We are excited to announce a new lab publication in PLOS ONE! We explored student perceptions of instructor use of humor in science classrooms and found that 99% of students appreciate instructor use of humor! But - it matters what topics the instructor jokes about! Men were more likely to think that certain topics were funny and women were more likely to think that certain topics were offensive.
The extra excitement about this paper is that it was done as part of a biology education research CURE! 16 undergraduates and graduate students signed up for a class to learn more about biology education research and a little over a year later, they are now all co-authors on the publication! Congrats to the whole team, particularly Katey Cooper who led the effort and Taija Hendrix, Jacquie Cala, and Michelle Stephens who put in extra work on the project after the class ended!
This work has been featured in an ASU NOW news article, an Inside Higher Ed article, Times Higher Education, ASU State Press, and on phys.org and science daily.