Invertebrate Film Festival: Science, creativity, and flexibility in a virtual teaching environment

Abstract

We implemented a new video project in a marine invertebrate zoology undergraduate class. The project required students to produce 3–5 min videos about a particular invertebrate or any aspect of invertebrate biology they were interested in. The development of this assignment was prompted by the limitations for lab activities due to COVID‐19 and three short‐term campus closures in response to threats of inclement weather. This assignment can be completed individually on a flexible schedule, without physical access to campus, and culminates in an Invertebrate Film Festival during the last lab period. The project was assigned at the start of the term with only minimal instructions to promote creativity. Students completed the project over the course of the 14‐week semester, with several checkpoints, most notably a peer review of the movie script 2 weeks prior to the due date. To support the video production, students were encouraged to attend workshops and schedule individual tutoring sessions offered by the Studio in the campus's Center for Academic Learning Support. Surveys at the beginning and the end of the semester revealed that the perception of the video project was overall positive, although some students were apprehensive in the beginning. Video topics, techniques, and software used by students varied widely, but overall the video quality exceeded our expectations. Many students took pride in their videos and agreed to make them available as supplementary material for this article. If we repeat this assignment in future semesters, we will streamline the peer review process and possibly offer short video tutorials for video‐editing software.

Providing interactive and field laboratories while teaching university marine biology classes in an era of COVID‐19

“…Some articles, such as Lindsay (2021) and Nova et al, 2021) provide ideas for situations in which the students retain some access to campus or to specialized equipment. Others, such as Eugene et al (2021), Middlebrooks and Salewski (2021), and Schulze et al (2021) work well for situations in which students cannot access campus but retain some access to the field sites being studied. Verdes et al (2021), The Virtual Field Project (https://thevirtualfield.org/), and this article present ways that students without access to campus, to specialized equipment, or to the field sites can nonetheless experience important aspects of research and field studies.…”

Integrating microscopy, art, and humanities to power STEAM learning in biology

“…Dr. Perry reports that she has never seen first‐year students more excited about biology. Schulze et al (2021) reported similar student enthusiasm for their Invertebrate Biology Film Festival assignment in which students created short videos about an invertebrate that they shared with the whole class. The Texas A&M University‐Galveston Studio supported students with coaching regarding video production and editing.…”

“…The art department provided high-quality printing and assistance with hanging their images for the show. Dr.Perry reports that she has never seen first-year students more excited about biology Schulze et al (2021). reported similar student enthusiasm for their Invertebrate Biology Film Festival assignment in which students created short videos about an invertebrate that they shared with the whole class.…”

Teaching and Learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Topic Modeling Study

“…Most of the online and live sessions were provided through collaborative tools, including Microsoft Teams, Google Classroom, Zoom, and Blackboard Collaborate. Apart from virtual instruction sessions, faculty developed, and encouraged students to produce, videos that were relevant to theoretical topics and laboratory activities [25]. In some instances, these videos were also supplemented with augmented reality, to provide an immersive experience to the students [26].…”