Jennifer L Breckler

At SF State Since: 

Bio: 

Jennifer received her bachelor's degree from UC Berkeley in physiology, where she did an honors thesis including lab research on mRNA synthesis in neurons, and membrane fragility in sickle cell anemia. Her doctoral degree (PhD) is from UCLA School of Medicine, Dept. Physiology, for her thesis on the effects of nerve cross-innervation on fast and slow muscle physiology and biochemistry. She did her postdoctoral research at California Institute of Technology (CalTech) in Pasadena, California, on the formation of sarcomeres, and discovered a new intermediate filament protein called paranemin. The project was funded by an American Heart Association fellowship.

As a faculty member at SFSU, she mentored graduate and undergraduate students in research projects on the role of myosins in retinal pigment epithelia, funded by NIH and NSF. She had collaborative projects at UC Berkeley in Beth Burnside's lab, Dept. Molecular/Cell Biology. Since 2001, her research focus has been science education. She publishes articles on science student learning styles, career choice and hands-on kinesthetic learning. She teaches courses in human physiology, introductory biology and histology. She also created brand new courses in Cardiorespiratory Physiology and Pharmacology. She is the Campus Teaching Coordinator for the NIH-IRACDA postdoctoral teaching fellowship program with UCSF/SFSU. She enjoys hiking, classical music and french literature.

Recent publications:

Breckler J, Christensen T, W Sun "Using a physics experiment in a lecture setting to engage biology students with the concepts of Poiseuille's Law", CBE-Life Sciences Education 12:262-273, 2013

Breckler J, Teoh, C and Role K “Academic performance and learning style self-predictions by second language students in an introductory biology course.” J. of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 11(4):26-43, 2011.

Breckler J and Yu J “Student responses to a hands-on kinesthetic lecture activity for learning about the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood” Advances in Physiology Education 35:39-47, 2011