RCN-UBE Incubator: The Campus as a Living Lab

该项目旨在通过增加四年制和社区学院的本科生参与真实和相关的STEM研究的机会来服务于国家利益。随着本地蜜蜂校园作为生活实验室（CALL）研究工具包的发展，该项目将解决教师在这样做时经常面临的两个主要障碍，即有限的时间和资源。CALL研究工具包将包括材料和分步说明，以启动和扩大校园本土蜜蜂生物多样性的研究。所有重要信息也将以西班牙语编写。网络教师参与者将接受工具包的培训，以便他们能够向学生介绍各自校园的生物多样性研究。有了这个易于实施和低成本的工具包，教师和学生可以把他们的校园和附近的自然区域成为研究地点。这种经验将增加学生的知识和意识，关于本地蜜蜂分布，生态学，和栖息地丰富的科学。 为学生提供这种研究机会将增强学生与校园，教授和同学的联系，从而增加他们在STEM学位和职业道路中的归属感和保留感。 该项目的主要目标是在社区学院和四年制学院建立一个教师网络，将本土蜜蜂生物多样性研究纳入其课程。该项目的主要目标包括：1）建立教师网络，2）创建，beta测试和完善本地蜜蜂校园作为一个生活实验室（CALL）工具包。PI和指导委员会成员将开发和扩大社区学院和四年制机构的全国网络，代表地理和生态上不同的地点。与许多两年制学院建立网络，这些学院为高比例的代表性不足的学生提供服务，将实现多个目标，其中包括增加教师分享最佳实践信息的机会，将研究经验制度化为课程，加强学生转学到四年制院校的途径，并为学生和教师之间的合作创造机会。 本地蜜蜂生物多样性数据将输入公共数据库，并在网络参与者之间共享。因此，这项研究将有助于当地和全球范围内的本土蜜蜂保护。共享的数据库将使人们有可能确定在校园本地蜜蜂物种组成的差距。这些差距可以通过有针对性的生境丰富来填补。通过这种方式，社区大学校园内的大型景观地块最终可以作为栖息地岛屿和走廊。该项目由生物基础设施司生物科学理事会和本科教育司教育和人力资源理事会共同资助，作为其努力应对本科生物学教育中的愿景和变革所带来的挑战的一部分：行动呼吁（http：//visionandchange/finalreport/）。该项目还得到了NSF HSI和IUSE：EHR计划的支持。该奖项反映了NSF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。

This project aims to serve the national interest by increasing opportunities for undergraduate students at four-year and community colleges to engage in authentic and relevant STEM research. With the development of a native bee Campus as a Living Lab (CALL) research toolkit, the project will address two main barriers that faculty regularly face in doing so, limited time and resources. The CALL research toolkit will include materials and step-by-step instructions to initiate and expand the study of campus native bee biodiversity. All essential information will be developed in Spanish as well. Network faculty participants will receive training with the toolkit so that they can introduce students to biodiversity research on their respective campuses. With this easy-to-implement and low-cost toolkit, faculty and students can turn their campuses and nearby natural areas into research locations. This experience will increase students’ knowledge and awareness regarding native bee distribution, ecology, and to the science of habitat enrichment. Providing students this research opportunity will enhance student’s connection to their campus, professors, and fellow students, thereby increasing their sense of belonging and retention within STEM degree and career paths. The project's primary goal is to develop a network of faculty at community colleges and four-year institutions who incorporate native bee biodiversity research into their courses. Key objectives of this project include: 1) building the network of faculty, and 2) creating, beta testing, and refining the native bee Campus As a Living Lab (CALL)Toolkit. The PIs and steering committee members will develop and expand a nationwide network of community colleges and four-year institutions, representing geographically and ecologically varied locations. Developing a network with many two-year colleges who serve a high percentage of underrepresented students will achieve multiple goals, which include increasing opportunities for faculty to share information on best practices to institutionalizing research experiences into courses, strengthening the pathway for students to transfer to four-year institutions, and generating opportunities for collaboration among students and faculty. Native bee biodiversity data will be entered into public databases and will be shared among the network participants. Therefore, this research will contribute to native bee conservation on a local and global scale. The shared data base will make it possible to identify gaps in native bee species composition on campuses. These gaps could then be filled by using targeted habitat enrichment. In this way, the large landscape parcels on community college campuses can ultimately serve as habitat islands and corridors. 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 project is also supported by the NSF HSI and IUSE: EHR programs.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.