Increasing Science Literacy in Microbiology through the Use of Open Education Resources

通过使用开放教育资源提高微生物学科学素养

• 批准号: 2314597
• 负责人: Nancy Boury
• 金额: $ 16.35万
• 依托单位: Iowa State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-10-01 至 2025-09-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2314597&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Increasing; Science; Literacy; Microbiology; through

This project aims to serve the national interest by engaging students in a novel way to improve their understanding of microbiology concepts. Understanding the scientific process and developing critical thinking are important skills for everyone, but especially for college students pursuing careers in STEM fields. However, students frequently struggle with learning how to effectively read, analyze, and write about science. Moreover, many students leave science because they feel unconnected and uninspired by traditional teaching methods. At the same time, teachers struggle to find teaching resources that are effective and innovative to engage their students in the scientific process. This project aims to address these issues using successful innovative methods such as having students practice science while working in teams on real problems and generating readily available teaching materials. Teams of teachers and students will create accessible and free learning materials based on popular science podcasts. The project is novel because it will use modern communication tools to engage students and teachers. The impact of these training and learning materials on student science literacy, identity, and motivation will be investigated. The project will also be evaluated to determine best practices for training faculty to implement these materials in the classroom.A guiding imperative of this project is to support the training of a diverse STEM workforce using active methods and accessible materials that build science literacy and critical thinking. Through the creation of open education resources, which are free, adaptable, of high quality, and accessible, this project is focused on enhancing science literacy and critical thinking. Moreover, this project strives to increase inclusivity in STEM education given that publicly and widely available resources usually engage larger, more diverse populations by removing accessibility barriers. With these goals in mind, this project aims to expand a successful digital initiative that uses "This Week in Microbiology (TWiM)," a podcast that i) features professional scientists discussing current papers, ii) is licensed under Creative Commons, and iii) is supported by the American Society for Microbiology. Under this initiative students annotate the TWiM podcasts with materials they think other undergraduates would connect with (cultural relevancy, current events, etc.) and tie these back to a course’s learning objectives. Critically, the project uses methods known to increase long term retention in STEM, including building a collaborative faculty learning community, student participation in the practice of science, building student science identity, and working on relevant, real-world scientific problems. There are three main components to this project. First, it aims to train teachers and students using an established collaborative workflow. Key features of this workflow are the use of learning methods and materials that are accessible, inclusive of underrepresented groups, and known to increase science literacy and promote the formation of science identity. Second, the project aims to produce a free electronic book called Podcast Annotation Resources: Microbiology. Third, the project aims to use validated methods to assess the effect of these active learning materials on metrics known to promote long-term STEM success: student content understanding, STEM motivation, science literacy, and science identity. By identifying benefits and barriers to adoption of this type of active learning and collaboration, the project will enhance the learning experiences of all participants as they work on complex and relevant topics in diverse collaborative teams. By training additional faculty, using a professional society’s podcast with a global reach, and disseminating research findings through meeting attendance and publication, the availability of learning materials and methods will enable teachers across the nation to easily find and adopt active learning materials. The NSF IUSE: EDU Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through its 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.

该项目旨在通过以一种新颖的方式吸引学生来提高他们对微生物学概念的理解来为国家利益提供服务。了解科学过程和发展批判性思维是每个人的重要技能，尤其是对于从事STEM领域从事职业的大学生而言。但是，学生经常在学习如何有效阅读，分析和写有关科学的方面挣扎。此外，许多学生离开科学是因为他们感到传统教学方法没有联系和毫无意义。同时，教师努力寻找有效且创新的教学资源，以使学生参与科学过程。该项目旨在使用成功的创新方法来解决这些问题，例如让学生练习科学，同时在团队研究实际问题并产生容易获得的教材。教师和学生团队将根据流行的科学播客创建可访问且免费的学习材料。该项目是新颖的，因为它将使用现代的沟通工具来吸引学生和老师。这些培训和学习材料对学生科学素养，身份和动力的影响将得到研究。还将对该项目进行评估，以确定培训教师在课堂上实施这些材料的最佳实践。该项目的指导必须使用主动方法和可访问的材料来支持对潜水员STEM劳动力的培训，以建立科学素养和批判性思维。通过创造自由，适应性，高质量和可访问的开放教育资源，该项目的重点是增强科学素养和批判性思维。此外，鉴于公共和广泛使用的资源通常通过消除可及性障碍来吸引更大，更多的潜水员人群，该项目努力提高STEM教育中的包容性。考虑到这些目标，该项目旨在扩大一项成功的数字计划，该计划使用“本周微生物学（TWIM）”，一个播客，i）具有讨论当前论文的专业科学家，ii）在Creative Commons下获得许可，III）得到了美国微生物学会的支持。根据这项倡议，学生用他们认为其他大学生会与（文化相关性，时事等）联系的材料注明了Twim播客，并将这些材料与课程的学习目标联系起来。至关重要的是，该项目使用已知的方法来增加STEM的长期保留率，包括建立一个协作的教师学习社区，学生参与科学实践，建立学生科学身份以及研究相关的现实科学问题。该项目有三个主要组成部分。首先，它旨在使用既定的协作工作流程培训教师和学生。该工作流程的关键特征是使用可访问的学习方法和材料的使用，包括代表性不足的群体，众所周知，可以提高科学素养并促进科学认同的形成。其次，该项目旨在生产一本免费的电子书，称为播客注释资源：微生物学。第三，该项目旨在使用经过验证的方法来评估这些活跃学习材料对已知促进长期STEM成功的指标的影响：学生内容的理解，动机，科学素养和科学认同。通过确定采用这类积极学习和协作的好处和障碍，该项目将在所有参与者的学习经验中，从而增强他们从事各种协作团队中复杂且相关的主题的学习经验。通过培训其他教师，使用专业社会的播客，具有全球影响力，并通过会议和出版物来传播研究结果，学习材料和方法的可用性将使全国各地的教师能够轻松找到和采用活跃的学习材料。 NSF IUSE：EDU计划支持研发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。通过其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，并且我们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，通过评估诚实地表示支持。