iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Cissy Ballen @cissyballen.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

📣 I'm recruiting PhD students to join the Ballen Lab at Auburn U! If you have received a GRFP honorable mention across any directorate in the last three years and are passionate about biology education, I'd love to hear from you. More details: ballenlab.com/apply-egfp-b... Please share widely! Thx!

ballenlab.com

APPLY! EGFP (Bio Ed Research): Multidisciplinary Opportunities in Discipline-Based Education Research – Ballen Lab

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Peter Marting @aztecacecropia.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

New paper out! What can student groups learn from ants? We propose 3 social-insect-inspired suggestions aimed at improving performance of student groups: make tasks group-worthy, embrace division of labor, and develop shared rules of engagement. lnkd.in/eJvGKM2h #socialinsects #DBER #education

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Kelly Lane @aklane.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

@emilydriessen.bsky.social and I wrote a letter in Science calling for us to lean into our communities and increase support for change agents during this time of adversity and funding cuts. #DBER #BioEd Community support for inclusive US education | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

science.org

Community support for inclusive US education

The Trump administration is working to dismantle inclusive education efforts by opposing diversity, equity, and inclusion (1); encouraging divisive actions in K-12 schools such as banning books (2) an...

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taylor cooper @iamtaylornotyou.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

Amazing symposium on Sex and Gender at #Evol2025 So grateful to all the speakers for bringing us together to think about how to teach and communicate these complex topics @jacanamama.bsky.social Thomas Sanger @bio-eddy.bsky.social @cissyballen.bsky.social

Sara Lipshutz presents her multivariate view of sex including gametes, genetics, anatomy, hormones, brains, and behavior

Thomas Sanger demonstrates that sex is not a developmental binary and is both extremely complex and dynamic

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Data Nuggets @datanuggets.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

Our #NSF grant, supporting a fruitful collaboration with the @cissyballen.bsky.social Lab, was terminated, along with over 1,600 others. We describe the impact of this loss in a press release here. datanuggets.org/2025/06/nsf-...

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Katrina Miller @katrinamillerphd.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

an overwhelming percentage of cuts at the NSF are to STEM education. experts see it as part of a broader attack on DEI, as well as on education as a whole. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/s...

nytimes.com

Funding Cuts Are a ‘Gut Punch’ for STEM Education Researchers

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Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 02/05/2025

Time to catch up on the past week’s news about science and medicine in the US. Whew. 1/10

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Prof Dynarski @dynarski.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

“No government—regardless of which party is in power—should dictate what private universities canteach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.”

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Paula Adams, PhD @peadams.bsky.social · 19/04/2025

My NSF postdoctoral fellowship was one of the grants terminated yesterday. Devastating is an understatement. Thankful for a supportive admin with a plan to support me for now.

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Cissy Ballen @cissyballen.bsky.social · 14/04/2025

so well deserved, congrats Liz and Melissa!!

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Data Nuggets @datanuggets.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

Undergrad biology instructors! Want to participate in a paid research study to test the impacts of highlighting scientist role models in instructional materials? We are looking for you! #edusky 🧪 See more information and apply here: docs.google.com/document/d/1... @cissyballen.bsky.social

docs.google.com

Recruitment instructors_IUSE2.docx

Which elements of scientist role model stories are effective in improving equity and success in undergraduate STEM education? Interested? Fill out this poll! We are searching for undergraduate bio...

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Cissy Ballen @cissyballen.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

Undergrad biology instructors! Paid opportunity to participate in research that tests the impacts of highlighting scientist role models in instructional materials. 🐌 🧪 🦋 🔬 Check it out and apply! docs.google.com/document/d/1...

docs.google.com

Recruitment instructors_IUSE2.docx

Which elements of scientist role model stories are effective in improving equity and success in undergraduate STEM education? Interested? Fill out this poll! We are searching for undergraduate bio...

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Cissy Ballen @cissyballen.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

Check out Costello, Hammarlund et al.! We ask how students want to be assessed, and found their preferences aligned with those known to reduce the impact of test anxiety.

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Paula Adams, PhD @peadams.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

Super proud of the Ballen Lab undergrads who presented our work today at the Auburn Reseaech Symposium! @cissyballen.bsky.social

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Dr. David Miller 🏳️‍🌈 @davidimiller.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

🧪🚨 NSF's Directorate for STEM Education (EDU) has halted making nearly all new awards since inauguration day. Among *many* other things, EDU runs the Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP). We need to protect the education & training of the next gen of scientists #StandUpForScience Thread👇🧵

Graph between 1/20 and 2/28 of fiscal year 2024 and 2025 new awards in the EDU directorate.

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Chrystal Starbird @drstarbird.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

Sharing this brave piece that echos a lot of what I have been feeling. The silence around DEI from institutions means the damage is already done. Leadership asking us to keep our heads down to prevent actual damage ignore that it’s already here for people like me. stanforddaily.com/2025/03/03/f...

stanforddaily.com

From the Community | I am more than a researcher, but Stanford doesn’t care

Assistant Professor Elliott White Jr. denounces the University's faint response to political threats against DEI, especially compared to the robust support its research initiatives in the wake of NIH ...

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Data Nuggets @datanuggets.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

When featuring scientists in the classroom, what details are most effective for students? We found sharing humanizing information, such as hobbies & interests in & out of STEM, increases student's ability to relate & in turn, engagement. datanuggets.org/2025/02/more... @cissyballen.bsky.social

datanuggets.org

More than a token photo | Data Nuggets

When asked to name scientists, students mention the likes of Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, and Isaac Newton. And when asked to draw a scientist, students almost always draw a white man holding a…

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Kelly Zamudio @kzutaustin.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

Hey All, plz repost, and share with grads, post-docs and disease folks! We are hiring a post-doc to work on mechanisms of immune responses of frog hosts to Bd infections. Deadline is February 1, 2025. Details for the position can be found at the link below. 🐸🐸🐸 zamudiolab.org/2024/12/17/p...

zamudiolab.org

Post-Doc position in the KZLab! Immune responses to pathogen infections in frogs

We are looking for an NSF-funded post-doc in our lab in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of Texas at Austin. The work will examine immune mechanisms that potentially underlie…

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Smith Bee Lab @smithbeelab.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

So excited to see BEES (and their beautiful nest) on the cover of Current Biology! @currentbiology.bsky.social This work wouldn't have been possible without a super team of researchers, and the cover wouldn't have been possible without the phenomenal Peter Marting! @aztecacecropia.bsky.social

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