Development of the Biology Competencies Assessment Series (BCAS)

该项目正在支持一个研讨会，召集生物教育研究人员制定生物能力评估系列（BCAS）的开发和验证计划。BCAS考试将包括多个选择题和简答题，由学生验证，旨在评估学生在学习生物学概念和实现“愿景与变革：行动呼吁”中建议的能力方面的进展。特别值得一提的是，该研讨会汇集了与开发评估工具以解决教学有效性问题有关的新成立的和已成立的教育技术教育项目的首席研究员。智力优势：该项目为生物学教育研究领域的专家提供了一个机会，让他们致力于开发一种评估方法，可以在学生本科生涯的多个阶段跟踪他们的进步。计划的机会还允许参与者分享（而不是复制）标准化协议的努力，以验证对生物界重要的问题。更广泛的影响：该项目计划制定一套一致的工具，以帮助更大的生物界评估学生对国家倡议中概述的概念和能力的掌握程度。从教育的角度来看，这次研讨会为学生学习的标准测量提供了有希望的进展，使全国各地的生物系能够使用数据驱动的过程，使他们的教学实践和课程与包括“愿景与变革”在内的几个国家报告中规定的学习目标保持一致。该项目由教育和人力资源理事会本科教育司资助，作为其支持“本科生物学教育的愿景与变革”目标的一部分。

This project is supporting a workshop to convene biology education researchers to plan out the development and validation of a Biology Competencies Assessment Series (BCAS). The BCAS will consist of several multiple-choice and short-answer questions validated by students and designed to evaluate student progress on learning biology concepts and achieving the competencies recommended in "Vision and Change: A Call to Action." In particular, the workshop is bringing together Principal Investigators of both new and established TUES projects related to developing assessment tools to address effectiveness of instruction.Intellectual merit: The project provides the opportunity for experts in biology educational research to work towards the development of assessments that track the progress of students at multiple points in their undergraduate careers. The opportunity to plan also allows participants to share (and not replicate) efforts to standardize the protocols for validating the questions important to the biology community.Broader impacts: The project plans a consensus set of tools to help the larger biology community assess how well students are mastering the concepts and competencies outlined in national initiatives. From an educational perspective, this workshop provides promising advances to standard measurement for student learning that allows biology departments across the country to use data-driven processes to align their teaching practices and curricula with learning goals prescribed in several national reports including "Vision and Change."This project is being funded by the Directorate for Education and Human Resources, Division of Undergraduate Education as part of its efforts toward supporting the goals and objectives of "Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education."