Increasing Science Literacy in Microbiology through the Use of Open Education Resources

该项目旨在以一种新颖的方式吸引学生，提高他们对微生物学概念的理解，从而为国家利益服务。理解科学过程和培养批判性思维对每个人来说都是重要的技能，尤其是对在STEM领域从事职业的大学生来说。然而，学生们经常在学习如何有效地阅读、分析和写作科学方面遇到困难。此外，许多学生离开科学是因为他们觉得与传统的教学方法脱节，缺乏灵感。与此同时，教师们也在努力寻找有效和创新的教学资源，以使学生参与到科学过程中来。该项目旨在通过成功的创新方法解决这些问题，例如让学生在团队合作解决实际问题的同时进行科学实践，并生成现成的教学材料。教师和学生团队将基于科普播客创建可访问的免费学习材料。这个项目是新颖的，因为它将使用现代通信工具来吸引学生和教师。这些训练和学习材料对学生科学素养、认同和动机的影响将被调查。该项目还将进行评估，以确定培训教师在课堂上实施这些材料的最佳做法。该项目的一个指导任务是支持使用积极的方法和可获取的材料培养多样化的STEM劳动力，以培养科学素养和批判性思维。通过创建免费、适应性强、高质量和可获取的开放教育资源，该项目的重点是提高科学素养和批判性思维。此外，鉴于公共和广泛可用的资源通常通过消除无障碍障碍而吸引更多、更多样化的人群，该项目努力提高STEM教育的包容性。考虑到这些目标，该项目旨在扩展一个成功的数字倡议，使用“微生物学本周”（TWiM），这是一个播客，i)专业科学家讨论当前的论文，ii)根据知识共享协议授权，iii)由美国微生物学会支持。在这一倡议下，学生们在TWiM播客上注释他们认为其他本科生会感兴趣的材料（文化相关性、时事等），并将这些材料与课程的学习目标联系起来。关键是，该项目使用已知的方法来提高STEM的长期留存率，包括建立一个合作的教师学习社区，学生参与科学实践，建立学生的科学身份，以及研究相关的、现实世界的科学问题。这个项目有三个主要组成部分。首先，它旨在使用已建立的协作工作流程培训教师和学生。该工作流程的主要特点是使用可获取的学习方法和材料，包括代表性不足的群体，并且已知可以提高科学素养和促进科学身份的形成。其次，该项目旨在制作一本名为《播客注释资源：微生物学》的免费电子书。第三，该项目旨在使用经过验证的方法来评估这些主动学习材料对促进STEM长期成功的已知指标的影响：学生对内容的理解、STEM动机、科学素养和科学身份。通过识别采用这种类型的主动学习和协作的好处和障碍，该项目将增强所有参与者在不同协作团队中处理复杂和相关主题时的学习经验。通过培训更多的教师，使用具有全球影响力的专业协会的播客，并通过参加会议和出版物传播研究成果，学习材料和方法的可用性将使全国各地的教师能够轻松地找到并采用积极的学习材料。NSF IUSE: EDU项目支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。通过其参与学生学习轨道，该计划支持有前途的实践和工具的创建，探索和实施。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。

This project aims to serve the national interest by engaging students in a novel way to improve their understanding of microbiology concepts. Understanding the scientific process and developing critical thinking are important skills for everyone, but especially for college students pursuing careers in STEM fields. However, students frequently struggle with learning how to effectively read, analyze, and write about science. Moreover, many students leave science because they feel unconnected and uninspired by traditional teaching methods. At the same time, teachers struggle to find teaching resources that are effective and innovative to engage their students in the scientific process. This project aims to address these issues using successful innovative methods such as having students practice science while working in teams on real problems and generating readily available teaching materials. Teams of teachers and students will create accessible and free learning materials based on popular science podcasts. The project is novel because it will use modern communication tools to engage students and teachers. The impact of these training and learning materials on student science literacy, identity, and motivation will be investigated. The project will also be evaluated to determine best practices for training faculty to implement these materials in the classroom.A guiding imperative of this project is to support the training of a diverse STEM workforce using active methods and accessible materials that build science literacy and critical thinking. Through the creation of open education resources, which are free, adaptable, of high quality, and accessible, this project is focused on enhancing science literacy and critical thinking. Moreover, this project strives to increase inclusivity in STEM education given that publicly and widely available resources usually engage larger, more diverse populations by removing accessibility barriers. With these goals in mind, this project aims to expand a successful digital initiative that uses "This Week in Microbiology (TWiM)," a podcast that i) features professional scientists discussing current papers, ii) is licensed under Creative Commons, and iii) is supported by the American Society for Microbiology. Under this initiative students annotate the TWiM podcasts with materials they think other undergraduates would connect with (cultural relevancy, current events, etc.) and tie these back to a course’s learning objectives. Critically, the project uses methods known to increase long term retention in STEM, including building a collaborative faculty learning community, student participation in the practice of science, building student science identity, and working on relevant, real-world scientific problems. There are three main components to this project. First, it aims to train teachers and students using an established collaborative workflow. Key features of this workflow are the use of learning methods and materials that are accessible, inclusive of underrepresented groups, and known to increase science literacy and promote the formation of science identity. Second, the project aims to produce a free electronic book called Podcast Annotation Resources: Microbiology. Third, the project aims to use validated methods to assess the effect of these active learning materials on metrics known to promote long-term STEM success: student content understanding, STEM motivation, science literacy, and science identity. By identifying benefits and barriers to adoption of this type of active learning and collaboration, the project will enhance the learning experiences of all participants as they work on complex and relevant topics in diverse collaborative teams. By training additional faculty, using a professional society’s podcast with a global reach, and disseminating research findings through meeting attendance and publication, the availability of learning materials and methods will enable teachers across the nation to easily find and adopt active learning materials. The NSF IUSE: EDU Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through its Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.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.