RCN-UBE: Quantitative Biology at Community Colleges

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Life sciences students must be well equipped with the mathematical and quantitative skills to work in the increasingly data-rich careers in biotechnology, health care, and agriculture. Community colleges serve almost half of the undergraduates in the U.S., including many minority, low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented students, and many of these students are pursuing careers in life sciences. In this rapidly changing field, it is important that community college faculty have up-to-date teaching materials that reflect the most recent discoveries in biology and innovative data-analysis approaches. This RCN-UBE network will bring together a community of two-year college faculty to create appropriate teaching materials and offer professional development with the goal of incorporating cutting-edge biology research and high-impact teaching practices to improve student outcomes. Empowering community college faculty to increase student success will have a significant impact on the qualifications and diversity of the science and technology workforce. The resources developed by the network will be openly licensed and available in the Quantitative Undergraduate Biology Education and Synthesis (QUBES), National Science Digital Library (NSDL), Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER), and similar open-access content hubs, thus sustaining the resources beyond the span of the grant. Professional development will be offered in person at various conferences and workshops, as well as virtually through the QUBES Faculty Mentoring Network model. This network focuses on generating materials for and by community college faculty; however, the Open Education Resources (OER) collection and the professional development designed to support the use of these materials are relevant for all biology faculty teaching introductory undergraduate courses, and faculty outside of the network are free to use and adapt the resources for their own curriculum. The network will advance preparation of adjunct faculty and recruitment of future faculty, who might not otherwise have the opportunity to build relationships with full-time community college faculty around the country. 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/).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.