RCN-UBE Incubator: Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences for Students Underrepresented in Biology

该项目的目标是为在生物学领域未被充分代表的学生在细胞遗传学和社会生物学方面建立多方面的基于课程的本科研究经验。社区学院为美国近一半的本科生提供服务，其中包括许多低收入的少数民族，第一代和代表性不足的学生，其中许多学生都在追求生物学的职业。在这个瞬息万变的领域，社区大学教师拥有反映生物学最新发现和创新数据分析方法的最新教材是很重要的。该网络将提供合适的教学材料，并提供专业发展，目标是结合尖端生物学研究和高影响力的教学实践，以提高学生的成绩。授权社区大学教师提高学生的成功将对科学和技术劳动力的资格和多样性产生重大影响。这个项目将在爱德华沃特斯学院进行，这是佛罗里达州第一所独立的高等教育机构，也是佛罗里达州第一所为非裔美国人建立的教育机构。DNA序列数据的广泛使用增强了对生物学的理解，给生物学教育者带来了独特的挑战。计算机和数据科学的技能已经成为学生的核心能力，尽管许多生物学教师完成了正式的培训，却没有有效从事这一领域所需的计算专业知识。该网络将汇集组学（蛋白质组学、转录组学、代谢组学）教育网络的成员，利用他们的综合专业知识来确定和管理通用分析工具、相关课程和评估材料以及教师培训策略，以促进组学教学的采用。通过使现有资源可访问，该网络将使现有教师能够指导生物学本科学生参与真正的研究项目。这些工作将提高学生的能力，使他们成为技术劳动力中有生产力的成员，在生物学和相关学科的毕业后学习中取得成功，并成为更明智的公民和决策者。该网络将制定一套经过审查的资源和培训材料，通过单一门户网站向教育界分发，供本科教室使用。该网络还将促进兼职生物学教员的准备工作，并招募未来的初级教员，否则这些教员可能没有机会与全国各地的终身教员建立关系。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。

The goal of this project is to establish multi-faceted course-based undergraduate research experiences in cellular genetics and socio-biology for students underrepresented in biology. Community colleges serve almost half of the undergraduates in the U.S., including many minority low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented students, and many of these students are pursuing careers in biology. In this rapidly changing field, it is important that community college faculty have up-to-date teaching materials that reflect the most recent discoveries in biology and innovative data-analysis approaches. This network will bring appropriate teaching materials and offer professional development with the goal of incorporating cutting-edge biology research and high-impact teaching practices to improve student outcomes. Empowering community college faculty to increase student success will have a significant impact on the qualifications and diversity of the science and technology workforce. This project will take place at Edward Waters College, distinctively the state of Florida’s first independent institution of higher learning as well as Florida’s first institution established for the education of African Americans. The wide-spread use of DNA sequence data to enhance biological understanding, brings unique challenges for biology educators. Skills from computer and data sciences have become core competencies for students even though many biology faculty completed formal training without the computational expertise needed to effectively engage in this field. This network will bring together members of OMICS ((proteomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics)) education networks, leveraging their combined expertise to identify and curate common analysis tools, associated curricular and assessment materials, and faculty training strategies to facilitate the adoption of OMICS instruction. By making existing resources accessible, the network will enable current faculty to guide undergraduate biology students participating in authentic research projects. Such work will enhance the ability of students to become productive members of the technological work-force, to succeed in post-graduation studies in biology and related disciplines, and to be better informed citizens and decision makers. The network will develop a consensus set of vetted resources and training materials to be disseminated to the education community through a single web portal for use in undergraduate classrooms. The network will also advance preparation of adjunct biology faculty and recruitment of future junior faculty, who might not otherwise have the opportunity to build relationships with tenured faculty around the country. 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.