I-Corps L: Flipping the STEM Classroom Made Easy and Sustainable - Resources for Faculty

通过美国国家科学基金会创新团队学习计划(i-Corps L)，该项目将开发出一种方法，以实现更广泛地使用一种被证明可以提高本科教师有效性的教学方法。在过去的十年中，许多高等教育研究强调了满足学生多样化学习需求的必要性。然而，全国大多数大学水平的科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)课程仍然依赖于传统的演讲形式，只接触到一部分学习风格。因此，许多学生很难掌握STEM课程中的材料，这往往会导致学习成绩下降和/或自然减员。一种名为“翻转课堂”的课堂模式减少了传统讲课的数量，并增加了对课程材料更吸引人的应用。这一模式因其能够更好地吸引具有不同学习需求的STEM学生的广泛受众，从而满足国家改善STEM教育的需求而广为流传。通过这个项目支持的工作鼓励通过课程内容的现实世界应用进行批判性思维。这种方法对从细胞与分子生物学和生态学到生物技术和化学工程等学科和课程的学生的学习趋势产生了积极的影响。利用i-Corps for Learning计划，将开发一种方法，使这种更容易实施的开发翻转课堂的方法能够使更多的STEM教职员工和学生受益。广泛应用的翻转课堂模式被证明能够在美国的STEM学生中实现更高的表现、理解力、适用性和保留率。然而，由于缺乏时间重组他们的班级和/或缺乏与该模式及其好处相关的知识，大多数STEM教师对翻转他们的STEM课程结构表现出抵制。为了克服与翻转STEM课堂相关的障碍和教职员工的阻力，i-Corps for Learning团队寻求可持续和系统地促进采用教育创新，其中包括指南和课堂材料，以促进在广泛的STEM学科领域实施翻转课堂模式的过程。这些材料提供了一种循序渐进的程序和教学工具，以简化过程，从而减少对实施翻转教学风格的阻力。这一成果将有助于改善全国的本科科学、技术、工程和数学教育。

Through the NSF Innovation Corps for Learning Program, (I-Corps L), this project will develop ways to achieve more widespread use of a teaching method proven to increase the effectiveness of undergraduate faculty. In the past decade, a body of higher education research has emphasized the need to address the diverse learning needs of our students. Yet, the majority of college level science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses throughout the nation still rely upon a traditional lecture format that reaches only a subset of learning styles. As a result, many students struggle to master the material in STEM courses which often leads to lower academic performance and/or attrition. A classroom model called, "flipping the classroom," reduces the amount of traditional lecturing and augments it with more engaging applications of the course material. This model has been widely documented for its ability to better engage broad audiences of STEM students with diverse learning needs, thereby responding to a national need for improving STEM education. The work supported through this project encourages critical thinking through real-world applications of course content. This approach has positively impacted learning trends for students in disciplines and courses ranging from Cell & Molecular Biology and Ecology to Biotechnology and Chemical Engineering. Using the I-Corps for Learning program, approaches will be developed to enable this more easily implemented method of developing flipped classrooms to benefit more STEM faculty and students.Broadly applied, the flipped classroom model has a proven ability to achieve higher performance, understanding, applicability, and retention among STEM students in the U.S. However, most STEM faculty have exhibited a resistance to flipping the structure of their STEM courses due to a lack of time for restructuring their classes and/or a lack of knowledge related to the model and its benefits. To overcome the obstacles and faculty resistance associated with flipping the STEM classroom, this I-Corps for Learning Team seeks to sustainably and systematically promote the adoption of an educational innovation that includes guides and classroom materials to facilitate the process of implementing the flipped classroom model across a wide range of STEM subject areas. These materials provide a step-by-step procedure and teaching tools for simplifying the process and, thereby, reducing resistance to implementing the flipped style of teaching. The results will help to improve undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education throughout the country.