RCN-UBE Incubator: Diversifying and integrating marine education at field stations along a latitudinal gradient

RCN-UBE 孵化器：沿着纬度梯度在野外站实现海洋教育的多样化和一体化

• 批准号: 2018116
• 负责人: Mark Denny
• 金额: $ 7.44万
• 依托单位: Stanford University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-08-01 至 2022-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2018116&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RCN; UBE; Incubator; Diversifying; integrating

Hands-on learning at field stations is transformative and has positive outcomes on student's knowledge and long-term engagement with science. Abstract concepts are brought to life in the field because the natural world stimulates students’ curiosity, encourages active participation, and builds team camaraderie. For these reasons and more, the recommendations for implementing change in undergraduate biology education (e.g., ‘integrating core concepts’, ‘focus on student-centered learning’; AAAS 2011) are exemplified by field coursework and research. Despite their proven benefits, opportunities for fieldwork in undergraduate biology education are waning. This is alarming in light of rapidly increasing human impacts on ecosystems, and the growing disconnect between people and nature. To address this ‘nature deficit’, the Diversify and Integrate Marine Education at Stations (DIMES) network will engage scientists and learners at marine stations along the west coast of the North America to create a unified curriculum that documents change in biodiversity while combining fieldwork and computational literacy in undergraduate education. By connecting participants from a variety of academic institutions, the DIMES network will diversify the undergraduate audience served by marine stations. By integrating a field curriculum across western North America, educators will engage students with pressing scientific questions in an age of rapid biological change. This network will leverage the existing undergraduate teaching at participating marine laboratories and expand their reach to new students who lack access to experiential learning.Field courses share a common philosophy centered on local natural history and experiential learning, but this knowledge is rarely placed within a broader context in an explicit, quantitative manner – a shortcoming in an era of global human impacts. The proposed unified field curriculum will integrate the traditional place-based approach within a biogeographic framework by developing innovative modules that combine data across the network to address questions at larger spatial and temporal scales. By linking explicitly environmental change, biogeography, and natural history, the DIMES network will maintain the relevance of curricula offered at these stations and export the modules to other institutions. Moreover, the network will develop a partnership of educators from diverse institutions that span R1 to community college, and that vary in their shore access, to expand the reach of marine stations beyond their walls. This network of instructors will develop curricula and assessment tools that can be implemented in classrooms with varying levels of field time, with the goal of identifying mechanisms to minimize the hypothesized learning gap between students with and without shore access.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.

在实地考察站的实践学习具有变革性，对学生的知识和长期参与科学有积极的影响。抽象的概念在田野中变得栩栩如生，因为自然世界激发了学生的好奇心，鼓励他们积极参与，并建立了团队友谊。由于这些原因，在本科生物教育中实施变革的建议(例如，“整合核心概念”、“注重以学生为中心的学习”；AAAS 2011)以实地课程和研究为例。尽管它们的好处得到了证实，但在本科生物教育中进行实地考察的机会正在减少。鉴于人类对生态系统的影响迅速增加，以及人与自然之间日益脱节，这是令人震惊的。为了解决这一“自然缺陷”，海洋教育站多样化和一体化(DIMES)网络将吸引北美西海岸海洋站的科学家和学习者创建统一的课程，记录生物多样性的变化，同时将实地考察和本科教育中的计算能力结合起来。通过将来自不同学术机构的参与者联系起来，DIMES网络将使海洋电台服务的本科生受众多样化。通过整合整个北美西部的实地课程，教育工作者将使学生在一个快速生物变化的时代提出紧迫的科学问题。该网络将利用参与的海洋实验室现有的本科教学，并将其覆盖到缺乏体验式学习机会的新生。实地课程分享以当地自然历史和体验式学习为中心的共同哲学，但这些知识很少以明确、定量的方式放在更广泛的背景下--在一个全球人类影响的时代，这是一个缺点。拟议的统一外地课程将把传统的以地点为基础的方法纳入生物地理学框架，方法是开发创新的模块，将整个网络的数据结合起来，在更大的空间和时间尺度上解决问题。通过明确地将环境变化、生物地理学和自然历史联系起来，DIMES网络将保持这些站提供的课程的相关性，并将模块输出到其他机构。此外，该网络将与来自不同机构的教育工作者建立伙伴关系，从R1到社区大学，这些机构在岸上的通道各不相同，以扩大海洋站的覆盖范围。这个教师网络将开发课程和评估工具，这些课程和评估工具可以在不同级别的现场时间的教室中实施，目的是确定各种机制，以最大限度地缩小有陆上通道和没有岸边通道的学生之间的假设学习差距。该项目由生物科学局、生物基础设施司和教育和人力资源局联合资助，本科教育司作为他们努力应对本科生物学教育的愿景与变革：行动呼吁(http://visionandchange/finalreport/).This奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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)提出的挑战的一部分。