Scaffolding Conceptually Driven Genomics Education

概念驱动的基因组学教育支架

• 批准号: 0837375
• 负责人: Susan Singer
• 金额: $ 15万
• 依托单位: Carleton College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-12-15 至 2011-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0837375&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Scaffolding; Conceptually; Driven; Genomics; Education

Engaging undergraduate students in authentic research in the classroom can enhance development of scientific thinking. However, in a teaching laboratory with 20 or more students, a limiting factor in student success with open-ended research problems is instructor availability for real time, individualized scaffolding (guiding students to higher-level thinking and complex problem solving related to the student's research problem). This project is testing the hypothesis that by moderately scaffolding the student research process a carefully designed web interface tool, the "Exploring Genomics in Context Interface" (EGCI), can support classroom instruction and facilitate authentic research in genomics with only a modicum of faculty input. The EGCI provides an iterative way for students to choose strategies for asking and addressing biologically interesting questions using a range of genomics tools. It is designed to help students develop the ability to: 1) define biologically interesting questions that can be addressed with data, 2) relate a gene to biological function, 3) analyze data including the aspect of quality, 4) develop a literature-based understanding of important quantitative approaches, and 5) test thoroughly a viable hypothesis by bringing together the literature, classroom knowledge, and analysis of data. The project's specific research objectives are to: 1. determine how undergraduate students' scientific thinking skills are enhanced by an authentic research experience in the context of a course; 2. analyze the role of scaffolding in supporting student research success; and 3. identify generalizable components for computer-based scaffolding of open-ended research. These are being explored using a mixed-methods research approach to collect data that characterizes: 1) the skill level of individual students prior to the course, developed through the course prior to the specific assignment, and following the assignment, 2) student behavior during the assignment (including structured observations; student reflections; and analysis of EGCI webmetrics), and 3) the scaffolding accomplished by the faculty member (including structured observations and reflection by the faculty members). Intellectual Merit: Genomics education is an ideal platform on which to initiate this work because genomics, an important frontier in modern science, provides the opportunity for students to work with large datasets; and allows scaffolding of biological questions at multiple levels of organization. Chamaecrista (partridge pea) and Aiptasia (model for symbiotic corals), the organisms selected for this initial work, are ideal test subjects because they are threatened by global climate change and evolution, are scientifically important, and, most important for an undergraduate project, have readily available gene sequences and appropriate supporting analysis tools. Broader Impacts: Identifying general elements of scaffolding software that support authentic student research at scale increases opportunities for undergraduates at many institutions to develop higher order, scientific thinking skills, meeting a national need. All curricular material, assessment tools, and editable forms of the EGCI are being made freely available for adoption on the Teaching Genomics website. The work is being conducted at two different institutions - one that integrates genomics throughout the curriculum (Carleton) and one with distinct genomics and bioinformatics courses (Vassar), thus broadening the applicability of the efforts to other institutions.

吸引本科生从事教室的真实研究可以增强科学思维的发展。但是，在拥有20个或更多学生的教学实验室中，开放式研究问题的学生成功的一个限制因素是实时的讲师可用性，个性化的脚手架（指导学生去高级思维和与学生的研究问题有关的复杂问题解决）。该项目正在检验以下假设：通过适度脚手架学生研究过程，精心设计的Web界面工具“探索上下文接口中的基因组学”（EGCI）可以支持课堂教学，并促进具有教师输入模式的基因组学研究。 EGCI为学生提供了一种迭代方式，可以选择使用一系列基因组学工具来询问和解决生物学上有趣的问题的策略。它旨在帮助学生发展以下能力：1）定义可以通过数据解决的生物学有趣的问题，2）将基因与生物功能联系起来，3）分析数据，包括质量方面，4）对基于文献进行重要的定量方法的理解，以及5）5）通过将文献，课堂知识和数据分析结合在一起，对可行的假设进行彻底检验。该项目的具体研究目标是：1。确定本科生的科学思维能力如何通过课程背景下的真实研究经验增强； 2。分析脚手架在支持学生研究成功方面的作用；和3。确定用于开放式研究的基于计算机的脚手架的可推广组件。 正在使用混合方法研究方法来探索这些方法，以收集以下特征的数据：1）课程前的学生技能水平，在特定作业之前通过课程开发，并在作业之前通过课程开发，2）学生的行为，2）分配过程中的学生行为（包括结构化的观察结果；包括学生的反思；通过EGCI Webmetrics的分析，以及范围的成员（包括型号）（涵盖型号）（3），以及3）（3）的结构（3），以及3）（3）的结构（3）。成员）。智力优点：基因组学教育是一个理想的平台，可以在其上启动这项工作，因为基因组学是现代科学的重要边界，为学生提供了与大型数据集合作的机会。并允许在多个组织中脚手架生物学问题。 Chamaecrista（Partridge Pea）和Aiptasia（共生珊瑚的模型），为这项初始工作选择的生物是理想的测试对象，因为它们受到全球气候变化和进化的威胁，对学科非常重要，并且对本科生非常重要，并且具有易于可用的基因序列和适当的支持分析工具。更广泛的影响：确定支持真实学生研究的脚手架软件的一般要素增加了许多机构在许多机构发展高级，科学思维技能的机会，并满足国家需求。 EGCI的所有课程材料，评估工具和可编辑的形式都可以在教学基因组网站上自由使用。 这项工作是在两个不同的机构进行的，该机构在整个课程（Carleton）中整合了基因组学，一项与独特的基因组学和生物信息学课程（Vassar）进行了研究，从而扩大了努力对其他机构的适用性。