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，“非专业生物工作坊”。工作坊生物学是一门成功的非专业生物学课程，在一所主要研究型大学的背景下教授，它解决了在一个日益关注生物学的世界中科学素养的严重问题。本课程旨在培养学生对生物学概念、科学过程的理解和批判性思维技能，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师中产生了极大的热情，他们明确地向我们表达了他们需要扩大合作，使用有效的模型，以改进他们解决教学问题的方法。该项目的主要目标是通过帮助教师明确其教育目标并实施和评估为实现这些目标而设计的学习经验，改善其他机构普通教育科学课程的学生学习。工作坊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，以根据他们自己的情况开发有效的教育实践。在第一年和第二年，我们将重点放在我们已经确定的地区机构上，这些机构代表着不同的背景：两年制和四年制的机构有着不同的使命（包括一所州立师范学院），学生群体也与俄勒冈大学不同。这些机构将帮助我们制作发展材料，我们将在第三年的讲习班和会议上向全国其他机构传播这些材料。我们将评估其他机构变革的程度和持续时间，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.