Pilot of Southeast Regional PULSE (SERP) Institute for Inspiring and Supporting Department-wide Reform of Undergraduate Life Sciences Education

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An award has been made to coordinate and evaluate the first Southeast Regional PULSE (SERP) Institute, which will be held on the campus of the University of Richmond from June 18-22, 2014. The Institute promotes the mission of the Partnership for Undergraduate Life Science Education (PULSE) to stimulate whole departments to undertake the type of transformative changes recommended in the report Vision and Change in Undergraduate Education: A Call to Action (AAAS, 2011), so as to promote student learning of core concepts and competencies, improve student retention in the sciences, and produce more curious and scientifically literate citizens. In September 2012, the PULSE founders from HHMI, NIGMS, and NSF appointed 40 Vision and Change Leadership Fellows to pursue this mission, and the SERP Institute will be coordinated by the 14 PULSE Fellows located in the Southeast.The current award funds the first Southeast PULSE Regional (SERP) Institute, which will host teams from up to 20 colleges and universities, with at least 30% from minority-serving institutions. The SERP Institute will begin with institutional teams conducting a departmental self-assessment using the STEM Department Evaluation Rubric developed by the Leadership Fellows, and participants will plan their attendance at subsequent workshops based on the areas they identify as unfamiliar and/or high priority for improvement. Each team's administrator will be encouraged to attend sessions led by administrators who have supported reform, and these leaders will share advice, successful strategies, and ways to overcome common obstacles. Prior to departure from the Institute, each team will develop an action plan to target improvements in their program for the next academic year and beyond. The project's assessment plan, developed in partnership with the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS), will include feedback on the structure and function of the Institute as well as evaluation of each team's progress based on data collected before, during and after the SERP Institute. Teams will also be encouraged to use particular assessment tools to evaluate student learning outcomes and dispositions as well as changes in faculty teaching practices and attitudes. Each team will provide an update on their progress during a poster discussion session at the annual meeting of the Association of Southeastern Biologists (which occurs ten months after the Institute), and the southeast PULSE Fellows will present the results of this project at the annual Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACS-COC) Conference, the AAC&U STEM Conference, disciplinary conferences, a publication in CBE-Life Sciences Education, and via the http://www.pulsecommunity.org website.This project is funded jointly by the Directorate for Biological Sciences and the Directorate of Education and Human Resources, Division of Undergraduate Education support of efforts to address the challenges posed in Vision and Change in Undergraduate Education: A Call to Action http://visionandchange.org/finalreport/.