RCN-UBE Incubator: The Biological and Environmental Data Education Network

生物和环境数据教育（BEDE）项目旨在创建一个生物学家和数据科学家社区，致力于使本科教师能够将数据科学纳入生物和环境科学课程。所有的科学家现在都必须在某种程度上成为数据科学家--他们必须在协作、可复制的研究背景下管理、分析和交流数据。此外，未来的专业人员需要具备数据科学技能，以处理农业、环境管理和公共卫生方面的紧迫问题。然而，大多数生物学和环境科学专业的学生毕业时几乎没有数据科学经验。BEDE网络将通过专注于发展本科教师的技术技能，课程资源和教学信心来帮助解决这一需求，以便他们能够更有意识地将核心数据科学技能纳入课堂和实验室。通过让科学家和生物学与环境科学教育工作者组成一个包容性的社区，BEDE将开发培训讲习班、课程材料和最佳实践，供几乎任何机构和课程的教育工作者采用。生物学和环境科学已经从根本上被最近的技术进步所重塑，包括计算能力的提高、传感器技术、公开可用的软件和数据，和互联网与这些进步一起，复杂的多学科问题以及紧迫的环境和公共卫生问题导致了科学文化和实践的变化，转向更大的合作，问责制和透明度。这些技术进步和文化变革代表了一种教育挑战：已经完整的课程和课程并没有让学生做好应对数据密集型问题的准备。为了评估将数据科学纳入生物学和环境科学课程的主要机会和障碍，BEDE调查人员将使用调查收集有关教师态度和专业知识的数据。调查数据将在BEDE研讨会上进行审查，与会者将：1）根据调查答卷人的课程需要，举办教师培训讲习班，2）准备一份立场/审查文件，描述将数据科学纳入生物学和环境科学教育的障碍和机会; 3）制定进一步扩大网络的计划。该项目由生物基础设施部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，作为应对本科生物学教育中的愿景和变革所带来的挑战的努力的一部分：行动呼吁（网址：//visionandchange/finalreport/）该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值进行评估，更广泛的影响审查标准。

The Biological and Environmental Data Education (BEDE) project seeks to create a community of biologists and data scientists dedicated to empowering undergraduate instructors to bring data science into biology and environmental science curricula. All scientists must now, to some extent, be data scientists--they must manage, analyze, and communicate about data in the context of collaborative, reproducible research. Furthermore, future professionals will need to have data science skills to deal with urgent problems in agriculture, environmental management, and public health. However, most students in biology and environmental science graduate with little data science experience. The BEDE Network will help address this need by focusing on developing the technical skills, curricular resources, and pedagogical confidence of undergraduate instructors so that they can more intentionally include core data science skills in their classes and labs. By engaging an inclusive community of scientists and biology and environmental science educators, BEDE will develop training workshops, curricular materials, and best practices that can be adopted by educators at almost any institution and in almost any course.Biology and environmental science have been fundamentally reshaped by recent technological advances, including increased computational power, sensor technologies, publicly available software and data, and the Internet. Together with these advances, complex, multidisciplinary questions and urgent environmental and public health problems have led to changes in scientific culture and practice, with shifts toward greater collaboration, accountability, and transparency. These technological advances and cultural changes represent an educational challenge: already-full courses and curricula do not prepare students to address data-intensive problems. To assess the main opportunities and obstacles for integrating data science into biology and environmental science curricula, BEDE investigators will use a survey to gather data on faculty attitudes and expertise about it. Data from the survey will be examined at a BEDE workshop, where participants will: 1) develop Train-the-Teachers workshops based on curricular needs of survey respondents, 2) prepare a position/review paper describing barriers and opportunities to incorporating data science in biology and environmental science education; and 3) develop plans for further expansion of the Network. This project is being jointly funded by the Directorate for Biological Sciences, Division of Biological Infrastructure, and the Directorate for Education and Human Resources, Division of Undergraduate Education as part of their efforts to address the challenges posed in Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action (http://visionandchange/finalreport/).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.