RIDE Center Faculty Fellow - Jess Stephens, Ph.D.

Jess Stephens, Assistant Professor of Biology

Dr. Jessica Stephens joined the Biology Department at Westfield State University in 2020 after having taught a year before at Salve Regina University. She primarily teaches freshman/sophomore level biology courses and loves designing engaging and active course content.

jess stephens

Projects

Honors "Biology of Pregnancy" Course BIO301: "1st Trimester Facts & Misconceptions" Public Service Announcement 

  • Dr. Stephens worked alongside Dr. Robin White to engage students in an Honors Biology of Pregnancy course on how to utilize rapid prototyping equipment to create a useful PSA.
  • Students worked in pairs to design their own "PSA" on Canva software in the RIDE Center, learning what was happening developmentally with the embryo/fetus, the birthing parent, and explored common misconceptions.
  • Dr. Jarvinen trained students on how to translate their designs into vector format to be used on the Epilog Fusion Pro laser cutter. Each design and accompanying artwork was engraved onto sheets of plywood which eventually came together as a cohesive class project.

Secondary Ed STEM Project (F'24)

  • To help Secondary STEM Ed students better understand the chemical and physical structure of snowflakes, Dr. Stephens utilized the RIDE Center to design and create 2D printed water molecules.
  • Students were then asled to create their own unique snowflake structures using the Cricut Smart cutting machine. 
secondary stem ed ride

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