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

这个项目将开发一套教学材料，让学生、教师和他们的父母参与到耦合自然人类(CNH)系统的科学中来。教师指南、网站和家庭/社区材料伴随着四个学生单元(重点是城市分水岭、城市/农业系统、亚马逊和极地系统)。该课程提供了为期一年的顶峰课程的材料；单独的模块可以用作替代单元。在一个全球人类对环境产生影响的时代，了解人类与环境之间的“复杂关系结构”对所有公民来说都具有独特的紧迫性。如果不考虑人类的相互作用，研究“自然”系统就不再可能了。需要高中教材来反映这一极其重要的事实，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，BioComplex利用长期生态研究(LTER)站点和其他CNH BioComplex受赠者的当前研究作为材料的基础。生物复杂性是以调查为基础的。学生材料支持所有学生--特别是那些来自历史上服务不足的背景的学生--成功学习的活动。课程设计是通过研究学生学习科学内容和推理的进展情况来进行的。生物复杂性是利用“后向设计”的方法开发的，它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”：教师材料提供广泛而实用的支持，以增加教师的教学知识和教学技能。这项提议承诺有效地将高中课堂与当前的重要科学联系起来，同时扩大和加强核心科学和数学概念的学习，在创新课程的背景下纳入真正的科学探究，并采用基于案例的方法。此外，该项目将对学生对模型的理解及其在科学探究中的使用的教育研究做出重大贡献。这门课程对这一领域做出了独特的贡献，因为它植根于当前对生物复杂性的研究。它的重点是城市、农村和其他环境中的CNH系统，导致应用科学中以问题为基础的案例，这将迫使所有背景的学生感兴趣。学生们体验真正的科学探究，探索同样吸引科学家和研究人员的基本想法。在最新的研究--科学和教育--的指导下，课程将反映出科学日益增长的重要性，它统一了生物研究的许多领域的见解。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合作将对LTERS的教育项目产生积极的协同效应，同时将一系列新的全国重要研究中心与全国各地的高中课堂联系起来。

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.