What foundations do students need to succeed in biosciences?

In 2022, academics from across biosciences disciplines came together to discuss how to provide diverse first-year student cohorts with the grounding needed to successfully complete their studies. At the Heads of University Biosciences (HUBS) workshop hosted by the University of East Anglia, lecturers from across the UK met to share insight and advice on best teaching strategies and content. This collection of resources is based on the lessons that emerged from the discussions on “Fundamental Biosciences: What foundations do students need for success?”.

Woman taking part in an online teaching workshop

The practicalities of delivering a multi-institutional online workshop

Lessons from planning and delivering a multi-institutional online workshop for university teachers designed to find solutions to common educational challenges

Kelly Edmunds , Richard Bowater

University of East Anglia

Image depicting the study of bioscience

Creating a bioscience toolkit for first year students

Chinedu Agwu shares advice on supporting first-year students to develop the core skills and knowledge they need to succeed in a bioscience course

Chinedu Agwu

University of Hertfordshire

Image of builders laying foundations

Threshold concepts: what they are and how they help students learn

Threshold concepts are themes that underpin an academic discipline and can provide a framework for students to build knowledge. But teachers must be mindful of students’ capacity to understand them, as Becky Lewis explains

Becky Lewis

University of East Anglia

Image of a new teacher celebrating the end of term

How to help students with widely varied prior education to thrive in first year

How can university educators ensure their first-year teaching caters to widely varying prior knowledge and skills among students? Bethan Gulliver explains a three-pronged approach

Bethan Gulliver

University of East Anglia

Image of a DNA strand

Helping students see biology within a broader context

Should educators help students understand their chosen subjects within a broader context of learning? Mark Coleman has been experimenting with this in his biology course and shares his findings so far

Mark Coleman

University of East Anglia

Young female scientist examining a sample through a microscrope

Curriculum design in biosciences: setting up first-year students for success

Transferable skills and employability are more important than ever, and students arrive at university with a widening diversity of backgrounds. So, how should we prioritise what to teach in the first year of a biosciences degree?

Audrey Heppleston

University of East Anglia

Image showing researcher studying plants

Helping students tackle terminology barriers

Lots of new terminology can leave students feeling overwhelmed. Sonja Dunbar shares one way to build student confidence when encountering discipline-specific terms

Sonja Dunbar

University of Cambridge

Image showing data processing and analytics

Foundations to lay when teaching computational and data skills

Traditional teaching in data analysis focuses on statistics and visualisation but an emphasis on foundational data and computational skills is needed to prepare students to work with real data, explains Philip Leftwich

Philip Leftwich

University of East Anglia

Image of medical students being taught using a mannequin patient

Assessing science students’ practical skills – can we learn from healthcare education?

Healthcare educators have developed effective ways to assess a range of practical skills in their learners. What can other science educators learn from their example?

Derek Scott

University of Aberdeen