Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Fellows Annual Project Coordination meeting

位于圣路易斯的华盛顿大学已获奖，将于2017年2月13日至16日举办一次研讨会，以促进本科生生命科学教育伙伴关系(PULSE)的使命。PULSE是一个全国性的网络，由来自各种机构类型的现任和前任部门主席和管理人员组成。PULSE研究员试图通过促进采纳《展望与变革报告》(2011)中的建议，促进改善本科生命科学教育。这份重要的报告强调，当生物学学生学习基本的组织概念，而不是积累事实和信息；当他们发展重要的技能，如有效的思想交流、设计实验和解释数据；当他们在课堂上学习，让他们积极参与建立自己理解的过程；当他们有机会参与影响较大的实践，如本科生研究或实习时，他们更成功。尽管有如此丰富的数据，大多数生物部门还没有采用这种方法，但正在取得进展。PULSE自2013年以来已经与180多家机构合作，并寻求在未来几年大幅增加这一数字。下一次PULSE研讨会将在马里兰州切维蔡斯的HHMI总部举行，将有大约50名PULSE研究员、机构变革和有效教学的特邀专家以及几名主持人参加。本次会议的目标是确保PULSE的多个项目得到很好的协调，以实现最大的效果，并对这些项目进行适当的评估，以确定最有效地促进本科教育改进的干预措施。PULSE项目旨在促进整个部门在教育实践中的变革。Pulse与包括部门领导在内的部门教职员工合作，帮助他们就自己的愿景达成共识。PULSE还通过评估其活动对部门教学、课程和联合课程计划变化的长期影响来测试变化理论。通过确定哪些类型的干预措施在推动可持续变革方面最有效，该项目将加强对变革战略的理解，从而推动生命科学和整个STEM更好地教与学的目标。PULSE的议程将通过一次面对面的研究员会议得到很大程度的推动，以协调他们的活动，规划向一个财政自给自足的组织过渡，并进一步将较新的研究员纳入该组织的方案。为了扭转生物系的平衡，采用最佳的教育实践，PULSE的项目有可能加速全国本科生物教育的改革。该项目由生物科学局联合资助。生物基础设施司和教育与人力资源局，本科教育司，作为他们努力应对本科生物学教育的愿景与变化提出的挑战的一部分：行动呼吁(http://visionandchange/finalreport/).

An award has been made to Washington University in St. Louis to conduct a workshop from February 13-16, 2017 to promote the mission of the Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Education (PULSE). PULSE is a national network of current and former department chairs and administrators from a variety of institutional types. The PULSE Fellows seek to catalyze improvement in undergraduate life science education through promoting adoption of the recommendations in the Vision and Change Report (2011). This important report highlights that biology students are more successful when they learn underlying organizing concepts, rather than an accumulation of facts and information; when they develop important skills such as effective communication of ideas, designing experiments and interpreting data; when they learn in classrooms that engage them actively in the process of constructing their own understanding; and when they have the opportunity to participate in high impact practices such as undergraduate research or internships. Despite this wealth of data, most biology departments have not embraced this approach, but progress is being made. PULSE has already worked with over 180 institutions since 2013 and seeks to expand this number significantly over the next few years.The next PULSE workshop will be held at HHMI Headquarters in Chevy Chase, MD and will include approximately 50 PULSE Fellows, invited experts in institutional change and effective teaching and learning, and several facilitators. The goal of this meeting is to ensure that PULSE's multiple programs are well coordinated for maximum effect and that they will be assessed appropriately to identify interventions most effective in catalyzing improvement in undergraduate education. The PULSE project seeks to promote department-wide change in educational practices. PULSE works with departmental faculty, including departmental leaders, to help them reach consensus about their vision. PULSE is also testing theories of change by assessing the long-term impact of its activities on changes in departmental pedagogies, curriculum, and co-curricular programs. By establishing which types of interventions are most effective at motivating sustained change, the project will enhance understanding of change strategies that advance the goal of better teaching and learning in life sciences and across STEM. PULSE's agenda will be measurably promoted by an in-person meeting of Fellows to coordinate their activities, to plan for transition to a financially self-sustaining organization, and to further integrate newer Fellows into the organization's programs. With the goal of tipping the balance in biology departments toward adoption of best educational practices, PULSE's programs have the potential to accelerate the reform of undergraduate biology education nationwide.This project is being jointly funded by the Directorate for Biological Sciences. Division of Biological Infrastructure and the Directorate for Education and Human Resources, Division of Undergraduate Education as part of their efforts to address the challenges posed in Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action (http://visionandchange/finalreport/).