Research


My research covers topics such as: 



This word cloud is generated from my dissertation!

Visual literacy in molecular biology

There are many different ways that we represent DNA in molecular biology. These representations are categorized on the DNA Landscape. I am using the DNA Landscape to study how students are using their visual literacy skills to interpret representations of DNA in ways that reveal  misunderstandings of DNA structure and function. 


Hear me talk about my work on visual literacy in biology in this short documentary about STEM Education Research at RIT. 

This documentary was created by the talented undergraduate student Jupiter Chen. 

Testing scientific practices in undergraduate biology courses

Scientific practices are the skills used to develop scientific knowledge and are essential for careers in science. We want biology students to use scientific practices in order to develop as scientists, yet we rarely assess scientific practices on biology exams! Read more about my new research in CBE-Life Sciences Education or watch the video below for a quick summary of this work.

Examining the effects of administration stakes and settings on concept assessment scores

Concept assessments are instruments developed by educational researchers to measure student understanding of core biology concepts. These assessments can be administered under graded high-stakes or ungraded low-stakes conditions and students can take the assessment during class time or in an out-of-class setting. The stakes and settings in which students complete the assessment may affect their motivation and may invalidate scores in different ways. This research sought to determine the effect of different stakes and settings on concept assessment scores and aimed to provide instructors with recommendations for how to administer concept assessments in their courses. 

Understanding and addressing the effects of test-taking motivation in low-stakes program assessments

Ungraded, low-stakes administration conditions have the potential to elicit low test-taking motivation in students. Test-taking motivation can be measured through self-reported measures, the amount of time spent on the entire test, and the amount of rapid-selection behavior used. While most students provided adequate levels of motivated behavior on the General Biology–Measuring Achievement and Progression in Science (GenBio-MAPS) assessment, some students did not, and we provide recommendations for identifying and filtering out data from students with low test-taking motivation so that the filtered data set better represents student understanding. 

Mentored Research Projects

Karli Workman

Workman, K., Uminski, C., & Couch, B. A. What introductory biology faculty report about teaching practices does not always align with grade weight in their syllabi.  School of Biological Sciences Undergraduate Research Symposium. April 12, 2022. University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Poster presentation.

Sara Burbach

Uminski, C., Burbach, S. M., & Couch, B. A. (2024). Undergraduate biology lecture courses predominantly test facts about science rather than scientific practices. CBE – Life Sciences Education, 23 (2), ar19. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.23-12-0244

Shreya Sujith and Aneesh Nallani

Sujith, S., Nallani, A., Uminski, C., Newman, D. L., & Wright, L. K. Investigating student conceptions of ATP hydrolysis. Georgia Gosnell Seminar Series. April 24, 2024. Rochester Institute of Technology. Short talk presentation.

Nallani, A., Sujith, S., Yang, M., Armpriest, B., Uminski, C., Newman, D. L., & Wright, L. K. Investigating student conceptions of ATP hydrolysis. SABER East. May 31, 2024. Rochester Institute of Technology. Poster presentation.

Kerstyn Gay

Gay, K., Uminski, C., Newman, D. L., & Wright, L. K. DNA Landscape: An interactive webpage. ImagineRIT. April 27, 2024. Rochester Institute of Technology. Poster presentation.

Siddharth Menon

Menon, S., Chen, J., Chrisbacher, K., Uminski, C., Newman, D. L., & Wright, L. K. Twisted Ladder: A game to learn about DNA representations. ImagineRIT. April 27, 2024. Rochester Institute of Technology. Poster presentation.

NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates cohort

Noah Courtney, Annabelle Li, Meredith Michetti, Tecora Tisdale

 Courtney, N., Uminski, C., Couch, B. A., Newman, D. L., & Wright, L. K. Looking deeper: Examining the use of DNA representations on biology exams.  RIT Undergraduate Research Symposium. August 1, 2024. Rochester Institute of Technology. Short talk presentation.

Li, A., Cammarota, C., Uminski, C., Newman, D. L., & Wright, L. K. Probing students’ understanding of genetics using a card-choosing task. RIT Undergraduate Research Symposium. August 1, 2024. Rochester Institute of Technology. Short talk presentation.

Michetti, M., Cammarota, C., Uminski, C., Newman, D. L., & Wright, L. K. Students struggle to connect genetics concepts: Punnett squares are deceptively simple. RIT Undergraduate Research Symposium. August 1, 2024. Rochester Institute of Technology. Short talk presentation. 

 Tisdale, T., Uminski, C., Cammarota, C., Osterhage, O., Newman, D. L., & Wright, L. K. A characterization of biology students’ drawings for exam preparation. RIT Undergraduate Research Symposium. August 1, 2024. Rochester Institute of Technology. Short talk presentation.

My very helpful research partner.