UMass Boston

Science Education

PhD, Biological Sciences, Stanford University, CA (1987-1991)

BS, Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MA (1981-1985)

• White, B. (2012) The Virtual Genetics Lab II: Improvements to a Freely-available Software Simulation of Genetics American Biology Teacher 74(5):336-337
• White, B., Yamamoto, S; (2012) Freshman Undergraduate Biology Students' Difficulties with the Concept of Common Ancestry Evolution Education and Outreach 4:680-687
• White, B., Stains, M; Escriu-Sune, M; Medaglia, E; Rostamnjad, L; Chinn, C; Sevian, H (2011) A Novel Instrument for Assessing Students’ Critical Thinking Abilities Journal of College Science Teaching 40(5):102-107
• White, B., Kahriman, A., Luberice, L., Idleh, F. (2010) Evaluation of Software for Introducing Protein Structure: Visualization and Simulation Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education 38(5):284-289
• White, B. (2009) Exploring the Diversity of Life with the Phylogenetic Collection Lab American Biology Teacher 71(3): 157-161
• White, B. (2009) Analysis of Students’ Downloading of Online Audio Lecture Recordings in a Large Biology Lecture Course Journal of College Science Teaching 38(3) 23-27
• White, B., Bolker, E. (2008) Interactive Computer Simulations of Genetics, Biochemistry, and Molecular Biology Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education 36(1):77–84
• White, B. (2006) A Simple and Effective Protein Folding Activity Suitable for Large Lectures Cell Biology Education 5:264-269
• White, B., Perna, I., Carlson, R. (2005) Software for Teaching Structure-Hydrophobicity Relationships Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education 33(1) 65-70.
• White, B., Bolker, E., Koolar, N., Ma, W., Maw, N., Yu, C, (2007) The Virtual Genetics Lab: a Freely- available Open-source Genetics Simulation. American Biology Teacher 69(1):694-697

Book

• White, B. and Mischke, M (2006) A Problems Approach to Introductory Biology 276 pages with CD-ROM. American Society for Microbiology Press.
• Nelson & Cox (2007) Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry. Wrote one extended problem based on published experimental results for each of 28 chapters.

Professional Experience

• 1997 - Present: Assistant Professor, Biology Department, University of Massachusetts Boston
• Teaching Bio 111 and 112 as well as graduate course in Teaching and Lecturing techniques for Teaching assistants. Research on student learning and development of educational materials for undergraduate biology.
• Developed new lab activities, and course web site including Javascript, digital video, virtual reality, CGI scripting, molecular visualization, and animations
• Created and developed department-wide TA training program
• Received 2000 CAS Outstanding Achievement Award for Teaching

Teaching Experience

• 1992 - 1997 Instructor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Introductory Biology.
• 1992 - 1997 Course administration.
• 1992 - 1997 Curriculum development.
• 1992 - 1997 Supervision of teaching assistants, graders, and tutors.
• 1992 - 1997 Writing and grading problem sets and exams.
• 1992 - 1997 Teaching recitation sections.
• 1992 - 1997 Developed curriculum for recitation sections and department-wide training program for teaching assistants.
• 1995 - 1997 Co-Director, MIT/Wellesley Teacher Education Program.
• 1995 - 1997 Co-teaching Introduction to Teaching and Learning.
• 1995 - 1997 Administration of program to train MIT undergraduates to become grade 9 - 12 Math and Science teachers.
• 1995 - 1997 Supervision of student teaching.
• 1995 - 1997 Collaboration with area schools and universities in improving teacher training through TEAMS-BC collaborative.

Other Courses Taught

• Spring 2008 - Present: Biol 650: Scientific Communication.
• Fall 1999: Biol 653G: How to give a Talk - Seminar on Presentation Skills.

Conference Presentations

• White, B. (2009) Simplicity and Complexity: Teaching Protein Structure: 3-d Visualization vs. 2-d Simulation Invited presentation at 2009 Gordon Research Conference on Visualization in Science and Education, Oxford, UK.
• White, B. (2007) The Molecular Genetics Explorer BioQUEST Summer Workshop, Beloit WI.
• White, B. (2004) Reasoning Maps: a Generally-applicable Method for Characterizing Hypothesis-Testing.
• Behavior American Educational Research Association, San Diego.
• White, B. and Rowinsky, P. (2002) Reasoning in an Authentic Inquiry Context. Poster; National Association for Research in Science Teaching New Orleans.
• White, B., Lee, S., Sherman, K., Reginald, S., Weber, N. (2001) Evaluation of molecular.
• Visualization software for teaching protein structure Poster; Gordon Conference on Molecular Visualization, August 2001.
• White, B. (2000) Connecting Teaching Lab development with Education Research: An Introduction Workshop; Association for Biology Lab Education Annual Meeting.
• White, B., Lee, S., Sherman, K., Reginald, S., Weber, N. (2000) Evaluation of molecular Visualization software for teaching protein structure Poster; Association for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
• White, B. (1998, 1999, 2000) The Red and White Yeast lab: An introduction to Science as a process Workshop; ResearchLink 2000 (NSF-Funded dissemination of exemplary lab materials).
• White, B., Lee, S., Sherman, K., Reginald, S., Weber, N. (2000) Evaluation of molecular visualization software for teaching protein structure Poster; UMass Instructional Technology Conference.
• White, B. (1999) An Interactive Simulation of Epidemiology Invited workshop: American Society for Microbiology Regional Meeting.
• White, B. (1999) The Red and White Yeast lab: An introduction to Science as a process Workshop; Association for Biology Lab Education Annual Meeting.
• White, B. (1999) Molecular Visualization in General Biology: Successes, Pitfalls, and Conclusions Invited Seminar (STEMTECH project) UMass Amherst.
• White, B., Brault, S. (1999) Web-based Biology Education Poster; UMass Instructional Technology Conference.
• White, B. (1998) Using a Computer Simulation to Teach Genetics Poster; UMass Instructional Technology Conference.
• White, B. (1998) BioQUEST: An Adjunct to Lecture and Laboratory for Teaching Biology Invited workshop; Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology.

Grant Support

• 1998 UMass Boston Faculty Development Grant: Exploring “cheat sheets”: Using student’s notes to follow the learning process. $2,000
• 2000 NSF CAREER award: Exploring Authentic Inquiry: Factors that Influence Students’ Learning of the Process of Science. $500,000
• UMass ITC Grant with Steve Brewer (UMA): Visualizing Biological Processes that have Instructionally ‘Inconvenient’ Time Scales $4,000
• UMass Healey Public Service Endowment Grant with Steven Ackerman and Betsey Davis: Development of Animations/Videos for Middle School, High School, and College Biology Courses. $3,500. 

Collaborations outside UMass Boston

• 1992 - Present with BioQUEST (Beloit College, Beloit WI) development, evaluation dissemination, and support of software for biology education.
• 1997 - Present with Dr. Greg Early at the New England Aquarium to develop the Virtual Dolphin.
• 1998 - Present with Sensimetrics Inc. (Cambridge, MA) development of animations for teaching middle-school cell biology.
• 2000 - Present with LEGO-dacta Corp. to develop LEGO-based biology labs.
• 2000 - Present with Dr. Steve Brewer (UMA) to develop animations and multimedia for teaching biology.