Fostering student well-being in the sciences.
The majority of doctors, veterinarians, and health practitioners globally majored in biology. However, current biology curricula are rarely optimized for building creative, compassionate health professionals. Here, we use rigorous research to improve undergraduate experiences in biology, in order to build a better generation of health practitioners.
Who is CORPUS Education?
The CORPUS Education Lab stands for “Collaborative Opportunities for Research in Physiology and Under/Graduate Science.” In our lab, we study the impacts of academic conditions on student mental health, train instructors to become aware of that impact, and design courses that center and promote wellbeing as an integral part of learning.
The CORPUS Education Lab engages in collaborative research to iteratively transform how and what we teach–in science courses more broadly and in biology/physiology more specifically. Our scholarship aims to be Transdisciplinary, Embodied, Empathic, and Expansive.
Empathetic
We learn by feeling – we study the “ability to sense, feel, and understand another's emotions” as an essential skill for interacting with patients and clients in medical fields (Patel et al., 2019).
Embodied
We learn by doing – our scholarship considers the ways we “explore and describe how human bodies mediate the experiences of everyday life” (Kelly et al., 2019).
Expansive
We learn by unlearning – we aim to expand students’ possible selves, or “ideas of what they might become, what they would like to become” by challenging long-standing stereotypes about the types of people that do science (Schinske et al., 2016).
Transdisciplinary
We learn by collaborating – our lab has ongoing projects with a range of departments and centers in the humanities, social sciences, biomedical education, and engineering.
Through opportunities for scholarly collaborations, invited talks, and custom workshops, the CORPUS Education team is shaping how scientists teach, do research, and conduct service to promote a more equitable society.
