Collaborative Research: Institutional and Community Transformation for Teaching and Learning Quantitative Reasoning in the Biological Sciences

合作研究：生物科学定量推理教学的机构和社区转型

• 批准号: 1821274
• 负责人: William LaCourse
• 金额: $ 143.35万
• 依托单位: University of Maryland Baltimore County
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-10-01 至 2024-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1821274&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Institutional; Community; Transformation

Quantitative reasoning (QR) involves the use of mathematical skills, such as algebra and statistical analysis, to understand and interpret data. The field of biology has become increasingly reliant on the use of quantitative reasoning to interpret large datasets, such as those gathered in genomic analysis and population studies. This project is designed to improve quantitative reasoning skills in students at community colleges preparing to transfer into biology majors at four-year institutions. These students are often underprepared to successfully complete biology majors and to continue to graduate education or to enter the STEM workforce. To achieve long-term gains in students' abilities to apply QR in biological contexts, this proposal seeks to leverage a university/community college partnership to expand and deepen the QR content in core biology courses across the major. The program aspires to provide a model for how consortia of community colleges and universities can facilitate course awareness and alignment to improve student gains in QR. This project will test the hypothesis that this type of collaboration enhances pedagogy and transfer student success at four-year institutions. Further, repeated interaction with QR modules within the core biology curricula are hypothesized to positively impact the success of all students in upper-level coursework. These efforts are designed to strengthen the course performance measures of all students, including both direct entry and transfer students. Improving student success and retention in STEM majors such as biology supports the goal of improving access of all students to scientific and technical careers.The focus of the project will be on enhancing the QR skills of undergraduates through the creation of active learning modules focused on quantitative skill development, verified with validated assessment instruments. Three scholarly communities will be established: 1) a Curricular Alignment Team, which will review curricula in four core courses (Introductory Biology: Cells and Molecules, Introductory Biology: Ecology and Evolution, Genetics, and Cell Biology) at the community colleges and the four-year institution in the collaboration, and identify areas for action, with emphasis on the development of QR abilities in biology majors; 2) the NEXUS Institute in Quantitative Biology, which will involve teams of faculty from each institution developing, piloting, and assessing QR modules for the core biology curricula and assessing the impact on student performance and retention; and 3) a Faculty Development Community, which will involve a series of shared faculty development workshops on evidence-based teaching approaches, to include the use of the created QR modules, and a common teaching certificate program. These three communities will come together annually at a regional symposium, where the consortium products (QR modules) and findings (student assessment data) will be disseminated. Taken together, this work will shape intra- and inter-institutional perspectives and practices relating to the importance of QR in the success of undergraduate biology majors. By developing faculty collaborations through the scholarly communities described above, this project will provide training in modern pedagogical methods and module development for biology faculty at community colleges and four-year institutions. The project will map the processes involved and disseminate the project findings widely to ensure that it serves as a model for other institutions that wish to take this approach to improve transfer student success and better prepare all biology majors for the modern STEM workforce.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

定量推理（QR）涉及使用数学技能（例如代数和统计分析）来理解和解释数据。 生物学领域越来越依赖于使用定量推理来解释大型数据集，例如在基因组分析和人口研究中收集的数据集。 该项目旨在提高准备转入四年制大学生物专业的社区学院学生的定量推理技能。 这些学生通常准备不足，无法成功完成生物学专业，并继续研究生教育或进入STEM劳动力市场。 为了实现学生在生物学背景下应用QR的能力的长期收益，该提案旨在利用大学/社区学院的合作伙伴关系，扩大和深化跨专业核心生物学课程的QR内容。 该计划旨在为社区学院和大学联盟如何促进课程意识和调整以提高学生在QR中的收益提供一个模型。 该项目将测试的假设，这种类型的合作，提高教学和转移学生在四年制院校的成功。 此外，在核心生物课程中与QR模块的反复互动被假设为对所有学生在高级课程中的成功产生积极影响。 这些努力的目的是加强所有学生，包括直接入学和转学学生的课程成绩的措施。 提高学生的成功和保留在STEM专业，如生物学支持改善所有学生获得科学和技术职业的目标。该项目的重点将是通过创建专注于定量技能发展的主动学习模块来提高本科生的QR技能，并通过有效的评估工具进行验证。 将建立三个学术团体：1）课程调整小组，将审查四门核心课程的课程（生物学导论：细胞和分子，生物学导论：生态学和进化，遗传学和细胞生物学）在社区学院和四年制机构的合作，并确定行动领域，重点是在生物学专业的QR能力的发展; 2）NEXUS定量生物学研究所，将涉及来自每个机构的教师团队开发，试点和评估核心生物学课程的QR模块，并评估对学生表现和保留的影响;以及3）教师发展社区，这将包括一系列关于循证教学方法的共享教师发展研讨会，包括使用创建的QR模块，以及一个通用的教学证书程序。 这三个团体每年将在一次区域研讨会上聚集一堂，在研讨会上将传播联合会的产品（QR模块）和调查结果（学生评估数据）。 两者合计，这项工作将塑造内部和机构间的观点和做法有关的QR本科生物专业的成功的重要性。 通过上述学术团体发展教师合作，该项目将为社区学院和四年制学院的生物学教师提供现代教学方法和模块开发方面的培训。 该项目将绘制所涉及的过程，并广泛传播项目结果，以确保它作为希望采取这种方法来提高转学生成功率的其他机构的典范，并为现代STEM劳动力更好地准备所有生物专业。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。