RCN-UBE Incubator: Enhancing Undergraduate Biology Education through Science Communication

RCN-UBE 孵化器：通过科学传播加强本科生物学教育

• 批准号: 1920054
• 负责人: Shannon Murphy
• 金额: $ 7.5万
• 依托单位: University of Denver
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-09-01 至 2021-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1920054&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RCN; UBE; Incubator; Enhancing; Undergraduate

Confronting the accelerated pace of environmental change demands both a scientifically literate public and a new generation of ecologists and other scientists prepared to communicate scientific knowledge to educators, policymakers, managers, and others. In recent years, efforts have been made to enhance the communication skills of graduate students and faculty. However, undergraduate students far outnumber scientists with advanced degrees and are likely to interact frequently with a broad set of public stakeholders. Biology undergraduates are ideally situated to help translate science and reach a broad audience. To better serve these roles, undergraduates need formal training and practice in science communication. The SciComm RCN-UBE will unify a group of researchers dedicated to improving the communication skills of undergraduate students so they may more effectively convey scientific discoveries to the public. Effective science communication of all types engages citizens in scientific practices and discovery, educates policymakers, and facilitates an accurate representation of the scientific process and its discoveries.Work to enhance undergraduate science communication is currently happening in silos with little communication between them. There is thus a need to bring practitioners together to assess best practices and articulate a clear research agenda. To that end, the SciComm Network has two objectives: 1) build a collaborative, interdisciplinary community of scholars dedicated to training undergraduate students in effective science communication for the public; and 2) disseminate teaching tools, articulate a research agenda, and plan for objective evaluation of undergraduate science communication training programs. These objectives will be achieved by holding a workshop to facilitate collaboration between faculty from eleven diverse institutions--public and private universities, minority-serving institutions, a museum, a military academy, and community colleges--evaluating existing science communication programs and generating a web-based repository of undergraduate science communication resources. SciComm also aims to identify outstanding "grand challenges" in science communication education and consult with science learning researchers and evaluators to provide quantitative and qualitative assessments of the role of training in developing undergraduate communication skills, content knowledge, and self-efficacy. In this way, SciComm will move the field beyond acknowledging the need to train undergraduate students in science communication to improving how it is done, thereby impacting the perception and understanding of science by the public at large.Co-funding for this project is being provided by the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE: EHR) program in recognition of the project's alignment with the overarching goals of the IUSE: EHR program.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.

面对环境变化的加速，需要有科学素养的公众和新一代生态学家和其他科学家，准备向教育者、政策制定者、管理者和其他人传播科学知识。近年来，我们努力提高研究生和教师的沟通能力。然而，本科生的数量远远超过拥有高级学位的科学家，并且可能与广泛的公共利益相关者频繁互动。生物学本科生非常适合帮助翻译科学并接触到广泛的受众。为了更好地发挥这些作用，本科生需要科学传播方面的正式培训和实践。 SciComm RCN-UBE 将联合一群致力于提高本科生沟通技巧的研究人员，以便他们能够更有效地向公众传达科学发现。所有类型的有效科学传播都让公民参与科学实践和发现，教育政策制定者，并促进科学过程及其发现的准确表述。目前，加强本科生科学传播的工作是在各自为政的情况下进行的，他们之间的交流很少。因此，有必要将实践者聚集在一起评估最佳实践并制定明确的研究议程。为此，SciComm 网络有两个目标：1）建立一个协作的、跨学科的学者社区，致力于培训本科生为公众进行有效的科学传播； 2）传播教学工具，阐明研究议程，并计划对本科生科学传播培训项目进行客观评估。这些目标将通过举办研讨会来促进来自 11 个不同机构（公立和私立大学、少数民族服务机构、博物馆、军事学院和社区学院）的教师之间的合作来实现，评估现有的科学传播项目并生成基于网络的本科生科学传播资源库。 SciComm 还旨在确定科学传播教育中突出的“重大挑战”，并咨询科学学习研究人员和评估人员，对培训在培养本科生传播技能、内容知识和自我效能方面的作用提供定量和定性评估。通过这种方式，SciComm 将推动这一领域超越承认对本科生进行科学传播培训的需要，以改进科学传播的方式，从而影响广大公众对科学的看法和理解。该项目的共同资助由改善本科生 STEM 教育 (IUSE: EHR) 计划提供，以表彰该项目与 IUSE: EHR 计划的总体目标的一致性。该奖项反映了 NSF 的 法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。