This month, our "Human of DBER" is Dr. Lauren Stoczynski, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology and Environmental Sciences at Le Moyne College. 

I have always had a passion for teaching. Both of my parents were in K-12 education, and my friends and I would even “play school” in the summer. Pretty early on in my undergraduate career I knew I wanted to be a college professor and had my heart set on getting a PhD. While completing my graduate degrees at Clemson, I was a graduate teaching assistant under a wonderful mentor, Professor Chistine Minor, who provided me with so many opportunities to grow as an educator. Mind you, I had, at this point, never heard of discipline-based education research (DBER). I started a certificate in teaching from the Engineering and Science Education Department at Clemson during the first semester of my PhD pursuit, where I first learned about DBER and how to conduct biology education research. During my time at Clemson, Professor Minor and I were interested in trying to help the introductory biology students become more proficient in using excel, making graphs, and interpreting graphs. I developed a series of data analysis assignments to complement the labs students were completing, some parts of which are still used today but more incorporated within the labs themselves. While learning about DBER, I was conducting research in landscape ecology using freshwater stream fish as a model system. I was lucky to be co-advised by two mentors who encouraged me to take on as many side projects as I could as a graduate student. I have always had a love for the outdoors and fell into working with freshwater fish as a master’s student (I really wanted to be a shark scientist initially). I still reflect on growing up next to Lake Erie and never knowing or learning about the diversity in freshwater fish that lurked in the streams, rivers, and lakes (pictured is a male common shiner (Luxillus cornutus) who is colored up for spawning). I wanted to teach more people about the fish and insect diversity in our freshwaters in North America.

Knowing I could conduct research on my teaching, I wanted to build my skills in DBER and sought a DBER focused postdoctoral opportunity. I did a quick google search of DBER researchers who were investigating students’ ability to graph and immediately Dr. Stephanie M. Gardner’s research page at Purdue came up. I cold-emailed Dr. Gardner, explaining my situation and asking if she would have any openings in her lab. Little did I know that my email was received with perfect timing as the GraphSmarts team had just gotten a new grant to continue working on answering the very questions I was so interested in. I enjoyed two years working in Dr. Gardner’s lab, building a myriad of skills for conducting biology education research. Two years ago, I started as an assistant professor in the department of biological and environmental sciences at Le Moyne College, a small Jesuit liberal arts institution that fit everything I was looking for! I consider myself a bit of a rarity since I am trying to continue to do both biology education research in the form of understanding what students know about creating and interpreting graphs as well as conducting ecology research on stream fish and aquatic insect community compositions within trout streams in Central New York. I have had success in working with undergraduate students in DBER at Le Moyne with two of my students recently presenting their posters at SABER East and conducting field research during the warm months (picture is from a recent outing on June 2nd). I think the biggest advice I could give aspiring biology education researchers is to find your passion and then do what you can to set yourself up to succeed. My story may seem very linear, but I put in a lot of work seeking opportunities to build the skillset that I have. I also sought mentors that would let me explore and find my passions. Sometimes it just takes sending a random email to get you to the next step!

If you have a colleague in DBER that you'd like to nominate to be the next Human of DBER, please submit your nomination here! Nominations are welcome for members of the SABER and biology education research community, including undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, faculty, staff, educators, and community partners who contribute to biology education, research, or inclusive STEM initiatives.