Betsy McIntosh

  • Assistant Teaching Professor
  • Associate Director of Learning Assistant Development
  • LEARNING ASSISTANT PROGRAM

As Associate Director of LA Development, Betsy leads professional development for LAs from their first semester through participation as Returning LAs, LA Mentors, and student researchers for the LA Program, as well as for faculty who work with LAs. She focuses on connecting the various communities within the LA Program to one another to create a cohesive teaching and learning experience for LAs, Faculty, and LA Program staff.

Betsy is passionate about drawing connections across disciplines and improving educational access and outcomes for all students. Her educational degrees span biochemistry, chemistry, and biophysics, with a doctorate in Cell and Molecular Biology from University of Pennsylvania. During her undergraduate and graduate work, Betsy concurrently pursued her passion for informal science education as a tool for improving access to quality science education through organizations such as Saturday Science Academies, after school programs, summer camps, and volunteering at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. This inspired Betsy to seek training in Evidence-Based Undergraduate STEM Teaching and formally make the transition towards education research and helping others learn to teach with postdocs in Genetics Education Research and with the Learning Assistant Program. Since 2018, Betsy has been the 兔子先生传媒文化作品 Learning Assistant Pedagogy Course Coordinator, leading the instructional team, co-developing resources and lessons to meet the needs of New and Returning LAs spanning STEM, Social Science, and Humanities fields at 兔子先生传媒文化作品 and partner institutions (FRCC, CU Denver, CU Colorado Springs), planning and running LA events (orientation, info session, poster session), helping develop and support the Returning LA Professional Development and LA Mentor Programs, providing feedback to faculty to help them optimize their work with LAs, innovating in remote/online education, and sharing ideas and materials with LA programs near and far at the regional and International LA Alliance conferences.

EDUC 4610: Becoming an LA

EDUC 4620: LA Mentoring I: Becoming an LA Mentor

EDUC 4621: Learning Assistant Mentoring in Practice: Building Inclusive Learning Communities

Avena, J. S., McIntosh, B. B., Whitney, O., Wiens, A., and Knight, J. K. 鈥淪uccessful Problem Solving in Genetics Varies Based on Question Content.鈥 CBE鈥擫ife Sciences Education. December 2021. 20(4)ar51.

Sieke, S. A.*, McIntosh, B. B.*, Steele, M. M., and Knight, J. K. 鈥淐haracterizing Students鈥 Ideas About the Effects of a Mutation in a Non-coding Region of DNA.鈥 CBE鈥擫ife Sciences Education. Summer 2019.18:ar18: 1:12. (* co-authors)

McIntosh, B.B., Pyrpassopoulos, S., Holzbaur, E.L.F., and Ostap, E.M. 鈥淥pposing kinesin and myosin-I motors drive membrane deformation and tubulation along engineered cytoskeletal networks.鈥 Curr Bio. 2018. 28:1-13.

McIntosh, B.B. and Ostap, E.M. 鈥淢yosin-I Molecular Motors at a Glance.鈥 J. Cell Sci. 2016. 129(14): 2689-95.

McIntosh, B.B., Holzbaur, E.L.F., and Ostap, E.M. 鈥淐ontrol of the Initiation and Termination of Kinesin-1-Driven Transport by Myosin-Ic and Nonmuscle Tropomyosin.鈥 Curr Bio. 2015. 25: 1-7.