Improving Biology Education for Non-Majors: Dissemination of the Workshop Biology Project

我们正在进行一个为期三年的传播我们的NSF/FIPSE项目，“非专业的车间生物学”。车间生物学是一门成功的非专业生物课程，在一所主要的研究型大学的背景下教授，解决了在一个日益关注生物的世界中科学素养的严重问题。该课程旨在培养学生对生物学概念、科学过程和批判性思维技能的理解，以帮助他们在重要的科学问题上做出决定。该项目在许多其他机构的科学教员中引起了极大的热情，他们向我们清楚地表达了他们需要扩大合作，使用有效的模型来改进他们处理教学问题的方法。该项目的主要目标是通过帮助教师明确他们的教育目标，实施和评估旨在实现这些目标的学习经验，改善学生在其他机构的普通教育科学课程中的学习情况。工作室生物学项目提供了目标、教学策略和评估方法的模型，以及开发新方法的过程。我们的项目为所有参与者提供了密集的合作、实验和反思，以制定适合他们自己情况的有效教育实践。在第一年和第二年，我们将重点放在地区性机构上，我们已经确定了这些机构，他们代表了不同的背景：两年制和四年制机构都有不同的使命(包括一所州立师范学院)，学生人数与俄勒冈大学提供的服务不同。这些机构将帮助我们创建发展材料，我们将在第三年的研讨会和会议上向全国各地的其他机构分发这些材料。我们将评估其他机构变化的程度和持续时间，参与者对传播过程的反应，以及他们新项目的有效性。

We ape conducting a three-year dissemination of our NSF/FIPSE project, "Workshop Biology for Non-Majors." Workshop Biology is a successful non-majors' biology course, taught in the context of a major research university, that addresses the serious problem of scientific literacy in a world with growing biological concerns. The course aims to develop students' understanding of biological concepts, scientific processes, and critical thinking skills to help them make decisions about important scientific issues. The project has generated a great deal of enthusiasm among science faculty at many other institutions, who have clearly articulated to us their need for extended collaboration, using effective models, in improving their approach to instructional problems. The project's primary goal is to improve student learning in general education science courses at other institutions, by helping instructors clarify their educational goals and implement and assess learning experiences designed to achieve these goals. The Workshop Biology project provides models for goals, teaching strategies, and assessment methods, as well as processes for developing new ones. Our project offers intensive collaboration, experimentation, and reflection by all participants, to develop effective educational practices for their own situations. In the first and second years we are focusing on regional institutions, whom we have already identified, and who represent diverse contexts: both two- and four-year institutions with different missions (including a state teacher's college) and different student populations than that served by the University of Oregon. These institutions will help us create development materials that we will disseminate, in workshops and conferences the third year, to other institutions around the country. We will assess the extent and duration of change at other institutions, the reactions of participants to the process of dissemination, and the effectiveness of their new programs.