Collaborative Research: Navigating from Vision to Change with Bio-MAPS

该项目采取了重大步骤，具体界定核心概念和能力概述的NSF-AAAS报告，愿景和变化，并提供工具，使本科生物学教育的方案评估。该项目的智力价值来自于称为Bio-MAPS（生物学测量科学成就和进展）的工具的开发，验证和现场测试。具体而言，正在进行四项生物地图评估：分子和细胞生物学、生理学和神经科学、生态学和进化，以及一项全面的综合措施。该研究小组正在与跨越高等教育广度的不同机构的生物学教师合作，制定一个框架，概述学生应该知道什么，并能够在不同的大学水平做什么的期望。预计Bio-MAPS的数据将产生更广泛的影响，并通过以下方式促进课程改革：1）诊断学生在教学中挣扎的领域，2）允许两年制社区学院评估他们为学生转学到四年制大学做好了多少准备，3）激励和指导教师和机构关于在课程层面实施变革的对话，4）帮助管理人员将有限的资源集中在需要修订的课程方面，5）挑战教师重新设计课程，以支持学生学习。生物系也可以使用Bio-MAPS评估来证明学生学习认证过程的证据。许多机构现在需要学生学习的证据和数据，以及如何满足不同学生群体的需求。这种对有形学习成果的关注要求各机构有一种通过课程定量衡量学生进步的手段。Bio-MAPS可以提供一种通过课程来衡量学生进步的方法。其他科学学科可能有兴趣为他们的学生开发类似的评估。该项目由生物科学理事会和本科教育部教育和人力资源理事会共同资助，作为其支持本科生物学教育愿景和变革的努力的一部分。

This project takes major steps towards concretely defining core concepts and competencies outlined in the NSF-AAAS report, Vision and Change, and provides tools to allow programmatic assessment in undergraduate biology education. The intellectual merit of this project derives from the development, validation, and field-testing of tools called Bio-MAPS (Biology-Measuring Achievement and Progression in Science). Specifically, four Bio-MAPS assessments are being produced: molecular and cellular biology, physiology and neuroscience, ecology and evolution, and an overall comprehensive measure. The research team is working with biology faculty at diverse institutions that span the breadth of higher education to develop a framework that outlines expectations for what students should know and be able to do at different collegiate levels. Data from Bio-MAPS are expected to provide dramatic broader impacts and catalyze curricular reform by: 1) diagnosing areas in which students struggle despite instruction, 2) allowing two-year community colleges to evaluate how well they are preparing students for transfer to four-year institutions, 3) inspiring and directing faculty and institutional conversations about enacting change at the programmatic level, 4) helping administrators focus limited resources on aspects of the curricula needing revision, and 5) challenging faculty to re-design courses to scaffold student learning. Biology departments can also use Bio-MAPS assessments to demonstrate evidence of student learning for accreditation processes. Many agencies now require evidence of student learning and data on how well programs meet the needs of diverse student populations. This focus on tangible learning outcomes requires that institutions have a means of quantitatively measuring student progression through a curriculum. Bio-MAPS can provide a means of measuring student progress through a curriculum. Other science disciplines may be interested in developing similar assessments for their students. This project is being funded jointly by the Directorate for Biological Sciences and the Directorate of Education and Human Resources, Division of Undergraduate Education as part of their efforts to support Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education.