FIRST II Faculty Institutes for Reforming Science Teaching Through Field Stations

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Biological Sciences (61) The Faculty Institutes for Reforming Science Teaching project (FIRST I) enabled 92 faculty teaching 322 courses at 27 colleges and universities to use active, inquiry-based science teaching, thus providing more opportunities for all students to gain scientific understanding. We are expanding FIRST I into a national dissemination project, called FIRST II, which provides large-scale, long-term professional development program for biology faculty, postdoctoral and graduate students from universities, four-year, and community colleges. The FIRST II project is providing widespread dissemination of instructional practices and materials that give faculty the ability to help all students learn science using active teaching methods and inquiry. The FIRST II project is being implemented and sustained by teams of scientists/faculty centered at eight biological field stations throughout the United States. The field station teams are working with faculty from colleges and universities in their region in a series of workshops that model active, inquiry-based science teaching both in the classroom and the field. FIRST II is also enabling faculty to learn and use multiple assessment strategies that provide evidence of student learning which their peers accept. We are exploring ways in which teaching can be recognized, evaluated, and rewarded within institutions. In FIRST II we are gathering evidence for the impact of both changes in faculty teaching and improvements in students' learning. The networks of faculty centered at each field station, and the national dissemination network hosted by the Long-Term Ecological Research Network office are facilitating collaboration among faculty about their reforms toward achieving excellence in science teaching, and about the emerging criteria and strategies for the scholarship of teaching.