Maintaining the PULSE: Sustaining Efforts of the Vision and Change Leadership Fellows to Transform Life Sciences Education

华盛顿大学获得了一项奖励，以协调PULSE愿景和变革领导研究员的努力，以试点，广泛实施和可持续发展一系列计划，统称为“PULSE变革路线图”，以促进部门转型，作为本科生生命科学教育伙伴关系（PULSE）使命的一部分。2012年9月，PULSE合作伙伴（HHMI， NIH和NSF）任命了40名愿景和变革领导研究员，以刺激愿景和变革报告中建议的本科生命科学教育的变革。获奖者来自两年制学院、文理学院、综合性大学和研究型大学。这些奖学金获得者组成了工作小组，其总体目标是帮助各部门在全国范围内改变他们的项目，以增加学生对核心概念的学习，提高学生对科学的忠诚度，并使所有学生都成为更具好奇心和科学素养的公民。目前的合同是监督、协调并为每个工作组的工作提供通信和信息管理支持，每个工作组都专注于路线图的一部分。从不同工作小组的努力中产生的程序和机制是一套针对生命科学系教育变革的倡议和工具。当以协同和协调的方式使用时，它们将是最有效的。《展望与变革》报告包含了一些改善本科生生命科学教育的建议，但没有提供实施策略。研究员开发的倡议和工具形成了“变革路线图”，解决了这一问题，并将作为各部门采用愿景和变革建议的蓝图：各部门将意识到变革的必要性，评估其采用的现状，制定战略计划，实施变革，评估其进展，并为实现目标的进展获得奖励。工作组的工作重点是创建材料以提高对变革需求的认识，区域网络发展以促进变革，认证计划以评估、认可和奖励采纳建议的部门，愿景和变革大使计划以协助部门制定战略并实施变革的工具和方法。该奖项还包括评估工具和策略的开发和试点，以评估期望的变化和项目对全国生命科学教育的影响。该奖项将支持寻找机制的努力，以长期维持在PULSE方案下开始的倡议。PULSE“变革路线图”项目的总体结果将公布在pulseccommunity.org网站上，并在专业会议上与生命科学界分享。该项目由生物科学理事会和本科教育司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的愿景和变革的努力的一部分。

An award has been made to Washington University to coordinate the efforts of the PULSE Vision and Change Leadership Fellows to pilot, widely implement, and make sustainable a series of programs, collectively "The PULSE Roadmap for Change," to catalyze departmental transformation as part of the mission of the Partnership for Undergraduate Life Science Education (PULSE). In September 2012 the PULSE partners (HHMI, NIH, and NSF) appointed 40 Vision and Change Leadership Fellows to stimulate transformative changes in undergraduate life science education as recommended in the Vision and Change report. Fellows were selected from two-year colleges, liberal arts colleges, comprehensive universities and research universities. The Fellows have organized into working groups with the overarching goal of helping departments transform their programs in a national effort to increase student learning of core concepts, increase student retention in the sciences, and prepare all students to be more curious and scientifically literate citizens. The current award is to oversee, coordinate, and provide communications and information management support for the efforts of the working groups that each focuses on a part of the Roadmap. The programs and mechanisms that have emerged from the efforts of the different working groups are a complimentary set of initiatives and tools that target life sciences department educational change. They will be most effective when used synergistically and in a coordinated manner. The Vision and Change report contained a number of recommendations for improving undergraduate life sciences education but did not furnish an implementation strategy. The initiatives and tools that have been developed by the Fellows form a "Roadmap for Change" address this issue and will serve as a blueprint for departments to adopt the Vision and Change recommendations: departments will become aware of the need for change, evaluate their current state of adoption, develop strategic plans, implement changes, assess their progress, and be rewarded for progress toward the goals. The working groups are focused on creating materials to promote awareness of the need for change, regional network development to foster change, certification program to evaluate, recognize, and reward departments that adopt the recommendations, a Vision and Change Ambassador program to assist departments in developing strategies and implementing tools and methods for change. This award also encompasses development and piloting of assessment tools and strategies to evaluate the desired change and the impact of the programs on life sciences education nation-wide. The award will support efforts to find mechanisms to sustain for the long term the initiatives begun under the PULSE program. Results from the overall PULSE "Roadmap for Change" project will be posted on the pulsecommunity.org website and shared with the life sciences community at professional meetings. 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.