RCN-UBE Incubator: Building an interdisciplinary regional network to expose under-represented students to biological research in its community context

研究表明，服务不足的学生通常很少有机会参与高影响力的研究活动，而第一代大学生希望他们的学习与他们的家庭社区联系起来。当教育工作者试图提高本科生的研究机会时，他们往往只把重点放在挑选出来的学生进行一对一的教师指导研究上，而没有把研究与学生的日常生活联系起来。所有学生都应该有机会参与研究，在研究的内容、过程和应用之间建立明确的联系，否则他们可能无法看到生物科学与自己生活的相关性。RNC-UBE孵化器网络将通过为学生提供基于课程的机会，让他们接触到由区域组织提供的真实数据集，从而消除这些障碍，这些组织的工作以生物研究为依据。因此，所有参加生物学入门课程的学生都将在有社会意义和应用的社区背景下建立研究技能。此外，通过参与该区域网络开发的基于课程的研究模块，学生将对就业市场的多样性有更深入的了解，因为这与生物研究期间获得的技能有关。这个网络汇集了来自不同大学、社区学院的教育工作者，以及来自城市卫生部门、国家认可的灵长类动物研究中心和负责生态管理的主要地区河流管理局的研究科学家。网络成员将参加旨在开发基于课程的本科生研究经验（CUREs）的研讨会，该研讨会将作为生物学入门课程的试点模块实施。研讨会还将确定模块与核心课程学习目标、社区合作伙伴需求以及实施的潜在障碍的一致性。在CURE试点模块期间，学生将收集和分析有关遗传性遗传病、糖尿病、癌症或社区环境威胁的患病率和差异的数据集，其中许多疾病对该网络的主要西班牙裔人口造成了不成比例的负担。这个RCN-UBE孵化器将增加学生、学术界、工业界和社区公民服务机构之间的合作研究，从而增强未来STEM劳动力的多样性。参与这些模块的学生将通过与公众团体、家庭成员和网络代表分享他们的成果来培养科学传播的技能。该网络的影响将超出学生和教师的范围，包括那些原本接触科学研究的机会有限的社区成员，从而培养对生物研究的积极态度，并增加家庭成员对孩子STEM教育的参与和支持。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。本项目也得到了NSF HSI和IUSE:EHR项目的支持。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。

Research has shown that under-served students typically have few opportunities to engage in high-impact research activities and that first-generation college students want their learning to be connected to their home communities. When educators attempt to improve upon undergraduate research opportunities they frequently focus on placing only select students in one-on-one faculty mentored research and fail to link the research to the students’ daily lives. All students should have an opportunity to participate in research in ways that make explicit connections between the content, process, and application of research, or they risk not being able to see the relevance of biological science to their own lives. This RNC-UBE incubator network will remove these barriers by developing course-based opportunities for students to engage with real-life data sets provided by regional organizations whose work is informed by biological research. Therefore, all students taking introductory biology courses will build research skills within a socially meaningful and applied community context. Furthermore, by participating in the course-based research modules developed by this regional network, students will gain a greater understanding of job market diversity as it pertains to skills gained during biological research. This network brings together educators from different universities, community colleges, as well as research scientists from an urban health department, a nationally recognized primate research center, and a major regional river authority tasked with ecological stewardship. The network members will participate in workshops designed to develop course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) which will be implemented as pilot modules in introductory biology courses. Workshops will also identify alignment of modules with core curriculum learning objectives, community partner needs, and potential barriers to implementation. During the pilot CURE modules students will collect and analyze data sets on the prevalence and disparities of heritable genetic disorders, diabetes, cancer or environmental threats to the community, many of which disproportionately burden the network’s predominately Hispanic population. This RCN-UBE Incubator will increase collaborative research among students, academia, industry, and community civic services and thus enhance the diversity of the future STEM workforce. Students participating in the modules will develop skills in science communication by sharing their results with public groups, family members and network representatives. The impact of the network will extend beyond students and faculty to include members of the community who might otherwise have limited exposure to scientific research, thereby nurturing positive attitudes towards biological research and increased engagement and support of family members with their children’s STEM education. This project is being jointly funded by the Directorate for Biological Sciences, Division of Biological Infrastructure, and the Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR), 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.