EAGER: PULSE Project Management

德克萨斯州圣安东尼奥圣三一大学获得了一笔赠款，用于支持本科生生命科学教育合作伙伴关系（PULSE）。PULSE将召集40名愿景与变革领导力研究员，在为期一年的时间里，为响应2011年发表的愿景与变革报告中提出的行动呼吁，努力确定本科生生命科学教育持续和强劲发展所需的环境。奖学金获得者将从我们国家最有动力、最有激情、最有成就的主席、前任主席和院长中挑选——他们是能够发起和维持变革的人。这一进程从一个确定方法和协调努力的讲习班开始。接下来是一段紧张的“实地工作”，在这段时间里，最初的想法会被尝试、评估和完善。它在第二个研讨会中达到高潮，旨在提炼思维、工具、文档和方法。我们的目标是理解和建立一个具有正确选择压力的部门和机构环境，以促进本科生命科学教育学习方法的不断发展。来自三一大学的PI团队建议通过担任研究员的导师以及协调NSF和KnowInnovation （KI）之间的沟通和后勤工作来支持这项复杂的、为期一年的活动。KI将在整个项目监督、PULSE网站开发以及协助选择愿景和变革领导研究员方面发挥关键作用。特别是，该网站将成为宣布PULSE项目的地点，与美国生物科学研究所合作收集申请信息，并在八个月的实地考察期间通过讨论组、博客、文件共享、研究员之间以及研究员与整个生命科学界之间的社交网络促进交流。KI的项目经理将负责这项工作的日常监督，并协调PULSE合作伙伴之间的沟通。KI的经验是这个独特而令人兴奋的项目的有力补充，该项目旨在调动本科生生命科学教育的变革。该奖项符合“探索性研究早期概念资助”（EAGER），因为它有很大的潜力为全国高校的生物系转型提供实施框架。“远见与变革领导力研究员”项目的成果将推动机构改革工作向前发展。奖学金获得者将是来自研究型大学、综合性/公立大学、文理学院和社区学院的多元化领导者。所提议的活动预计将对本科生物教育界对变革的制度障碍和克服这些障碍的策略的理解的前所未有的转变作出重大贡献。当其他学科致力于吸引和留住STEM学科的本科生时，关注系主任促进生物学教育改革的做法可能会成为其他学科的榜样。该项目由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，作为其支持本科生物学教育的愿景和变革的努力的一部分。

Trinity University of San Antonio, TX is awarded a grant to support the Partnership for Undergraduate Life Science Education (PULSE). PULSE will bring together 40 Vision and Change Leadership Fellows in a year-long, facilitated effort to identify the environment necessary for constant and robust evolution in undergraduate life science education in response to the call for action articulated in the Vision and Change report published in 2011. Fellows will be selected from among our nation's most driven, passionate, and accomplished chairs, former chairs, and deans - people in a position to initiate and sustain change. The process starts with a workshop to identify approaches and coordinate efforts. It is followed by an intense period of "field work" where initial ideas are tried, assessed and refined. And it culminates in a second workshop aimed at refining thinking, tools, documents, and approaches. The goal is to understand and establish an environment in departments and institutions that has the right selective pressures to foster the constant evolution of learning approaches for undergraduate life science education.The PI team from Trinity University proposes to support this complex, year-long activity by serving as mentors for the Fellows and by coordinating communication and logistics between NSF and KnowInnovation (KI). KI will play a crucial role in overall project oversight, PULSE website development, and assistance in selecting the Vision and Change Leadership Fellows. The website, in particular, will be the location for announcing the PULSE project, collecting application information in collaboration with the American Institute for Biological Sciences, and facilitating communication during the eight month fieldwork period via discussion groups, blogs, file sharing, social networking between the Fellows and between Fellows and the life sciences community at large. The Project Manager at KI will be responsible for the day-to-day oversight of this effort and for coordinating communication among the PULSE partners. The experience of KI is a strong addition to this unique and exciting program designed to mobilize change in undergraduate life sciences education. The award fits the EArly-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) because of its high potential for producing an implementation framework for transforming biology departments within the nation's colleges and universities.The results of the Vision and Change Leadership Fellows project will move institutional reform efforts forward. Fellows will be a diverse group of leaders from research universities, comprehensive/public universities, liberal arts colleges, and community colleges. The proposed activities are expected to make a significant contribution to an unprecedented transformation of the undergraduate biology education community's understanding of institutional barriers to change and of strategies for overcoming them. It is possible that the focus on department chairs for catalyzing educational reforms in biology might be a model for other disciplines as they work on issues of attracting and retaining undergraduate students in STEM disciplines.This project is being jointly funded by the Directorate for Biological Sciences and the Directorate of Education and Human Resources, Division of Undergraduate Education as part of their efforts to support Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education.