RCN-UBE: Midwest and Great Plains PULSE Network - Building Institutional Capacity for Inclusive Excellence in Undergraduate Biology Education

本科生生命科学教育伙伴关系（PULSE）起源于2012年由美国国家科学基金会（NSF），霍华德休斯医学研究所（HHMI）和国家普通医学科学研究所（NIGMS/NIH）发起的一项倡议，旨在激励生命科学部门进行愿景与变革报告中建议的变革类型。来自两年制学院、文科学院、综合性大学和研究型大学的系主任被选为PULSE领导研究员。在所有类型的本科院校中，生物学教学方式的这种改进预计将提高学生对生命科学核心概念的理解，提高生命科学学生的保留率，并为所有学生做好准备，使他们成为更具好奇心和科学素养的公民。该项目将在大平原和中西部的12个州建立一个教育网络，重点是促进组织，部门级的变化，以提高本科生命科学课程与以证据为基础的实践中概述的愿景和变化。通过这样做，该网络将增加具备科学和技术技能的人员数量，以满足国家对技术熟练劳动力的需求，该项目的智力价值取决于大平原和中西部PULSE网络的两个目标：第一章扩大网络成员，以达到有效变革领导者的临界质量，这些领导者可以激励和指导其所在机构的同事，课程，教学和组织转型;和2）协调，标准化，并综合评估工作，询问网络成员发起和领导的变化过程是否支持部门采用基于证据的做法和建议的愿景和变化。主要活动将包括举办讲习班，以支持同业交流圈的发展。其他活动包括网络的形成性和总结性评估，再加上系统分析，以了解STEM高等教育复杂系统中的结构和变化动态。通过这些活动，该网络将：㈠在建设机构能力的过程中增强教职员工的能力，以实现包容性的本科教育卓越; ㈡加深参与者对领导组织变革战略的理解，并在整个网络中提供信息、合作机会和相互支持;以及（iii）有助于了解促进本科STEM教育组织变革的有效方法。网络活动将覆盖大约100个机构，每年为大约70 000名学生提供生物学入门课程。该项目直接影响社区学院，因为美国近50%的本科生参加两年制学位授予机构。该项目由生物科学理事会和本科教育部教育和人力资源理事会共同资助，以支持应对本科生物学教育的愿景和变革所带来的挑战：行动呼吁http://visionandchange.org/finalreport/。

The Partnership for Undergraduate Life Science Education (PULSE) originated as an initiative launched in 2012 by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), and the National Institute for General Medical Sciences (NIGMS/NIH) as an effort to stimulate life science departments to undertake the type of transformative changes recommended in the Vision and Change report. Department leaders from two-year colleges, liberal arts colleges, comprehensive universities and research universities were selected as PULSE Leadership Fellows. Such improvements in how biology is taught at all types of undergraduate institutions are expected to enhance students' understanding of core concepts in the life sciences, increase retention rates for students in the life sciences, and improve preparation for all students to be more curious and scientifically literate citizens. This project will establish an educational network across twelve states in the Great Plains and Midwest focused on spurring the organizational, department-level change needed for heightening alignment of undergraduate life sciences programs with evidence-based practices outlined in Vision and Change. In so doing, the network will increase the number of persons equipped with the scientific and technical skills to meet the nation's need for a technically skilled workforce.The intellectual merit of this projects rests on two aims of the Great Plains and Midwest PULSE network to: 1) expand the network membership to reach a critical mass of effective change leaders who can motivate and guide colleagues at their home institutions toward curricular, pedagogical, and organizational transformation; and 2) coordinate, standardize, and synthesize evaluation efforts that ask whether the change processes initiated and led by network members support departmental adoption of evidence-based practices and the recommendations in Vision and Change. The major activities will involve workshops to support the growth of communities of practice. Additional activities include formative and summative evaluation of the network, coupled with systems analysis to comprehend the structure and dynamics of change within the complex systems of STEM higher education. Through these activities, the network will: (i) empower faculty members in the process of building institutional capacity for inclusive excellence in undergraduate education; (ii) deepen participants' understanding of strategies for leading organizational change and provide information, opportunities for collaboration, and mutual support across the network; and (iii) contribute to knowledge on effective ways to promote organizational change in undergraduate STEM education. Network activities will reach approximately 100 institutions, serving approximately 70,000 students annually in introductory biology courses. This project directly impacts community colleges as almost 50% of the undergraduate students in the U.S. attend two-year degree granting institutions.This project is funded jointly by the Directorate for Biological Sciences and the Directorate of Education and Human Resources, Division of Undergraduate Education in support of efforts to address the challenges posed in Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action http://visionandchange.org/finalreport/.