RCN-UBE Incubator: U2-SAFE: Unifying Undergraduate Student Access to Field Experiences using The Virtual Field Platform

该项目将创建一个新的网络，由野外工作站和海洋实验室的工作人员与社区学院、部落学院、专业学生组织和少数民族服务机构的教师和学生以及具有视频内容创作者的教育工作者组成。这个研究协调网络孵化器将采用为Virtual Field平台（thevirtualfield.org）开发的虚拟学习产品，以应对COVID-19旅行限制，并根据学生的反馈进行改进和完善。在数十万大学生中，只有一小部分可以在自然区域进行研究和上课。该项目将水下沿海海洋和河口社区，广阔的草原，高山森林和岩石山麓带进课堂，并以录音和现场教学以及真实的科学家和研究生为榜样，使更广泛的大学生能够体验，观察，编目和探索自然世界。基于地点的学习体验对本科生产生了深远的影响，与所研究的概念建立了更深的联系，长期参与科学，并接触到这些受众不熟悉的STEM职业发展。全球分布着1268个陆地，沿海和海洋站，超过75%与大学有关，野外工作站和海洋实验室（FSML）处于独特的位置，以满足下一代本科生物学学生的需求。不幸的是，许多学生无法访问这些通常偏远的地方，可以进行动手研究。此外，在相距甚远的地点进行跨地点比较研究可能极为困难。该项目将采用以前创建的视频和课程，培训FSML工作人员和相关教师开发额外的材料，并通过教师和学生的直接反馈来磨练结果，为从地质学到水文学到生物学的各种学科创建自适应模块。该项目由生物科学理事会，生物基础设施部，作为应对本科生物学教育中的愿景和变革所带来的挑战的努力的一部分：行动呼吁（http：//visionandchange/finalreport/）。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得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来支持。

This project will create a new network composed of staff at field stations and marine labs combined with faculty and students at community colleges, tribal colleges, professional student organizations, and minority serving institutions, and educators with video content creators. This research coordination network incubator will take the virtual learning products developed for the Virtual Field platform (thevirtualfield.org) in response to COVID-19 travel restrictions and improve and refine them with feedback from students. Only a small proportion of the hundreds of thousands of college students can be hosted at natural areas to conduct research and take classes. This project brings underwater coastal marine and estuarine communities, vast grasslands, alpine forests, and rocky foothills into the classroom with both recorded and live instruction and real scientists and graduate students as role models, enabling a broader range of college students to experience, observe, catalog, and explore the natural world. Place-based learning experiences have a profound effect on undergraduate students, creating deeper connections with the concepts studied, a long-term engagement in sciences, and exposure to developing STEM careers unfamiliar to these audiences.With a global distribution of 1268 terrestrial, coastal, and marine stations, over 75% affiliated with universities, Field Stations and Marine Labs (FSMLs) are in a unique position to respond to the needs of the next generation of undergraduate biology students. Unfortunately, many students are unable to visit these often-remote locations where hands-on research can be conducted. In addition, it can be extremely difficult to conduct cross-site comparative research in locations that are far apart. This project will take the videos and curriculum created previously, train FSML staff and associated faculty to develop additional material and hone the results with direct feedback from faculty and students to create adaptive modules for a variety of disciplines from geology to hydrology to biology.This project is funded by the Directorate for Biological Sciences, Division of Biological Infrastructure, as part of 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.