Instructor: Dr. Ken Lodewyk, Associate Professor

Course: KINE 3P32 – Movement Activities for Physical Education in Schools

Program: Physical Education

Micro-teaching labs

Small groups of students prepare and present a 20-minute developmentally-appropriate series of activities (ranging from dance, gymnastics, games, fitness, cooperative activities, to alternative pursuits) to their classmates on campus. These activity plans will use various resources to demonstrate how the activities will fulfill curricular expectations within the Ontario Health and Physical Education Curriculum. After receiving peer and instructor feedback, students adapt their activity plans and then lead school-age students through their activities during their school physical education class.  This occurs once each for primary (K-3), junior (grades 4-6), intermediate (grades 7-9), and senior (grades 10-12) developmental levels. Following each presentation, students in the class complete an individual reflection essay of their experiences at the school.

In their reflection essay for each series of activity presentations in the school, each student is to:

• Specifically assess the quality (or lack of) of each aspect of the activity(s) their group taught in the school. Were the objectives for the activity(s) at this developmental level achieved? Why or why not? How well-prepared did the group feel based on the previous two labs for this developmental level?
• Comment specifically on anything of note that was observed about the presentation style of their group (i.e., confidence, voice projection, transitions, adaptation, and management of participants, equipment, motivation, flow) at the school.
• Explain any noteworthy observations related to the behaviours of the students or any others in attendance during the group’s presentation.
• Add any relevant insights into the other KINE 3P32 activity presentations  observed in the school during the lab session.

Instructor: Dr. Nicole Chimera

Course: KINE 4P80

Program: Kinesiology, Applied Health Sciences

In KINE 4P80, students engage in a 10-week clinical internship in which they have the opportunity to learn from sports medicine clinicians while interacting with patients. Due to the transition to online learning for the 2020-2021 academic year, we created a Virtual Clinic. In order to facilitate authentic learning through the Virtual Clinic, students prepare for weekly clinics by reviewing videos, websites and/or articles and a case study. During weekly Virtual Clinics, groups of students meet with a sport medicine clinician who facilitates discussion about the weekly content and case study. The overall outcome that we hope to achieve is that the students will be adequately prepared for patient care. Through this Virtual Clinic we anticipate increased clinical reasoning skills in patient evaluation and treatment. This has the potential to benefit the patient community in two ways: 1) the students in the course will be better prepared to engage in patient care thus improving the patient experience and 2) the students will be better prepared to interact with the sports medicine clinicians thus improving their professional practice. Students also complete pre-experiential learning goals, weekly reflections, and a final summative journal.

Instructor: Aleksandar Necakov, Instructor; Amanda Lepp, Senior Lab Demonstrator

Course: BIOL 2P03 – Cell Biology

Program: Biological Sciences, Biochemistry, Biomedical Sciences, Biophysics, Biotechnology

CELL BIOLOGY LABS

After completing an introductory lab that covers the principles of cell culture and microscopy, small groups of 2-3 students work together on a project that spans three different labs over the course of six weeks. With their foundation of core cell biology skills these groups receive their cells from a mouse myoblast cell line. After assessing the viability of these cells, they seed them into media which they made, setting up six different time points and treatment conditions to examine the effects of a glucocorticoid on myoblast proliferation and differentiation. After these cells have been able to grow in these different conditions, students preserve and stain their cultures in order to visually access the structural changes during proliferation and differentiation using light microscopy. In order to examine the role that different cell signaling proteins play in these two processes, students perform immunohistochemistry to examine the role of various proteins during proliferation and differentiation with fluorescent microscopy. The lab project culminates in the writing of a formal report that is structured much like a manuscript, describing the rationale behind the approaches they used, what their results were compared to what they expected to see based off of previous research, and the implications of their findings to the scientific community. Small lab sizes of approximately 20 students allow a seminar style presentation by each group of a peer reviewed paper at the end of term.

Technological advancements have greatly enhanced our capabilities as scientists and are a catalyst for breakthrough scientific discoveries. That is why the undergraduate Biology teaching labs at Brock University provide students with hands-on experience using the latest experimental techniques to investigate innovative research questions. Through our labs, students acquire a deeper understanding of important Biological principles and they develop valuable critical thinking and communication skills. We want our students to finish their undergraduate degree with the knowledge, skills and confidence necessary to become leaders in their field.

-Dr. Mark Lukewich,  BIOL 2P03 Cell Biology instructor (2014-2017)