Incorporating Real-World Experience in Diverse Science Curricula through Community Building Partnerships

通过社区建设伙伴关系将现实世界的经验融入多样化的科学课程

• 批准号: 0217942
• 负责人: Erin Girdler
• 金额: $ 4.36万
• 依托单位: Kalamazoo College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2002
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2002-06-01 至 2003-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0217942&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Incorporating; Real; World; Experience; Diverse

Incorporating real-world experience in diverse science curricula through community building partnerships.The current proposal is a request for start-up funds to complement and extend my PFSMETE (1999) post-doctoral fellowship at Middlebury College (Middlebury, VT): "Teaching science through real-world experience: an introductory course in applied conservation biology." That project tested a model of introductory level science teaching in which students are motivated to learn how to do science by giving them the opportunity to work on real-world projects in their laboratories instead of cookbook labs with pre- determined results. Partnerships with natural resource agencies supplied research opportunities for students in the course, and these partnerships contributed to both student learning (by enhancing motivation and reward), and to the partner agencies (by providing useful data, ideas and public exposure). The logical next step for this model of teaching is to expand it. In my new capacity as Assistant Professor of Biology and Co-Director of the Environmental Studies Program at Kalamazoo College, I hope to do just that. I will build upon the curriculum I developed under the previous project in order to incorporate real-world experiences in large enrollment introductory and non-majors courses, as well as upper level courses with students who are more skilled but would still benefit from the real-world motivating factors. Since enrollment in many undergraduate courses ranges from fifty to several hundred, it will be useful to learn which aspects of the partnership pedagogical model will be transferable to larger courses. I have included letters of support from two potential agency partners, Convening for Action (CF A), a local project with ties to Kalamazoo College that seeks to coordinate county-wide land use planning through a geographic information system (GIS) and intenet- based database, and the Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy, which oversees many of our region's important natural areas. Most of the data my students will be collecting will have a spatial component. That is, the data must be analyzed in the context of their location, or in the very least displayed spatially. A GIS is therefore essential to satisfy the goals of many of the partnerships I envision. By working under the CF A umbrella, and by using GIS I will ensure that the students' efforts are concentrated in those areas where data are ,needed most. At Kalamazoo College, I will eventually be responsible for five biology courses: a non-majors Environmental Science course with an enrollment cap of 30, an introductory biology course with a cap of 48, and iliree senior level courses, each with expected enrollment of 12 to 15. The proposed research will test the feasibility of scaling up the partnership model for use in these larger format courses. Using student assistants during two summers, I will lay the groundwork for incorporating experiential learning based on real-world partnerships into these courses, and other funds will support the GIS technology and added expenses of enabling students to conduct research in the classroom. The short-term success for this project will be measured by students' performance and attitude, and the utility of the partnerships for the agencies. To ascertain if real-world experience facilitates student learning, I will administer a questionnaire before and after each course to gauge students' attitudes toward science, and their comprehension of the underlying basics of how we do science. The longer term success of this project will be measured by whether or not partnerships mature into mutually beneficial collaborations that have continuity across the academic calendar. Meeting these short-term and long-term goals will provide the track record to seek additional funding from regional resources to ensure continuity of the partnerships after the proposed project is completed in August 2003.

通过建立社区伙伴关系，将现实世界的经验纳入不同的科学课程。目前的提案是申请启动资金，以补充和扩展我在米德尔伯里学院（Middlebury， VT）的PFSMETE（1999）博士后奖学金：“通过现实世界的经验教授科学：应用保护生物学的入门课程。”该项目测试了一种入门级科学教学模式，在这种模式下，学生有机会在自己的实验室中从事现实世界的项目，而不是在预先确定结果的烹饪书实验室中工作，从而激励他们学习如何做科学。与自然资源机构的合作为课程中的学生提供了研究机会，这些伙伴关系既有助于学生的学习（通过增强动机和奖励），也有助于合作机构（通过提供有用的数据、想法和公众曝光）。这种教学模式的下一个合乎逻辑的步骤是扩展它。在卡拉马祖学院担任生物学助理教授和环境研究项目联合主任的新职位上，我希望能做到这一点。我将在前一个项目中开发的课程基础上，将现实世界的经验融入到大量招生的入门和非专业课程中，以及为那些更熟练但仍将受益于现实世界激励因素的学生开设的高级课程中。由于许多本科课程的注册人数从50人到几百人不等，因此了解合作教学模式的哪些方面可以转移到更大的课程中是很有用的。我收录了来自两个潜在机构合作伙伴的支持信，一个是召集行动（召集行动），这是一个与卡拉马祖学院有联系的地方项目，旨在通过地理信息系统（GIS）和基于互联网的数据库协调全县的土地使用规划，另一个是西南密歇根土地保护协会，该协会负责监督我们地区许多重要的自然区域。我的学生收集的大部分数据都有空间成分。也就是说，必须在其位置上下文中分析数据，或者至少在空间上显示数据。因此，地理信息系统对于满足我所设想的许多伙伴关系的目标是必不可少的。通过在CF A的保护伞下工作，并通过使用GIS，我将确保学生的努力集中在那些最需要数据的领域。在卡拉马祖学院，我最终将负责五门生物学课程：一门非专业的环境科学课程，入学人数上限为30人，一门生物学入门课程，入学人数上限为48人，以及三门高级课程，每门课程预计入学人数为12至15人。拟议的研究将测试扩大伙伴关系模式以用于这些大型课程的可行性。在两个暑假期间，我将使用学生助理，为将基于现实世界伙伴关系的体验式学习纳入这些课程奠定基础，其他资金将支持GIS技术和使学生能够在课堂上进行研究的额外费用。这个项目的短期成功将由学生的表现和态度以及与机构合作的效用来衡量。为了确定真实世界的经验是否有助于学生的学习，我将在每门课程之前和之后进行问卷调查，以评估学生对科学的态度，以及他们对我们如何做科学的潜在基础知识的理解。这个项目的长期成功将通过伙伴关系是否成熟为在整个学术日历中具有连续性的互利合作来衡量。实现这些短期和长期目标将为从区域资源寻求额外资金提供良好的记录，以确保拟议项目于2003年8月完成后伙伴关系的连续性。