Collaborative Research: Connecting Undergraduate Biology Through Systems and Systems Thinking

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This project aims to serve the national interest by identifying core thinking skills required for reasoning about complex biological systems. Specifically, this project will develop strategies and tools to integrate systems and systems thinking as organizing principles in undergraduate biology. Systems are ‘complex’ when their parts interact to produce outcomes that cannot be predicted. Reasoning about biological systems requires thinking skills that extend far beyond knowing the facts about the system’s parts. It requires thinking in terms of systems of parts. Such thinking is a foundational practice across STEM but is rarely taught as an explicit educational objective. Despite the emphasis on systems in national reports informing life sciences education, little guidance exists about specific objectives for systems learning, strategies for assessing evidence of systems thinking, or instructional approaches that foster systems thinking competencies. This project aims to conduct research that will identify and provide evidence for a framework of systems thinking skills that will serve undergraduate biology teaching and learning. This work will involve postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, and undergraduates in qualitative and quantitative research methods, training them to conduct novel research and development in STEM education. The project will engage college faculty and K-12 teachers in professional development and collaborative relationships that promote their abilities to develop systems thinking curricula and assessments. The project has the potential to encourage integration of systems thinking skill development in undergraduate biology teaching and learning nationwide. In biological systems, organisms interact with each other and their environments in variable and dynamic ways that can be amplified or dampened in response to myriad factors (e.g., signals from the environment; feedback from other interactions). This project aims to translate research findings into practical tools and curricular materials that will support instructors’ abilities to bring systems thinking into their biology classrooms. The project will seek evidence to identify a set of skills that are fundamental for representing and reasoning about systems in undergraduate biology. It is hypothesized that a Biology Systems Thinking (BST) framework will emerge from this work, providing an integrated perspective about the concepts and competencies identified in nationally recognized curricular frameworks, as well as offering practical scaffolds to support design of assessments to measure these higher-level thinking skills. Iterative cycles of materials development, validity research, field-testing, and revision will produce: (a) an evidence-based systems thinking framework (the BST) for undergraduate biology education; (b) instructional materials and assessment templates that enable instructors to customize BST principles to serve a range of classroom contexts; and (c) a dissemination plan that integrates materials development with instructor professional development. In this model, instructor-collaborators become owners in the process of designing and authoring curricular materials as well as sources of feedback that further inform BST research, design, and development. This project is supported by the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Program: Education and Human Resources, which supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.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.