Faculty Institutes for Reforming Science Teaching Through Field Stations

外勤站和海洋实验室(FSML)提供了一个以真正提高学生学习能力的方式教授生物学的绝佳机会。FSML特别适合科学教育改革所要求的探究式学习，因为其独特的自然环境促进了学习社区和合作活动，而这些在主校园地点并不总是很明显。然而，FSMLS的大多数教员，以及那些将学生从大学和学院带到FSML的教员，在通过探究教授科学的有效教学策略方面经验有限。通过野外站改革科学教学的学院学院(Project First)旨在为美国各地与野外站相关的教员社区做好准备，以利用基于探究的积极学习方法来改革本科生物学课程和课程。在第一次会议期间，在野外考察站或海洋实验室工作或与之有联系的新教员、高级教员和博士后学生将组成一个野外考察站团队(FSML团队)，共同努力在FSML这一理想的主动学习环境中扩大他们的探究式学习知识。六个FSML团队将从他们所在地区的大学、四年制和社区学院招聘180名生物学教师，以形成以野外站或海洋实验室为中心的区域网络。教职员工将来自这些机构的科学和教育部门。FSML小组将与区域教员合作，在外地站设计的主动学习模式与类似的创新教学方法或战略之间建立联系，这些方法或战略将适用于部门内的课程和课程，以加强学生的学习。这些技术也将作为参加参与教员的科学和教育课程的未来K-12教师的榜样。通过提供这些机会，所有学生都应该有机会通过直接体验科学探究的方法和过程来获得科学理解。

Field stations and marine laboratories (FSMLs) offer an exceptional opportunity to teach biology in ways that truly enhance student learning. FSMLs are particularly well suited to inquiry-based learning called for in science education reform as their unique natural settings foster learning communities and cooperative activities that are not always evident on main campus locations. However, the majority of faculty based at FSMLs, and those faculty that bring students to FSMLs from universities and colleges, have limited experience with effective instructional strategies to teach science through inquiry. Faculty Institutes For Reforming Science Teaching Through Field Stations (Project FIRST) is designed to prepare communities of faculty associated with field stations throughout the United States to utilize inquiry-based, active learning approaches for reforming undergraduate biology courses and curriculum. During FIRST, new faculty, senior faculty and post-doctoral students who are either based at, or associated with, a field station or marine laboratory will form a Field Station team (the FSML team) to work together to expand their knowledge of inquiry-based learning at FSMLs, ideal active learning settings. Six FSML teams will recruit one hundred eighty biology faculty from universities, and four-year and community colleges in their region to form a regional network centered at the field station or marine laboratory. The faculty will come from both science and education departments at these institutions. FSML teams will work with the regional faculty to translate and make connections between active learning models designed at field stations, and similar innovative teaching methods or strategies that would work for courses and curriculum within departments to enhance student learning. These techniques will also serve as models for the prospective K-12 teachers enrolled in the science and education courses of participating faculty. By providing these opportunities, all students should have opp ortunities to gain scientific understanding through direct experiences with methods and processes of scientific inquiry.