COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: Biocomplexity and the Habitable Planet - An Innovative Capstone Course for High School

该项目将开发一套教学材料，使学生、教师和他们的家长参与到耦合自然人类（CNH）系统的科学中。教师指南、网站和家庭/社区材料伴随着四个学生模块（重点是城市流域、城市/农业系统、亚马逊和极地系统）。课程提供为期一年的顶点课程的材料；单个模块可作为替换单元使用。在一个人类对环境产生全球影响的时代，理解人类与环境之间“复杂的关系结构”对所有公民来说都是特别紧迫的。研究“自然”系统而不考虑人类的相互作用是不可能的。我们需要高中教材来反映这一至关重要的事实，并支持学生对系统现象进行真实的调查。为了满足这一需求，Biocomplexity借鉴了长期生态研究（LTER）站点和其他CNH生物复杂性资助项目的当前研究，作为材料的基础。生物复杂性是以探究为基础的。学生材料支撑活动，以支持所有学生，特别是那些历史上缺乏教育背景的学生，成功地学习。课程设计的依据是对学生学习科学内容和推理的进展情况的研究。使用“逆向设计”方法开发，生物复杂性确保教学策略促进关键思想的学习。生物复杂性是一门“教育课程”：教材提供了广泛和实际的支持，增加了教师的内容知识和教学技能。该提案承诺有效地将高中课堂与重要的当前科学联系起来，同时在创新课程的背景下，结合真正的科学探究和使用基于案例的方法，扩展和加强核心科学和数学概念的学习。此外，该项目将对学生对模型的理解及其在科学探究中的应用的教育研究做出重大贡献。该课程对该领域做出了独特的贡献，因为它基于当前对生物复杂性的研究。它专注于CNH系统，位于城市、农村和其他环境中，结果是应用科学中基于问题的案例，这将引起来自所有背景的学生的兴趣。学生体验真正的科学探究，探索与科学家和研究人员相同的基本思想。根据最新的科学和教育研究成果，课程将反映出科学日益增长的重要性，它将生物学研究的许多领域的见解统一起来。社区元素有助于在学校、家长和社区之间建立牢固的联系。与LTERs和其他地方的研究人员的伙伴关系将为LTERs的教育项目带来积极的协同效应，同时将一系列新的国家重要研究中心与全国各地的高中教室联系起来。

This project will develop set of instructional materials that engages students, teachers, and their parents in the science of coupled natural human (CNH) systems. Teacher guides, a website and family/community materials accompany the four student modules (which focus on an urban watershed, an urban/agricultural system, Amazonia and a polar system). The curriculum provides material for a yearlong capstone course; individual modules can be used as replacement units. In an era of global human impact on the environment, understanding the "complex fabric of relationships" between humans and the environment is of unique urgency for all citizens. It is no longer possible to study "natural" systems without considering human interactions. There is a need for high school materials that reflect this critically important fact, and that also support students to engage in authentic investigations of systems phenomena. To address this need, Biocomplexity draws on current research by the Long-term Ecological Research (LTER) sites and other CNH Biocomplexity grantees as the basis for the materials. Biocomplexity is inquiry-based. Student materials scaffold activities to support all students -- particularly those from historically underserved backgrounds -- to learn successfully. Curriculum design is informed by research on progression in student learning of scientific content and reasoning. Developed using the "backward design" approach, Biocomplexity ensures that instructional strategies promote learning the key ideas. Biocomplexity is an "educative curriculum:" teacher materials provide extensive and practical support that increases teachers' content knowledge and pedagogical skills. This proposal promises to effectively link the high school classroom with important current science and at the same time extend and strengthen the learning of core scientific and mathematical concepts, in the context of an innovative curriculum incorporating authentic scientific inquiry and using a case-based approach. Furthermore, the project will make a significant contribution to education research on students' understanding of models and their use in science inquiry. This curriculum makes a unique contribution to the field because of its grounding in current research on Biocomplexity. Its focus on CNH systems, situated in urban, rural and other settings, results in problem-based cases in applied science that will compel the interest of students from all backgrounds. Students experience authentic scientific inquiry, exploring the same fundamental ideas that engage scientists and researchers. Informed by the best recent research -- both scientific and educational -- the curriculum will reflect the growing importance of science that unifies insights from many fields of biological inquiry. Community elements serve to develop strong ties between school, parents and communities. The partnership with researchers at LTERs and elsewhere will have positive synergistic outcomes for the LTERs' education programs, while connecting a new range of nationally important research centers with high school classrooms across the country.