Collaborative: Connecting Undergraduate Biology Through Systems and Systems Thinking

该项目旨在通过确定对复杂生物系统进行推理所需的核心思维技能来服务于国家利益。具体地说，这个项目将开发策略和工具，将系统和系统思维整合为本科生物学的组织原则。当系统的各个部分相互作用以产生无法预测的结果时，系统就是“复杂的”。关于生物系统的推理需要的思维技能远远超出了对系统各部分的了解。它需要从部件系统的角度进行思考。这种思维是STEM的一项基本实践，但很少被作为明确的教育目标来教授。尽管在向生命科学教育提供信息的国家报告中强调系统，但很少有关于系统学习的具体目标、评估系统思维证据的战略或培养系统思维能力的教学方法的指导意见。这个项目的目的是进行研究，以确定并提供证据，为服务于本科生物学教学的系统思维技能框架提供证据。这项工作将涉及博士后研究人员、研究生和本科生在定性和定量研究方法方面，培训他们在STEM教育中进行新的研究和开发。该项目将使大学教师和K-12教师参与专业发展和协作关系，以促进他们开发系统思维课程和评估的能力。该项目有可能鼓励在全国范围内的本科生物学教与学中整合系统思维技能的发展。在生物系统中，有机体以可变和动态的方式与彼此及其环境相互作用，这些方式可以因各种因素(例如，来自环境的信号；来自其他相互作用的反馈)而被放大或抑制。这个项目旨在将研究成果转化为实用工具和课程材料，以支持教师将系统思维带入他们的生物课堂的能力。该项目将寻找证据，以确定一套技能，这些技能是在本科生物学中表示和推理系统的基本技能。假设这项工作将形成生物学系统思维(BST)框架，为国家认可的课程框架中确定的概念和能力提供一个综合的视角，并提供实用的支架来支持评估的设计，以衡量这些更高水平的思维技能。教材开发、有效性研究、实地测试和修订的迭代周期将产生：(A)本科生生物学教育的循证系统思维框架(BST)；(B)使教师能够定制BST原则以服务于各种课堂背景的教学材料和评估模板；以及(C)将教材开发与教师专业发展相结合的传播计划。在这种模式中，教师-合作者在设计和创作课程材料的过程中成为所有者，并成为进一步为BST研究、设计和开发提供信息的反馈来源。该项目得到了NSF改善本科生STEM教育计划：教育和人力资源的支持，该计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生的STEM教育的有效性。通过参与的学生学习路径，该计划支持有前景的实践和工具的创建、探索和实施。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.