Beth Furqueron (she/her)
Instructor of Biological Sciences
I received my bachelor's degree in secondary science education, as I had aspired to
become a high-school biology teacher. After teaching for a year, I realized that I
was not enjoying how I was teaching, and my students were not enjoying how they were
learning. I realized that I was teaching in the same way I was taught science (i.e.,
very fact-based with lots of lecturing). I did not know how to engage my students
with the material in the way they needed to be in order to learn and retain the scientific
knowledge and skills, as I simply was never taught science content in this way. I
was fortunate to find an advisor at Central Michigan University who was researching
how to train pre-service science teachers to teach in diverse evidence-based, active-learning
styles. My masters work at CMU was about designing a flipped science classroom, explicitly
for pre-service science teachers, so that these students learned content outside of
the class and applied their knowledge of science and pedagogy in-class to design NGSS-aligned
lesson plans. Post-master's work, I arrived at Michigan State and completed my PHD
in the Plant Biology Department in discipline-based education research. Specifically,
I measured student's motivation for, and cognitive engagement in, model-based learning
in biology.
My passion lies within how students are learning biology - particularly in how they are learning through scientific practices, such as modeling. My graduate research includes how students are cognitively engaged in, and motivated for, model-based learning in biology. Currently, I am in a new role as an instructor for BS162, and am enjoying having a role in redesigning materials and curriculum for the course. My favorite part of my job is when my students experience success after challenges and feel proud of themselves.
Outside of my BioSci family, I have a husband, two young boys, and roughly 20 chickens that keep me very busy! We are active in sports and any outdoor-related activity, such as hiking, gardening, and spending time on the lake.