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

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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.