Ashley Heim

Contact Information

Ashley Heim is a Ph.D. candidate at UNC and is earning her degree in Biological Education. Broadly, her dissertation research is based on how to engage undergraduates in learning science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Specifically, she studies: the learner-centeredness among students, instructors and experts including how syllabi and classroom sound influence the learner-centeredness of the classroom as well as how undergraduates learn in informal learning environments, such as zoos.

Heim wants to better understand how informal learning experiences influence students' motivation to learn biology, goal-setting behaviors, academic performance and general cognition. At UNC, she has instructed various biology labs ( Survey of Organismal Biology, Principles of Biology), lectures (Survey of Organismal Biology, Exploring Biology for non-majors), and an upper-division pedagogical course (Introductory Biology Curriculum and Instruction).

Topics

Biological education

Informal/free-choice learning of biology undergrads