Discovering Patterns in the Natural World Through Student Inquiry in Ecology and Biodiversity

这个项目扩大了CCLI之前拨款的范围，为密歇根大学动物博物馆赞助的动物多样性网络(ADW)结构化数据库建立了一个搜索引擎Quaardvark。Quaardvark查询工具允许根据生态、进化、解剖和生理兴趣的许多属性来搜索包含3500多个动物物种的信息和图像的数据库。研究人员发现它很有用，教师和他们的学生也是如此。它的灵活性导致它被用于密歇根大学以及密歇根和弗吉尼亚州其他一些学院和大学的课程活动。在这个新的奖项中，该项目已经扩大到为全国18所高校的教职员工网络提供服务。这些合作伙伴包括社区学院、文理学院、历史上的黑人大学、综合性州立大学、服务于拉美裔或美洲原住民人口的学院和大学，以及主要的研究型大学。帮助生物生物学教师将涉及ADW材料的活动纳入他们的课程。评估学生从这些活动中学习的工具正在开发中，Quaardvark正在进行修改，以访问除ADW之外的其他丰富集合的数据。由于学生可以在自己设计的问题上使用该系统，随着他们对生物学概念和搜索策略的理解变得更加熟练和成熟，即使是生物学的初学者也能够在越来越复杂的水平上进行研究。支持该项目的软件是免费的，因此它可以被世界各地的学生采用和改编，并被整合到其他促进数字STEM资源使用的网站上。该项目由生物科学局生物基础设施部和教育与人力资源局本科教育部联合资助，作为他们在本科生物学教育中实现愿景与变革的努力的一部分。

This project expands the reach of a previous CCLI grant to establish a search engine, Quaardvark, for the Animal Diversity Web (ADW) structured database sponsored by the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology. The Quaardvark query tool allows the database, which contains information and images for over 3,500 animal species, to be searched according to a number of properties of ecological, evolutionary, anatomical, and physiological interest. Researchers find it useful, as do teaching faculty and their students. Its flexibility has led to its being used for activities in courses at the University of Michigan and a number of additional colleges and universities in Michigan and Virginia. In this new award, the project has expanded to serve a network of faculty at 18 colleges and universities around the country. These partners include community colleges, liberal arts colleges, historically Black universities, comprehensive state universities, colleges and universities serving Hispanic or Native American populations, and major research universities. Teachers of organismal biology are assisted to integrate activities involving ADW materials into their curricula. Tools for assessment of student learning from these activities are under development, and Quaardvark is being modified to access data from other rich collections besides ADW. Because students can use the system on questions of their own design, even new students of biology are able to carry out research at progressively more intricate levels as they become more skilled and sophisticated in their understanding of biological concepts and searching strategies. Software supporting the project is freely available, so it can be adopted and adapted for students around the world and incorporated into other sites that promote the use of digital STEM resources.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 toward Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education .