Scaffolding Conceptually Driven Genomics Education

概念驱动的基因组学教育支架

• 批准号: 0837375
• 负责人: Susan Singer
• 金额: $ 15万
• 依托单位: Carleton College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-12-15 至 2011-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0837375&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Scaffolding; Conceptually; Driven; Genomics; Education

Engaging undergraduate students in authentic research in the classroom can enhance development of scientific thinking. However, in a teaching laboratory with 20 or more students, a limiting factor in student success with open-ended research problems is instructor availability for real time, individualized scaffolding (guiding students to higher-level thinking and complex problem solving related to the student's research problem). This project is testing the hypothesis that by moderately scaffolding the student research process a carefully designed web interface tool, the "Exploring Genomics in Context Interface" (EGCI), can support classroom instruction and facilitate authentic research in genomics with only a modicum of faculty input. The EGCI provides an iterative way for students to choose strategies for asking and addressing biologically interesting questions using a range of genomics tools. It is designed to help students develop the ability to: 1) define biologically interesting questions that can be addressed with data, 2) relate a gene to biological function, 3) analyze data including the aspect of quality, 4) develop a literature-based understanding of important quantitative approaches, and 5) test thoroughly a viable hypothesis by bringing together the literature, classroom knowledge, and analysis of data. The project's specific research objectives are to: 1. determine how undergraduate students' scientific thinking skills are enhanced by an authentic research experience in the context of a course; 2. analyze the role of scaffolding in supporting student research success; and 3. identify generalizable components for computer-based scaffolding of open-ended research. These are being explored using a mixed-methods research approach to collect data that characterizes: 1) the skill level of individual students prior to the course, developed through the course prior to the specific assignment, and following the assignment, 2) student behavior during the assignment (including structured observations; student reflections; and analysis of EGCI webmetrics), and 3) the scaffolding accomplished by the faculty member (including structured observations and reflection by the faculty members). Intellectual Merit: Genomics education is an ideal platform on which to initiate this work because genomics, an important frontier in modern science, provides the opportunity for students to work with large datasets; and allows scaffolding of biological questions at multiple levels of organization. Chamaecrista (partridge pea) and Aiptasia (model for symbiotic corals), the organisms selected for this initial work, are ideal test subjects because they are threatened by global climate change and evolution, are scientifically important, and, most important for an undergraduate project, have readily available gene sequences and appropriate supporting analysis tools. Broader Impacts: Identifying general elements of scaffolding software that support authentic student research at scale increases opportunities for undergraduates at many institutions to develop higher order, scientific thinking skills, meeting a national need. All curricular material, assessment tools, and editable forms of the EGCI are being made freely available for adoption on the Teaching Genomics website. The work is being conducted at two different institutions - one that integrates genomics throughout the curriculum (Carleton) and one with distinct genomics and bioinformatics courses (Vassar), thus broadening the applicability of the efforts to other institutions.

让本科生在课堂上进行真实的研究可以促进科学思维的发展。然而，在一个有20名或更多学生的教学实验室里，学生在开放式研究问题上取得成功的一个限制因素是教师的实时可用性和个性化的脚手架(引导学生进行更高层次的思考和解决与学生的研究问题相关的复杂问题)。这个项目正在测试这样一种假设，即通过适度地支撑学生的研究过程，一个精心设计的网络界面工具--“在上下文中探索基因组学界面”(EGCI)--可以支持课堂教学，并促进真正的基因组学研究，只需少量的教师投入。EGCI为学生提供了一种迭代的方式，让他们选择使用一系列基因组学工具提出和解决生物学上有趣的问题的策略。它旨在帮助学生培养以下能力：1)定义可以用数据解决的生物学上有趣的问题；2)将基因与生物功能联系起来；3)分析数据，包括质量方面；4)发展基于文献的对重要定量方法的理解；5)通过结合文献、课堂知识和数据分析来彻底检验可行的假设。该项目的具体研究目标是：1.确定本科生的科学思维能力如何在课程背景下通过真实的研究经验得到增强；2.分析脚手架在支持学生研究成功方面的作用；3.为开放式研究的计算机脚手架确定可概括的组成部分。使用混合方法研究方法来收集数据，以收集数据：1)在课程之前、在具体作业之前和之后通过课程发展的个别学生的技能水平；2)学生在作业期间的行为(包括结构化观察；学生反思；以及对EGCI网络指标的分析)；以及3)由教员完成的脚手架(包括教员的结构化观察和反思)。智力价值：基因组学教育是启动这项工作的理想平台，因为基因组学是现代科学的一个重要前沿，为学生提供了处理大型数据集的机会；并允许在多个组织层次上构建生物学问题的支架。Chamaecrista和Aiptasia被选为这项初步工作的生物，它们是理想的测试对象，因为它们受到全球气候变化和进化的威胁，具有重要的科学意义，对于本科项目来说，最重要的是，它们拥有现成的基因序列和适当的辅助分析工具。更广泛的影响：识别支持大规模真实学生研究的脚手架软件的一般元素，增加了许多机构的本科生发展更高层次、科学思维技能、满足国家需求的机会。所有的课程材料、评估工具和EGCI的可编辑形式都可以在教学基因组学网站上免费获得。这项工作在两个不同的机构进行--一个在整个课程中整合基因组学(Carleton)，另一个有不同的基因组学和生物信息学课程(Vassar)，从而扩大了努力对其他机构的适用性。