Long Term Trans-disciplinary Project-Based Instruction in Biology and Physics

这个新颖的项目正在生物学多门课程与生物学专业课程的普通物理学之间建立强大的联系。该项目的各个方面包括创建几个大规模，开放式，基于项目的调查，在不同的课程中多次重新审视物理和生物概念。这些调查将生物学融入物理课程，反之亦然，使生物学专业的学生将他们的课程视为一个统一的整体。此外，该项目还提供了可衡量的成果，量化（i）标准学科措施的表现，（ii）对必修课程的态度，（iii）以综合方式理解物理学和生物学，以及（iv）课程和学科之间的知识转移。 该项目正在实施课程改革，其中包括可持续性和传播。这一建议的学术价值源于教学法的改革，它将不同系的独立课程集合成一个统一的整体。这种转变正在以一种新颖的方式完成，通过使用真实的和引人入胜的现象，在很长一段时间内明确地发展专业技能。该项目产生的更广泛影响包括改善对非洲裔妇女的STEM培训，因为斯佩尔曼学院是一所历史悠久的黑人女子学院。 此外，该项目通过将学习科学和物理教育研究的研究链编织在一起，为本科教育的范式转变做出了贡献。已制定计划，通过生物学和物理学教育期刊以及更广泛的教育研究界的会议和出版物传播项目成果。

This novel project is developing robust links between multiple courses in biology to the general physics for biology majors' course. Aspects of this project include creating several large scale, open ended, project-based investigations that revisit physical and biological concepts multiple times in different courses. These investigations are integrating biology into physics courses and vice versa, enabling biology majors to see their curriculum as a unified whole. Furthermore, this project is providing measureable outcomes quantifying (i) performance on standard disciplinary measures, (ii) attitudes toward required courses, (iii) understanding physics and biology in an integrated manner, and (iv) transfer of knowledge between courses and disciplines. The project is implementing course reform that includes sustainability and dissemination. The intellectual merit of this proposal stems from a reform of pedagogy, which turns a collection of independent courses in different departments into a unified whole. This transformation is being accomplished in a novel way by explicitly developing expert skills over an extended period of time using real and engaging phenomena. Broader Impacts resulting from this project include improved STEM training for women of African descent because Spelman College is an historically black women's college. Further, this project is contributing to a paradigm shift in undergraduate education by weaving together strands of research in Learning Sciences and Physics Education Research. Plans are in place for dissemination of project outcomes via conferences and publications in both biology and physics education journals as well as in the broader education research community.