tool for assessing undergraduate student alternative conceptions about dominance in Mendelian and population genetics. CBE-Life Sciences Education. 13: 349-358. DOI: 10.1187/cbe.13-08-0160