Transforming Introductory Biology at University of Alaska, Anchorage

阿拉斯加大学安克雷奇分校（UAA）的通识教育生物学课程招收了很高比例的新生，其中许多人对大学教育的严格准备不足。 因此，这门课程的通过率一直很低。 为了提高学生的成功，这个项目将重新设计课程，包括互动的做法，如即时反应，一分钟的讨论和写作作业，以及由同学们的评分演示文稿的标题。 在生物学专业的入门课程中引入类似的活动，将通过率从46%提高到87%。 项目人员将确定专业课程中哪些内容特别成功，并将利用这些信息，沿着对生物教育最佳做法的调查，修改普通教育课程的课程。 UAA为多元化的学生群体提供服务，这些学生在STEM领域的代表性往往不足，其中81%的学生获得了基于需求的经济援助。 该项目旨在调查新课程的哪些方面将与UAA的多样化学生群体产生最强烈的共鸣。 UAA的教师将参加研讨会，以改善他们的教学和教师激励将促进最佳教学实践的实施。 计划中的课程修订旨在提高课程完成率，提高科学素养，并提高定量推理能力。 此外，据设想，修订将鼓励更多的学生追求STEM专业和职业，有助于满足国家对增加STEM劳动力的需求。 最后，大约7%的普通教育课程学生正在接受培训，成为K-12教师。 提高他们的大学生物学经验可能会对他们未来的课堂产生积极的影响。本项目将使用混合方法来识别和量化课程元素，以提高课程完成率，保留率，科学素养和定量推理。 定量分析将包括差异中的差异（DiD）方法，以模拟实验设计并隔离干预的影响。 影响将被测量为治疗组（参加重新设计课程的学生）和对照组（在重新设计之前参加课程的学生）干预前后分数的变化。 与STEM中的主动学习策略相关的文献考虑了已经使用主动学习的单一设置中的学习收益。 该项目采用了一个准实验性的DiD设计，使用了一个大型数据集和具有一系列学术和人口统计特征的多样化学生群体，并有可能为该领域做出重大贡献。 定性分析将补充和增加深度的定量研究结果;轴向编码的焦点小组访谈专业，非专业的传统课程，非专业的修订后的课程将进行分析，使用每组的案例内分析。 将使用模式匹配的比较分析进行跨病例分析，以确定各组之间的共性和差异。 除了这些经验的贡献，分析将支持课程设计，教师的发展和课程评估的通识教育生物课程。 专业发展和教师激励措施有可能提高生物科学系提供的整个课程的教学和学习，并确保实施忠于最佳实践教学方法。 该项目的研究结果预计将特别为通勤学院和其他开放招生机构与不同的学生团体，包括土著学生population.This奖项反映了国家科学基金会的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

The general education biology course at the University of Alaska, Anchorage (UAA) enrolls a high proportion of first-time students, many of whom arrive underprepared for the rigors of college education. Thus, the pass rates for this course are consistently low. To improve student success, this project will redesign the course to include interactive practices such as instant responses, one-minute discussions and writing assignments, and rubrics to grade presentations by fellow students. Introduction of similar activities into an introductory course for biology majors improved the pass rates from 46% to 87%. Project personnel will identify what elements of the majors' course are particularly successful and will use that information, along with a survey of best practices in biology education, to revamp the curriculum for the general education course. UAA serves a diverse student population often underrepresented in STEM fields, including 81% who receive need-based financial aid. The project is designed to investigate what aspects of the new course will resonate most strongly with the diverse student population at UAA. Faculty at UAA will participate in workshops to improve their teaching and faculty incentives will promote implementation of best teaching practices. The planned course revisions are designed to increase course completion, increase science literacy, and improve quantitative reasoning skills. Additionally, it is envisioned that the revisions will encourage more students to pursue STEM majors and careers, helping to fill a national need for increasing the STEM workforce. Finally, approximately 7% of the students enrolled in the general education course are training to be K-12 teachers. Improving their college biology experience may have positive impacts on their future classrooms.This project will use a mixed methods approach to identify and quantify course elements that increase course completion, retention, science literacy, and quantitative reasoning in a diverse student body. Quantitative analysis will include a difference in differences (DiD) approach to mimic an experimental design and to isolate the impact of the intervention. The impact will be measured as changes in pre- and post-intervention scores for the treatment group (students who participate in the redesigned curriculum) and control group (students who took the course prior to the redesign). Literature relating to active learning strategies in STEM considers learning gains in a single setting that is already using active learning. This project incorporates a quasi-experimental DiD design using a large dataset and diverse student body with a range of academic and demographic characteristics and has the potential to make a significant contribution to the field. A qualitative analysis will supplement and add depth to the quantitative findings; axial coding of focus group interviews with majors, non-majors in the traditional course, and non-majors in the revised course will be analyzed using within-case analysis of each group. Comparative analysis with pattern matching will be used for a cross-case analysis to identify commonalities and differences between the groups. In addition to these empirical contributions, the analysis will support curriculum design, faculty development, and course assessment for the general education biology course. Professional development and faculty incentives have the potential to enhance teaching and learning throughout the courses offered by the Department of Biological Sciences and ensure implementation fidelity to the best practice pedagogical approaches. The findings of this project are expected to be especially informative for commuter colleges and other open-enrollment institutions with diverse student bodies, including indigenous student populations.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.