Research

The learning process is fundamentally different for students at the college level compared to their K–12 experiences. The deepest, most lasting learning occurs when students and faculty work together as colleagues to develop both content knowledge and the thinking skills needed to apply that knowledge. Effective teachers know (either implicitly or explicitly) how students learn, and use that information to create a classroom environment in which all students can achieve significant learning gains. My scholarly work centers on identifying research–validated teaching methods that foster such deep learning, and developing practical strategies for incorporating them into college teaching. Currently I have 3 major areas of professional activity:

Selected Publications

Johnson AD. 2007. Using Chlamydomonas For Signal Transduction Experiments. Proceedings of the 28th Conference of the Association for Biology Laboratory Education, 28: 309–310.

Johnson AD. 2006. Resource Allocation in Plants. Proceedings of the 27th Conference of the Association for Biology Laboratory Education, 27: 15–30.

Johnson AD. 2005. Amanda’s Absence: Should Vioxx Be Kept Off the Market? National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science. Http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/projects/cases/ubcase.htm

Johnson AD, Kron K. 2005. Morphological and Molecular Methods for Creating Phylogenetic Trees. Proceedings of the 26th Conference of the Association for Biology Laboratory Education, 26: 121–154.

Moretz CM, Awkerman J, Thorington K. Johnson AD. 2005. Building an Ecosystem with a Semester–Long Lab Writing Project. Proceedings of the 26th Conference of the Association for Biology Laboratory Education,  26: 406–409.

 Johnson AD. 2004. Molds as Model Organisms for Undergraduate Structured Inquiry Labs. Proceedings of the 25th Conference of the Association for Biology Laboratory Education, 25: 328–333.

Johnson AD. 2003. Do You Have a 10 Liter Bladder? Visually Reinforcing Understanding of Nephron Functions. Journal of College Science Teaching, 33: 52–53.

Kumar MS, Hendrix JA, Johnson AD, Owens GK. 2003. Smooth Muscle Alpha–Actin Gene Requires Two E–Boxes for Proper Expression In Vivo and Is a Target of Class I Basic Helix–Loop–Helix Proteins. Circulation Research, 92: 840–850.

Jung, F, Johnson AD, Kumar, MS, Wei, B, Hautmann, M, Owens, GK, and McNamara, C. 1999. Characterization of E-box-Dependent cis-Element in the Smooth Muscle Alpha Actin Promoter. Arterioscler. Thromb. Vasc. Biol., 19:2591-2599.

Johnson, AD, and Owens, GK. 1999. Activation of Smooth Muscle Alpha Actin Transcription in Smooth Muscle Cells by Binding of Upstream Stimulatory Factor to an E-Box Element. American Journal of Physiology, 276 (Cell Physiol. 45): C1420-C1431.