I-Corps L: Social Entrepreneurship to Integrate Education, Research and Training - A University of Houston Model

I-Corps L：整合教育、研究和培训的社会创业——休斯顿大学模式

• 批准号: 1505403
• 负责人: Rupa Iyer
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: University of Houston
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2016-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1505403&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Corps; Social; Entrepreneurship; Integrate; Education

Our undergraduate students are at a distinct disadvantage as they lack the interdisciplinary skills required to face the rapidly changing practices present in life sciences research. Therefore, there exists a critical need to advance life sciences education to reflect the discipline it serves. Both the disciplines of life sciences and of science education underwent tremendous changes in the latter half of the 20th century; however, biology education has not kept pace with the rapid changes in the field. The goal of this project is the expansion and implementation of an interdisciplinary research-based curriculum to broadly disseminate and implement innovative S.T.E.M learning practices. In addressing the NSF?s Vision and Change, a call to teach biology as it should be done in the 21st century; this project further delineates the skills and knowledge base for students in this growing interdisciplinary field. Additionally, the project recognizes the opportunity to expand the scope of this curriculum to support and benefit the wider education and research community and help guide the transformative effort to prepare our students for the 21st century biology workforce.This curriculum uses a pesticide degrading bacterium, Brevundimonas diminuta, as an anchor organism to demonstrate the lifecycle of a typical biotechnology product. Three sets of activity modules use a guided inquiry-based method to teach appropriate techniques and skills and help students build a bridge between materials presented in courses and real-life applications. Module I is an environmental sampling research module (ESRM) which demonstrates the discovery process and consists of the collection of environmental soil samples to isolate pesticide-degrading microbes. Module II contains techniques for isolation, cloning, and transgenic expression of the pesticide-degrading gene. Module III consists of activities that emulate production of a biotech product, in our case activities that are related to growing transformed cells in a bioreactor for optimum production which is then followed by purification of the recombinant protein using traditional downstream processes. The environmental sampling research module (ESRM) designed, developed, and successfully implemented at the University of Houston during the past six years will be integrated into a variety of courses across diverse institutions to provide undergraduate research experiences. Students will locate sites positive for pesticide degrading activity, and identify novel strains of bacteria. The wide expansion of the ESRM database through this activity will be used to enhance a variety of skills, including writing, critical thinking, and quantitative learning. This curriculum will impact the following areas in life sciences education; undergraduate research, retention in STEM, and workforce readiness.

我们的本科生处于明显的劣势，因为他们缺乏面对生命科学研究中快速变化的实践所需的跨学科技能。因此，迫切需要推进生命科学教育以反映其所服务的学科。 20世纪下半叶，生命科学学科和科学教育学科都发生了巨大变化。然而，生物教育并没有跟上该领域快速变化的步伐。该项目的目标是扩展和实施基于跨学科研究的课程，以广泛传播和实施创新的 S.T.E.M 学习实践。在阐述 NSF 的愿景和变革时，呼吁按照 21 世纪的方式教授生物学；该项目进一步描绘了学生在这个不断发展的跨学科领域的技能和知识基础。此外，该项目认识到有机会扩大本课程的范围，以支持和造福更广泛的教育和研究界，并帮助指导我们的学生为 21 世纪生物学劳动力做好准备的变革性努力。本课程使用农药降解细菌 Brevundimonas diminuta 作为锚定生物来展示典型生物技术产品的生命周期。三组活动模块使用基于引导的探究方法来教授适当的技术和技能，并帮助学生在课程中呈现的材料和现实生活应用之间建立桥梁。模块 I 是环境采样研究模块 (ESRM)，它演示了发现过程，包括收集环境土壤样​​本以分离农药降解微生物。模块 II 包含农药降解基因的分离、克隆和转基因表达技术。模块 III 包括模拟生物技术产品生产的活动，在我们的案例中，这些活动与在生物反应器中生长转化细胞以获得最佳生产有关，然后使用传统的下游工艺纯化重组蛋白。休斯顿大学在过去六年中设计、开发和成功实施的环境采样研究模块（ESRM）将被整合到不同机构的各种课程中，以提供本科生研究经验。学生将找到农药降解活性呈阳性的地点，并识别新的细菌菌株。通过这项活动，ESRM 数据库的广泛扩展将用于增强各种技能，包括写作、批判性思维和定量学习。该课程将影响生命科学教育的以下领域；本科生研究、STEM 保留率以及劳动力准备情况。