{"id":13250,"date":"2020-04-06T11:12:31","date_gmt":"2020-04-06T15:12:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/?p=13250"},"modified":"2022-03-21T16:19:03","modified_gmt":"2022-03-21T20:19:03","slug":"trailer-motivates-biology-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/trailer-motivates-biology-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Professor&#8217;s Creative Trailer Motivates Biology Students"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9\"><iframe title='video' class='embed-responsive-item' title=\"Vertebrate biology\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/400465392?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" \"640\" \"360\" \"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_13253\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13253\" style=\"width: 446px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-13253\" src=\"\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/04\/Santiago-Salinas-trailer-600x600.jpg\" alt=\"Santiago Salinas trailer\" width=\"446\" height=\"446\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/04\/Santiago-Salinas-trailer-600x600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/04\/Santiago-Salinas-trailer-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/04\/Santiago-Salinas-trailer-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/04\/Santiago-Salinas-trailer.jpg 1728w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 446px) 100vw, 446px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-13253\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Assistant Professor of Biology Santiago Salinas prepares dissection materials that will be sent to students participating in distance learning this term.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>When Assistant Professor of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/programs\/biology\/\">Biology<\/a> Santiago Salinas learned that Kalamazoo College would be transitioning to distance learning for the spring semester, he knew how he felt. \u201cI was bummed,\u201d said Salinas. Without meeting face-to-face in a classroom or lab, how would his students connect? How would they grasp the hands-on skills they would traditionally experience in a face-to-face classroom, like animal dissection and model work?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI needed to pump myself up for the quarter,\u201d Salinas said. Internet research yielded inspiration, and soon Salinas had created a <a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/400465392\">movie trailer<\/a> for his vertebrate biology class \u2014 complete with atmospheric soundtrack and compelling narrative voiceover.<\/p>\n<p>Salinas sent the trailer to his class. \u201cI was honest with them, as I usually am in class anyway, and I told them I was having a hard time concentrating,\u201d Salinas said. \u201cI explained that I was bummed out that we wouldn\u2019t be meeting face to face.\u201d His students responded positively, sharing that the trailer had motivated them and made them laugh. When Salinas posted the trailer to Twitter, the outside world responded similarly. That feedback and connection re-energized Salinas as he moved forward with further classroom innovations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTwitter has been great for ideas,\u201d Salinas said, describing how his search for inspiration and distance learning materials caused him to reframe his approach. He now sees himself as a curator. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of stuff out there \u2014 videos that are so much better than anything that I could put together, supplementing my slides and narration,\u201d Salinas said.<\/p>\n<p>Now, Salinas has high hopes for his vertebrate biology class. \u201cThis is forcing me to think about how I do things, and how I decide to prioritize content. Sometimes it\u2019s good to be shocked because you start to reassess things,\u201d Salinas said. \u201cFor the students, my hope is that they realize that they are not at K for the grades. I hope they recognize that they are driven intrinsically by what they are interested in, because they are, and that they do biology because they enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Salinas said that he has intentionally encouraged his students to provide feedback regarding biology-specific skills they would like to learn. When most of his students expressed interest in improving their grasp of scientific writing, Salinas quickly adjusted his assignments accordingly. \u201cMaybe this wasn\u2019t something we would cover in a normal quarter,\u201d Salinas said, \u201cBut I think it\u2019s going to make for a better course, and a better course for next year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As for Salinas\u2019 earlier worries about dissection? \u201cWell, I just finished packaging frogs, sharks, pigeons, and other critters. I will be mailing them out to our young biologists and we\u2019ll do the dissections remotely!\u201d Salinas said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; When Assistant Professor of Biology Santiago Salinas learned that Kalamazoo College would be transitioning to distance learning for the spring semester, he knew how he felt. \u201cI was bummed,\u201d said Salinas. Without meeting face-to-face in a classroom or lab, how would his students connect? How would they grasp the hands-on skills they would traditionally [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":230,"featured_media":13259,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[233],"tags":[52,39],"post_formats":[],"class_list":["post-13250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-staff","tag-biology","tag-faculty"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>Trailer Motivates Vertebrate Biology Students - News and Events<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Internet research yielded inspiration, leading Assistant Professor of Biology Santiago Salinas to create a movie trailer for his vertebrate biology class.\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/trailer-motivates-biology-students\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Professor&#039;s Creative Trailer Motivates Biology Students\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Internet research yielded inspiration, leading Assistant Professor of Biology Santiago Salinas to create a movie trailer for his vertebrate biology class.\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/trailer-motivates-biology-students\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News and Events\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/KalamazooCollege\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-04-06T15:12:31+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-03-21T20:19:03+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/04\/Santiago-Salinas-trailer-fb.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1728\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"898\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lauren Tompkins\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Professor&#039;s Creative Trailer Motivates Biology Students\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@kcollege\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@kcollege\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lauren Tompkins\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/trailer-motivates-biology-students\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/trailer-motivates-biology-students\/\",\"name\":\"Trailer Motivates Vertebrate Biology Students - 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Staff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/category\/faculty-staff\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Faculty &amp; Staff<\/a>","tags_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/tag\/biology\/\" rel=\"tag\">biology<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/tag\/faculty\/\" rel=\"tag\">faculty<\/a>","social_share_info":"<a data-share=\"facebook\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/trailer-motivates-biology-students\/\" class=\"pl-facebook-share social-share-default pl-social-share\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fab fa-facebook-f\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/a><a data-share=\"twitter\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/trailer-motivates-biology-students\/\" class=\"pl-twiiter-share social-share-default pl-social-share\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fab fa-twitter\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/a><a data-share=\"linkedin\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/shareArticle?url=https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/trailer-motivates-biology-students\/\" class=\"pl-linkedin-share social-share-default pl-social-share\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fab fa-linkedin-in\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/a>","wordExcerpt_info":"\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_13253\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13253\" style=\"width: 446px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-13253\" src=\"\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/04\/Santiago-Salinas-trailer-600x600.jpg\" alt=\"Santiago Salinas trailer\" width=\"446\" height=\"446\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-13253\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Assistant Professor of Biology Santiago Salinas prepares dissection materials that will be sent to students participating in distance learning this term.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>When Assistant Professor of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/programs\/biology\/\">Biology<\/a> Santiago Salinas learned that Kalamazoo College would be transitioning to distance learning for the spring semester, he knew how he felt. \u201cI was bummed,\u201d said Salinas. Without meeting face-to-face in a classroom or lab, how would his students connect? How would they grasp the hands-on skills they would traditionally experience in a face-to-face classroom, like animal dissection and model work?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI needed to pump myself up for the quarter,\u201d Salinas said. Internet research yielded inspiration, and soon Salinas had created a <a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/400465392\">movie trailer<\/a> for his vertebrate biology class \u2014 complete with atmospheric soundtrack and compelling narrative voiceover.<\/p>\n<p>Salinas sent the trailer to his class. \u201cI was honest with them, as I usually am in class anyway, and I told them I was having a hard time concentrating,\u201d Salinas said. \u201cI explained that I was bummed out that we wouldn\u2019t be meeting face to face.\u201d His students responded positively, sharing that the trailer had motivated them and made them laugh. When Salinas posted the trailer to Twitter, the outside world responded similarly. That feedback and connection re-energized Salinas as he moved forward with further classroom innovations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTwitter has been great for ideas,\u201d Salinas said, describing how his search for inspiration and distance learning materials caused him to reframe his approach. He now sees himself as a curator. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of stuff out there \u2014 videos that are so much better than anything that I could put together, supplementing my slides and narration,\u201d Salinas said.<\/p>\n<p>Now, Salinas has high hopes for his vertebrate biology class. \u201cThis is forcing me to think about how I do things, and how I decide to prioritize content. Sometimes it\u2019s good to be shocked because you start to reassess things,\u201d Salinas said. \u201cFor the students, my hope is that they realize that they are not at K for the grades. I hope they recognize that they are driven intrinsically by what they are interested in, because they are, and that they do biology because they enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Salinas said that he has intentionally encouraged his students to provide feedback regarding biology-specific skills they would like to learn. When most of his students expressed interest in improving their grasp of scientific writing, Salinas quickly adjusted his assignments accordingly. \u201cMaybe this wasn\u2019t something we would cover in a normal quarter,\u201d Salinas said, \u201cBut I think it\u2019s going to make for a better course, and a better course for next year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As for Salinas\u2019 earlier worries about dissection? \u201cWell, I just finished packaging frogs, sharks, pigeons, and other critters. I will be mailing them out to our young biologists and we\u2019ll do the dissections remotely!\u201d Salinas said.<\/p>\n","comment_info":"No Comments","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/230"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13250"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13262,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13250\/revisions\/13262"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13250"},{"taxonomy":"post_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_formats?post=13250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}