Collaborative Research: Institutional and Community Transformation for Teaching and Learning Quantitative Reasoning in the Biological Sciences

合作研究：生物科学定量推理教学的机构和社区转型

• 批准号: 1821179
• 负责人: Lance Bowen
• 金额: $ 25万
• 依托单位: Anne Arundel Community College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-10-01 至 2023-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1821179&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Institutional; Community; Transformation

Quantitative reasoning (QR) involves the use of mathematical skills, such as algebra and statistical analysis, to understand and interpret data. The field of biology has become increasingly reliant on the use of quantitative reasoning to interpret large datasets, such as those gathered in genomic analysis and population studies. This project is designed to improve quantitative reasoning skills in students at community colleges preparing to transfer into biology majors at four-year institutions. These students are often underprepared to successfully complete biology majors and to continue to graduate education or to enter the STEM workforce. To achieve long-term gains in students' abilities to apply QR in biological contexts, this proposal seeks to leverage a university/community college partnership to expand and deepen the QR content in core biology courses across the major. The program aspires to provide a model for how consortia of community colleges and universities can facilitate course awareness and alignment to improve student gains in QR. This project will test the hypothesis that this type of collaboration enhances pedagogy and transfer student success at four-year institutions. Further, repeated interaction with QR modules within the core biology curricula are hypothesized to positively impact the success of all students in upper-level coursework. These efforts are designed to strengthen the course performance measures of all students, including both direct entry and transfer students. Improving student success and retention in STEM majors such as biology supports the goal of improving access of all students to scientific and technical careers.The focus of the project will be on enhancing the QR skills of undergraduates through the creation of active learning modules focused on quantitative skill development, verified with validated assessment instruments. Three scholarly communities will be established: 1) a Curricular Alignment Team, which will review curricula in four core courses (Introductory Biology: Cells and Molecules, Introductory Biology: Ecology and Evolution, Genetics, and Cell Biology) at the community colleges and the four-year institution in the collaboration, and identify areas for action, with emphasis on the development of QR abilities in biology majors; 2) the NEXUS Institute in Quantitative Biology, which will involve teams of faculty from each institution developing, piloting, and assessing QR modules for the core biology curricula and assessing the impact on student performance and retention; and 3) a Faculty Development Community, which will involve a series of shared faculty development workshops on evidence-based teaching approaches, to include the use of the created QR modules, and a common teaching certificate program. These three communities will come together annually at a regional symposium, where the consortium products (QR modules) and findings (student assessment data) will be disseminated. Taken together, this work will shape intra- and inter-institutional perspectives and practices relating to the importance of QR in the success of undergraduate biology majors. By developing faculty collaborations through the scholarly communities described above, this project will provide training in modern pedagogical methods and module development for biology faculty at community colleges and four-year institutions. The project will map the processes involved and disseminate the project findings widely to ensure that it serves as a model for other institutions that wish to take this approach to improve transfer student success and better prepare all biology majors for the modern STEM workforce.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

定量推理（QR）涉及使用数学技能（例如代数和统计分析）来理解和解释数据。 生物学领域越来越依赖于使用定量推理来解释大型数据集，例如基因组分析和人群研究中收集的大型数据集。 该项目旨在提高社区大学的学生的定量推理技能，准备进入四年制机构的生物学专业。 这些学生通常不准备成功完成生物学专业，并继续研究生教育或进入STEM劳动力。 为了实现学生在生物学背景下应用QR的能力的长期收益，该提案旨在利用大学/社区大学的合作伙伴关系来扩展和加深整个专业的核心生物学课程中的QR含量。 该计划愿意为社区学院和大学的财团如何促进课程意识和一致性提供一个模型，以提高QR学生的成就。 该项目将检验以下假设：这种类型的合作可以增强教学法并在四年制机构中转移学生成功。 此外，假设与核心生物学课程中QR模块的重复相互作用，以积极影响所有在高级课程中的学生的成功。 这些努力旨在加强所有学生的课程表现度量，包括直接入学和转学学生。 改善学生在生物学等STEM专业中的成功和保留率支持了改善所有学生进入科学和技术职业的目标。该项目的重点将是通过创建主动学习模块的重点是定量技能开发，并通过经过验证的评估工具来提高本科生的QR技能。 将建立三个学术社区：1）课程对齐团队，该团队将在四个核心课程中审查课程（入门生物学：细胞和分子，入门生物学：生态学和进化，遗传学和细胞生物学），在社区大学以及协作中的四年制机构，并确定对努力的行动，并确定QR的发展。 2）定量生物学领域的Nexus研究所，该研究所将涉及每个机构的教师团队开发，试点和评估核心生物学课程的QR模块，并评估对学生绩效和保留的影响； 3）一个教师发展社区，该社区将涉及一系列有关循证教学方法的共享教师发展研讨会，以包括使用创建的QR模块和一个共同的教学证书计划。 这三个社区每年将在一个区域研讨会上汇聚在一起，在该研讨会上，财团产品（QR模块）和发现（学生评估数据）将被传播。 综上所述，这项工作将塑造与QR在本科生物学专业成功中的重要性有关的内部和机构间观点和实践。 通过通过上述学术社区开发教师合作，该项目将在社区学院和四年制机构的生物学教师中为现代教学方法和模块开发提供培训。 The project will map the processes involved and disseminate the project findings widely to ensure that it serves as a model for other institutions that wish to take this approach to improve transfer student success and better prepare all biology majors for the modern STEM workforce.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.