RCN-UBE Incubator: Creating a More inclusive Biology Curriculum

为了使生物教育对所有学生更具包容性并提高生物素养，该RCN将汇集来自生物学、生物教育和性别研究领域的跨学科学者团队，以解决可能影响生物教育的系统性性别不平等问题。多个对教育感兴趣的机构正在呼吁创造一个更具包容性的生物学。然而，大多数关于包容性的工作都集中在教学实践上，而不是生物学课程本身。这是一个失去的机会，因为研究表明，教授的内容可以影响学生的学习。RCN-UBE孵化器项目将建立一个由来自发育生物学、进化生物学、生态学、遗传学、生理学和性别研究的学者组成的跨学科网络，专注于协调生物学中性别本质主义的研究和课程开发。这项工作将包括：1)确定生物学课程中可能影响生物教育中系统性性别不平等的主题；2)制定指导方针，帮助教师创建和评估这些主题的课程教学效果；3)收集现有资源，开发影响生物教育中系统性性别不平等的课程；4)确定未来工作的方向。该网络将是生物学领域在课程改革中扩大教育研究以增加包容性的首批努力之一。该项目由生物基础设施司生物科学司和教育和人力资源司本科教育司共同资助，作为其应对“本科生物学教育的愿景与变革：行动呼吁”（http://visionandchange/finalreport）所提出的挑战的努力的一部分。该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知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

To make biology education more inclusive for all students and improve biological literacy, this RCN will bring together an interdisciplinary team of scholars from across biology, biology education, and gender studies to address systemic gender inequities that may impact biology education. Multiple agencies interested in education are calling for the creation of a more inclusive biology. Yet, most of the work on inclusion has focused on pedagogical practice and not the biology curriculum itself. This is a lost opportunity, as research shows that the content that is taught can impact students’ learning. This network will be one of the first efforts in biology to expand education research into curriculum to increasing inclusionThis RCN-UBE incubator project will develop an inaugural interdisciplinary network of scholars from developmental biology, evolutionary biology, ecology, genetics, physiology, and gender studies focused on coordinating research and curriculum development on gender essentialism in biology. This effort will involve: 1) identifying topics in biology courses that potentially affect systemic gender inequities in biology education, 2) developing guidelines to help instructors create and assess the effectiveness of curricula teaching these topics; 3) collecting existing resources for developing curricula that impact systemic gender inequities in biology education; and 4) determining directions for future work. The network will be one of the first efforts in biology to expand education research in curriculum reform to increasing inclusion. 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.