Becky Talyn
Contact
Bio
Becky Talyn, Ph.D. is a lecturer for the College of Natural Sciences and the Department of Biology at California State University, San Bernardino. Her research group studies the toxicity of and exposure to agricultural herbicides in humans, livestock, and especially model organisms, focusing genetic and biochemical mechanisms related to lifespan, reproduction, and social justice. Mentoring undergraduate research students by enculturating them into science and academia is an important component of this work. With a collaborator, they are currently conducting research about the role of Sense of Belonging on first-year student engagement and success in general education STEM courses, in a context where the majority of our students are from underrepresented, minoritized groups and are first generation college students. The focus is on courses that meet the Freshman/Foundation Seminar requirement. Another collaborative research project in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning explores the role of creativity, self-efficacy, and curiosity in STEM education. Since moving to CSUSB in 2002, most of her teaching is in General Education and teaching science to non-science majors, with an emphasis on environmental science, science and society, and basic scientific literacy. Dr. Talyn has worked with the ISSUES-X team to facilitate faculty learning communities, including STEM I (for lecturers teaching in STEM), large lecture, online teaching, culturally responsive teaching, and scholarship of teaching and learning Faculty Learning Communities.
Education
2002-2004, Postdoc, University of California, Riverside, 50% time. Focus in Behavioral Ecology, Drosophila behavior, reproduction & genetics.
2000-2001, Postdoc, DePauw University, Indiana, full time during summers. Focus on Behavioral Ecology, treefrog reproductive behavior & development.
1993-2000, Ph.D. in Biology, University of Maine, Orono. Focus in Behavioral Ecology, Drosophila behavior, reproduction & genetics.
1991-1993, BA in Creative Studies, Biology concentration, University of California, Santa Barbara.
1989-1991, Castleton State College, VT, Psychology major.
Courses/Teaching
Most often teach:
- HUM 3100/3150, Junior Honors Seminar in Science and Humanities; Science, Technology and Society
- NSCI 3250, Perspectives on Gender (co-taught with CAL 3250 and SSCI 3250)
- NSCI 1200, Foundations Seminar in Science, Environmental Sustainability and Social Responsibility
- BIOL , Sustainable Agriculture
Other courses taught:
General Education (lecture only unless specified otherwise) – Anatomy & Physiology, Human Biology w/ lab, Human Sexuality, Wild Color intensive lab, Concepts in biology: sex and gender, Human Reproduction and Sexual Behavior, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Genetics & Society, Science & Technology, Environment and Human Survival (now Human Ecology), Single subject teacher supervision.
Biology – Introductory Biology lab, General Zoology lecture & lab, Anatomy & Physiology lab, Comparative Anatomy lab, Vertebrate Anatomy lab, Cell Biology and Physiology lab, Genetics lecture & lab, Behavioral Ecology lecture & lab, Sex and Gender: A Biological Perspective lecture & lab, Human Sexuality lecture, Field Ecology lab, Disciplinary Writing in Natural Science, Senior Capstone in Biology, Directed Study in Biology, Independent Study in Chemistry & Biochemistry, Directed Research in Biology.
Specialization
Mentoring undergraduate research students:
Both my favorite part of my job and one at which I excel, mentoring to me is about engaging and working with the students first, and with their projects in the context of their development. While I certainly maintain high standards for the quality of results we publish, I also work to enculturate students into science by encouraging them to ask questions, take ownership of their work, and collaborate with members of the research team. We have weekly lab meetings at which we discuss research articles we have recently read; troubleshoot experiments and share results; discuss internal grant proposals, regional conference abstracts and other opportunities; practice presentations and discuss conference expectations; and plan jointly-authored publications. Since many of our students are first-generation college students and often from minoritized groups, mentoring students here often involves answering questions and addressing topics one might not expect at other institutions. At the same time, when given the right balance of support and independence, our students thrive and make important scientific contributions, not just while at CSUSB, but throughout their careers. Thus far, I have mentored 32 undergraduate students, including 25 women; 9 Latinx, 2 African-American, 4 Asian-American. Three of these won the CSUSB Student Research Competition in 2018. I am pleased to have maintained collegial relationships with many of my former research students. Among those, one has completed a Ph.D., one is attending medical school, two are applying for medical school this year, one is working at Stanford University, and two will be applying for graduate school in 2023.
- Roddam N, Winston K, Talyn B, Melchiorre E. What ingredients are contributing to the toxicity of glyphosate-based herbicides?. 63rd Annual Drosophila Research Conference; 2022 April; San Diego, CA, United States.
- Herrera K, Talyn B, Melchiorre E. Localization of Accumulation of Glyphosate, an agricultural herbicide, within the body of D. melanogaster, a non-targetanimal. Society of Toxicology; 2020 June; Anaheim, CA, United States.
- Santos M, Melchiorre E, Talyn B. Multigenerational Effects of Glyphosate on Drosophila melanogaster. Association for Environmental Science and Studies; 2019 July; Orlando, FL, United States of America.
- Elias R, Muller K, Hernandez M, Badoella M, Talyn B. Effects of glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup on Drosophila melanogaster. California State University System-wide Student Research Competition; 2018 May; Sacramento, CA, United States.
Research and Teaching Interests
Research Interests:
My research career began in 1993, elucidating the functional components of courtship song in Drosophila. This work has been well cited, with Talyn & Dowse 2004 having nearly 80 citations and continuing to be cited regularly, almost 20 years later. Continuing to study functional components of auditory signaling used in courtship, my work moved up the food chain, utilizing gray treefrogs, and expanded to also investigate habitat choice for breeding and whether water quality contributed to that choice. Once my children were born, I decided to put my research on hold, and only returned to it about 10 years later, in 2016.
Herbicide Toxicity.
Research in agricultural toxicology, elucidating the toxic effects of glyphosate-based herbicides (GBHs) in Drosophila. Because of this work, I received the Anthony and Lois Evans Faculty Development Award in 2019. We have identified that Roundup and other GBGs affect mortality, feeding behavior, reproductive output, ovary size, and activity. We are currently exploring the relationship between endocrine regulation of reproduction and reproductive toxicity, localization of glyphosate accumulation within the body, and the genetic basis underlying susceptibility to GBH toxicity in this model animal system. When my children were born, I stopped doing research for about 10 years. The project described here, started in 2016 when I decided to return to research activities, differed considerably from my previous research addressing sexual selection primarily via auditory signaling. So far this current project has resulted in 3 peer-reviewed journal articles, 19 posters presented at conferences, and 9 oral conference presentations co-authored with undergraduate student researchers plus two conference posters co-authored with a high school student. There are currently 7 undergraduate researchers in my lab group conducting projects addressing these questions.
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
I and my collaborator are currently conducting research about the role of Sense of Belonging on first-year student engagement and success in general education STEM courses, in a context where the majority of our students are from underrepresented, minoritized groups and are first generation college students. The focus is on courses that meet the Freshman/Foundation Seminar requirement. The project was motivated by our observation of unprecedented student disengagement and self-reported anxiety and depression among first-year students in two sections of this course that I taught. We are currently administering surveys to identify sources of disengagement and to determine to what extent this is an equity issue. We expect to also learn about the role of belonging among students in a majority URM context, where even in most STEM courses, URM and female students will see other students like them. We are also investigating the role of creativity in mathematics education, and in the process of expanding this to examine the role of creativity, creative self-efficacy, curiosity and belonging in STEM education. This expansion will begin in the 2023-24 academic year. However, the current project has elucidated relationships
between gender, creative self-efficacy and course grades, and we currently have data that will allow us to look for more complex interactions between student identity, perceptions of math creativity, and course outcomes.
Teaching Interests:
At its best, University education enculturates students into academic communities, including disciplinary ways of thinking, knowing and doing. This process requires engaging with students to solve meaningful problems, create knowledge, and discuss ideas to practice disciplinary communication and for metacognitive reflection. From GE to majors courses and senior research projects, learning how knowledge is created and what assumptions are implicit within disciplines are skills particularly applicable to students’ lives, building understanding of the human nature of scientific inquiry and introducing the multi-directional relationship between science, personal decision-making, and the creative coexistence of nature and humanity. I apply these ideas with introductory, GE, and advanced undergraduates, ranging from one-on-one work with research students to classes with nearly 300 students.
Recent publications:
Elias, R., Talyn, B.1, Melchiorre, E.* (2021). Dietary Behavior of Drosophila melanogaster Fed with Genetically-Modified Corn or Roundup®. J. Xenobiot., 11(4), 215–227.
Talyn, B., Callori, S. J.*, Cerwin, K.*, Chao, M., Cousins, K. R.*, Hood, C.*, McGill, S. F.*, Metcalf, A. E. & Woodney, L.* (2021). Faculty Learning Communities Facilitated the Rapid Pivot to Online Teaching and Learning Breadcrumb. Journal of College Science Teaching, 51(1).
Muller, K.*, Herrera, K.*, Talyn, B.1, & Melchiorre, E*. (2021). Toxicological Effects of Roundup® on Drosophila melanogaster Reproduction. Toxics, 9(7), 161.
Talyn, B.1, Lemon, R., Badoella, M., Melchiorre, D., Villalobos, M., Elias, R., Muller, K.*, Santos, M., & Melchiorre, E.* (2019). Roundup exposure, but not unsprayed Roundup-ready corn, increases mortality of Drosophila melanogaster. Toxics, 7, 1-28.
Melchiorre, E. B.*, Sickman, J. O.*, Talyn, B. C., & Noblet, J.* (2018). Isotope stratigraphy: Insights on paleoclimate and formation of nitrate deposits in the Atacama Desert, Chile. Journal of Arid Environments, 148, 45-53.