Collaborative Research: Connecting Undergraduate Biology Through Systems and Systems Thinking

合作研究：通过系统和系统思维连接本科生生物学

• 批准号: 2012950
• 负责人: Elena Bray Speth
• 金额: $ 34.09万
• 依托单位: Saint Louis University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-08-01 至 2024-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2012950&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Connecting; Undergraduate; Biology

This project aims to serve the national interest by identifying core thinking skills required for reasoning about complex biological systems. Specifically, this project will develop strategies and tools to integrate systems and systems thinking as organizing principles in undergraduate biology. Systems are ‘complex’ when their parts interact to produce outcomes that cannot be predicted. Reasoning about biological systems requires thinking skills that extend far beyond knowing the facts about the system’s parts. It requires thinking in terms of systems of parts. Such thinking is a foundational practice across STEM but is rarely taught as an explicit educational objective. Despite the emphasis on systems in national reports informing life sciences education, little guidance exists about specific objectives for systems learning, strategies for assessing evidence of systems thinking, or instructional approaches that foster systems thinking competencies. This project aims to conduct research that will identify and provide evidence for a framework of systems thinking skills that will serve undergraduate biology teaching and learning. This work will involve postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, and undergraduates in qualitative and quantitative research methods, training them to conduct novel research and development in STEM education. The project will engage college faculty and K-12 teachers in professional development and collaborative relationships that promote their abilities to develop systems thinking curricula and assessments. The project has the potential to encourage integration of systems thinking skill development in undergraduate biology teaching and learning nationwide. In biological systems, organisms interact with each other and their environments in variable and dynamic ways that can be amplified or dampened in response to myriad factors (e.g., signals from the environment; feedback from other interactions). This project aims to translate research findings into practical tools and curricular materials that will support instructors’ abilities to bring systems thinking into their biology classrooms. The project will seek evidence to identify a set of skills that are fundamental for representing and reasoning about systems in undergraduate biology. It is hypothesized that a Biology Systems Thinking (BST) framework will emerge from this work, providing an integrated perspective about the concepts and competencies identified in nationally recognized curricular frameworks, as well as offering practical scaffolds to support design of assessments to measure these higher-level thinking skills. Iterative cycles of materials development, validity research, field-testing, and revision will produce: (a) an evidence-based systems thinking framework (the BST) for undergraduate biology education; (b) instructional materials and assessment templates that enable instructors to customize BST principles to serve a range of classroom contexts; and (c) a dissemination plan that integrates materials development with instructor professional development. In this model, instructor-collaborators become owners in the process of designing and authoring curricular materials as well as sources of feedback that further inform BST research, design, and development. This project is supported by the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Program: Education and Human Resources, which supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.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.

该项目旨在通过确定有关复杂生物系统的推理所需的核心思维技能来服务国家利益。具体而言，该项目将开发策略和工具，以整合系统和系统思维作为本科生物学中的组织原理。当它们的部分相互作用以产生无法预测的结果时，系统是“复杂的”。关于生物系统的推理需要的思维技能远远超出了了解该系统部分的事实。它需要根据零件系统进行思考。这种思维是整个STEM的基本实践，但很少被教导为明确的教育目标。尽管强调了为生命科学教育提供信息的国家报告中的系统，但关于系统学习的特定目标，评估系统思维证据的策略或培养系统思维能力的教学方法的指导很少。该项目旨在进行研究，以识别并为系统思维技能框架提供证据，这些技能将为本科生物学教学提供服务。这项工作将涉及博士后研究人员，研究生和本科生的定性和定量研究方法，培训他们在STEM教育方面进行新颖的研究和发展。该项目将与大学教职员工和K-12教师一起参与专业​​发展和协作关系，以促进他们开发系统思考课程和评估的能力。该项目有可能鼓励在全国范围内教学和学习中将系统思维技能发展整合在一起。在生物系统中，生物体相互相互作用及其环境，以可变和动态的方式相互作用，这些方式可以响应众多因素（例如，来自环境的信号；来自其他相互作用的反馈），可以放大或抑制。该项目旨在将研究发现转化为实用工具和现代材料，以支持讲师将系统思考带入其生物学课堂的能力。该项目将寻求证据，以确定一系列技能，这些技能对于代表本科生物学系统中的系统的基础。假设生物学系统思维（BST）框架将从这项工作中出现，从而为在国家认可的现代框架中确定的概念和能力提供了综合的观点，并提供了实用的脚手架来支持评估的实用脚手架，以衡量这些高级思维能力。材料开发，有效性研究，现场测试和修订的迭代周期将产生：（a）基于证据的系统思维框架（BST），用于本科生物学教育； （b）教学材料和评估模板，使教师能够自定义BST原则以服务一系列课堂环境； （c）将材料开发与讲师专业发展相结合的传播计划。在此模型中，讲师 - 协会者在设计和创作现代材料的过程中成为所有者，以及反馈的来源，进一步为BST研究，设计和开发提供了信息。该项目得到了NSF改善本科STEM教育计划的支持：教育和人力资源，该计划支持研发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。通过参与的学生学习轨道，该计划支持了承诺实践和工具的创建，探索和实施。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响评估审查标准，被认为是珍贵的支持。