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Annual Report-Polando
Rachel Polando
Annual Report 2011-2012

TEACHING
Enrollment
Summer 2011
Human Biology 13
Fall 2011
Microbiology 4
Medical Microbiology 17
Introduction to Molecular Biology Lab 12
Special Problems: Cancer Biology 1
January 2012
Parasitology 14
Spring 2012
Microbiology 36
Cell Biology 10
Special Problems: Immunology 1

Advisees
Primary Advisees 13
Regular Advisees 36
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TEACHING SELF-ASSESSMENT
Human Biology
This is the first online course I have ever taught and I have learned a lot
about communication with students and the necessary planning needed to
successfully execute this course. This course had a few challenges that I do not
normally experience in person-to-person teaching. My biggest challenge is not
feeling like I know the students very well.
I spent a lot of time during Spring break of 2011 recording all of my lectures
on Camtasia so that students could listen to them if they wanted to in addition to
having access to the PowerPoint slides. I think this was a great help to many of the
students and it worked well to have the material explained in addition to seeing the
slides. I also spent a lot time thinking about how to structure all of the content so it
would be as easy to find as possible. This is extremely important for the students so
that they do not waste time hunting for the content. I organized everything by date,
this way all of the lectures, quizzes, and assignments would correlate to the date on
the folder and syllabus. I know that the students appreciated this, as it was a
recurring comment on my evaluations. One comment that I did not think about was
the quizzes should be in their own folder. I put the quiz that was due that day in the
same folder and some students would forget to take them. This year they are in
their own folder for ease of use.
I found it especially challenging to connect with this group of students, I
think due to the online format. The lack of personal interaction really detracted
from everyones engagement and enthusiasm for the course. I also could not do
many of the hands on activities, which I know the students enjoy and helps them
integrate the material. I did keep in constant communication on the discussion
forum and was extremely responsive by email, which helped the students in
completion of this course. We had many technical issues which I know made the
students upset at times. I considered myself pretty savvy at ANGEL but after
teaching this course I am an expert. I had to set timers for multiple students to
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allow them access to the content outside of the previous settings. I had two
students completing this course internationally and one who needed extra time. It
took a lot of patience and practice to get all the material lined up for these three
students. In addition there were substantial problems with ANGEL not opening an
exam on time or the questions not appearing to the students or me. I am very
thankful for Stan Pittman and Jill Lichtsinn, as their support and help was vital to the
success of this course.
My one biggest fear for this course was that students would cheat and I did
not have a good way to control for this. I accepted that it might occur and would
handle it when it did. There is no good way to shut down the content on ANGEL
once the exam begins so I had to make the exam longer in an effort to minimize
cheating. I know that some students found this time frame hard to work with but I
knew if it was shorter that it would be easier to look up the information or consult
the lectures. I did have on student cheat on her exam and it really upset me. I think
that increased awareness of the format and time for the exam will help cut down on
the temptation to cheat but it will still be there.
Medical Microbiology
This is the second time teaching this course and it was so much smoother
and well designed. My time writing the online quizzes and reformatting my lectures
was well spent during the summer. I also had time to rethink some of the
laboratories and what outcomes I wanted the students to have upon completion.
I changed the structure of the course slightly as I focused more on the
immunology and less on the infectious agents. This is a definite shift from the way
the course had previously been taught. I discussed with the department and the
hospitals we are affiliated with for medical technology as to how best meet the
needs of the students. The only major that requires this course is medical
technology and restructuring this course to include more immunology is what the
students need. We also cover a lot of the infectious agent information in
microbiology. The increased immunology content was a challenge for some
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students and I struggled with meeting the students in the middle. I know that a few
students found the first part of the course easy; however I know from experience
that learning the language of immunology is essential for later success. Immunology
has its own language, all the names are foreign and the system as a whole does not
behave in any way that students are familiar with. My intent is to ease them into
this and then tackle the difficult material at the end. I will also include one more
exam so that there is less information on each exam which should help with
students feeling overwhelmed.
Looking through my feedback a common theme is that the book or lecture
could be confusing. I think this directly relates to the difficulty in the content. I
know that reading the book before the lecture is challenging but the students ability
to understand the lecture is much improved because of the reading. I continue to
work on my lectures and when there is confusion I address it promptly, I was very
aware of their confusion on their notecards. In particular, the complement system is
a horrible 12 step pathway that has 3 ways to start it and many variations; this is a
difficult concept to understand. I not only made two worksheets for practice but I
also made an in class activity. I made flash cards of each step and then the students
have to organize in order of the step for each of the 3 pathways. If they chose a card
that doesnt fit they have to figure out which one they should use instead. I know
that the students enjoyed this activity and I will use it again.
I continued with the journal club readings and I think the system is working.
I had students in groups of 3-4 read a paper and they had to present the article to
the class. Each student group also wrote a review paper, eventually writing one
alone. The groups sometimes have dynamic problems but being responsible for
teaching the paper really improved their understanding and gave them a good
chance for practice of oral presentations.

Introduction to Molecular Biology Lab
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I was very glad to be able to help Kristen teach a section of this laboratory in
the fall. I know how overwhelming it can feel to prepare for this lab and I think that
having one less section and the extra set of hands to prepare reagents and set up
was helpful to her. I tried my best to encourage her to make it her own and was so
happy that she changed half of the labs to reflect her strengths in DNA research.
The students seemed to appreciate the smaller lab sizes and I appreciated the
increased safety and help that we can achieve with fewer students. I felt that their
understanding of the content was increased and that they could ask more questions
for clarity. It was also nice to get to know some of the students I would have in the
spring during this time.
Parasitology
This was a completely new class to me and something I havent had a class in
in several years even though my doctoral work focused on one parasite. It has been
a while since I thought of other parasites. I was both anxious and excited to teach
this course, as it was also new to the students and the college.
I decided to stray from a traditional textbook, also a first for me, in favor of a
popular science book, Parasite Rex by Carl Zimmer. Zimmer is a good science writer
and has a way of captivating his audience. I was apprehensive about students
reading a 300 page book but asking them to write questions for discussion made
them accountable. Reading my evaluations, I see that students liked the book and
found it interesting. I know that I made the right choice in skipping the boring and
dry parasitology textbook.
I was concerned with the diversity of the students in my course, most were
science majors but I did have a minor in there as well. Not only were the majors
diverse but the age distribution of the students was also diverse. I had to make sure
that everyone understood and no one was bored. I think that stopping to take
questions or incorporating different aspects of the parasites really helped make the
course accessible. Utilizing group and pair work also helped as younger students
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and older student worked together on new topics and journal readings. I think I
was successful in integrating everyone and using the strengths of the students to
help with other weaknesses.
It is always a challenge for me to construct 3 hour lectures every day and
keep the students engaged. I use mini-labs to break up the time and also give
students a feeling of knowing the parasites. Most of the labs were simple; look at
the slides or specimens the biology department already had. It was a no pressure
lab, where I just wanted them to observe and appreciate the organisms we had
spent so much time talking about. We also isolated a parasite out of ground meat,
which really drove home the exposure of parasites and lack of knowledge about
them. I also used several YouTube clips of the parasites, which really brings to life
the devastation and neat characteristics of each organism. It was just the right mix
of lecture, lab, videos, and discussion to keep everyone interested.
I continued to use the journal club readings and let students guide the topics
that were interesting. I also chose some more observational and application type
readings which helped even my first year students feel successful reading articles. It
was really useful that I had upperclassmen to help and guide the discussions about
the papers; it gave the first years a feeling for how this type of activity should
progress. It helped that this class was smaller so that everyone knew everyone else
and could count on them for help or explanation. The dynamic was exceptional.
Microbiology


Cell Biology
Overall thoughts/review

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Service Department and Division
1. Biology-Chemistry Council- assisting with advising, election of major, senior
comprehensive exams, and career advice. I conducted six oral senior
comprehensive exams this year and nineteen written comprehensive exams.
2. Wrote letters of recommendation for fifteen students for summer research
or internships, dental school, medical school, medical technology school,
graduate school, Study abroad, and Eel River research.
3. Conducted election of major for Biology (2), Medical Technology (2) and
Biology-Chemistry majors (19).
4. Hired and trained laboratory assistants for four laboratory sections.
5. Organized and participated in writing in science seminar with Stacy Erickson.
6. Hosted the annual division picnic.
7. Initiated and shepherded the Beta Beta Beta biology honorary starts up at
Manchester.
Service to the College
1. Academic advisor for 49 students this academic year.
2. Scholarship Day- interviewed prospective students with strong academic
credentials.
3. Student Research Symposium- one of my research students presented his
senior thesis.
4. Participated in two advising and registration days.
5. Met with many prospective students regarding biology, medical technology,
biology chemistry, or pharmacy.
6. Moderated and read Tipping Point for reading discussion group.
7. Member of Institutional Review Board.
8. Member of Pharmacy Dean Search Committee.
9. Spoke to the Board of Trustees about being a MC Professor.
10. Worked extensively with Adelaide Kamagaju to resolve her tuition payment
for medical technology.
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11. Created a new course Science and Culture in Australia.
12. Organized 1 Floor program for RA Jason Eakins.
Service to the Community
1. Expanding your Horizons- Educational program for 12-15 year old girls to
encourage studying science.
2. Completed my training and 2 cases for CASA.
3. Science Olympiad- Prepared and executed 3 events.
Service to the Profession
1. Indiana College Biology Teachers Association- member and member of
steering committee.
2. Consortium of Indiana Medical Laboratory Educators.
3. Attended the National Learning Communities Conference in Chicago with
Stacy Erickson, Marcie Coulter-Kern, and Tim Brauch.
Assessment of Service
I think that my service in all areas is well placed and of the most use to
others. I am active in many college activities and with the addition of the biology
honorary am spending a great deal of time and effort nurturing our students. I
continue to enjoy spending time with students and helping them sort out their ideas
and career options. This year was incredibly difficult in that regard as many of them
struggled academically and emotionally. I am still learning how to handle that
responsibility and guide them as well as I can. I think that my service to the college
and division are well developed at this time. I still enjoy my volunteering with
Expanding Your Horizons and Science Olympiad to get younger students excited
about science. My work with CASA has taught me a lot of patience and
communication skills that I was not aware I was lacking. The families are not
always as they seem and the case is never as easy as I think it will be. I know that
this service is needed and appreciated in my community and I am glad I am able to
assist children who need a responsible adult in their lives.
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Scholarship
1. Attended all science seminar speaker presentations.
2. Attended 2 Faculty Development Seminars.
3. Attended 2 Faculty Forum presentations and presented at one.
4. American Association of Immunologists-member.
5. American Society of Microbiologists- member.
6. Submitted two manuscripts for publication to the Journal of Leukocyte
Biology for publication.
7. Indiana Academy of Sciences, member.
8. Attended the Learning Communities conference.
9. Submitted a grant proposal to Indiana Academy of Science with Matt Helm.
Unfortunately, we were not funded.
Assessment of Scholarship
This last year, I participated in a few scholarship programs and tried to be
more proactive in my involvement. I still spend most of my scholarship within the
college, and I am learning that this is OK. I have submitted my both manuscripts to
Journal of Leukocyte biology and am waiting for reviewer feedback. My joint grant
submission with Matt Helm to the Indiana Academy of Science was not successful
but I think that eventually it can be a successful submission. I had one research
student Todd Byrket, who I worked with tirelessly during January term on his
project so he could graduate on time. This was an enormous undertaking as I was
also teaching a new course to me. He had many setbacks and unexpected problems
that we had to troubleshoot. His research will help me with my own research
question and has illuminated a few of the challenges I will face conducting research
at Manchester.
Goals
1. Attend a professional meeting.
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2. Continue to increase awareness of Manchesters Medical Technology
Program.
3. Submit my funding proposal to the National Science Foundation.

Assessment of Goals from 2009-2010
1. Attend a professional meeting
2. Submit my two written manuscripts
3. Rewrite the laboratories for Molecular Biology
4. Increase awareness of Manchesters Medical Technology Program
I think I was fairly successful in reaching the goals I set for myself last year. I
attended the learning community conference and learned a lot about how to engage
students across disciplines. I am looking forward to trying this method of teaching
for the first time in the fall. I have submitted two manuscripts and am currently
waiting for feedback from the reviewers. I successfully rewrote all the laboratories
for microbiology laboratory, which greatly improved student learning and
comprehension. They found the new handouts to be clear, easy to understand, and
well-written. This made lab significantly easier and more enjoyable for everyone. I
also successfully increased awareness of the medical technology major. I currently
have 5 students involved and spoke with three prospective students about it this
year. I think that with more promotion and awareness this program will blossom
and become a more established program. I did not complete my last goal of
submitting a grant proposal to NIH. I did submit a substantially smaller one to the
Indiana Academy of Science and hope that I can make some progress with this grant
over the summer.

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