Sustaining and Growing a Dispersed Community of Practice that Engages Undergraduates in Course-Based Genomics Research

在NSF改善本科STEM教育计划：教育和人力资源（IUSE：EHR）的支持下，该项目旨在通过改善基因组学本科教育来服务于国家利益。 随着经济越来越依赖科学技术，对高能力STEM工作者的需求越来越重要。 因此，高质量的STEM教育对美国经济至关重要，特别是包括数据科学培训的STEM教育。 同样重要的是要确定成功的策略，以留住和激励本科STEM学生，特别是那些来自代表性不足的群体，使他们能够在STEM职业生涯中茁壮成长。为了帮助解决STEM教育需求，基因组学教育伙伴关系寻求通过以基因组学为中心的基于课程的本科生研究体验（CURE）将主动学习融入本科课程。在这些CURE中，学生从事真实的科学研究，并在数据科学方面发展有价值的技能，同时也练习解决问题和毅力，以产生科学出版物。学生进行研究所需的唯一工具是访问互联网，使该计划在财政上可供所有机构使用，包括资源不足的机构。 该项目有四个目标：1）重组基因组学教育伙伴关系，以更广泛地分配整个基因组学教育伙伴关系的管理和监督责任; 2）确定有效的战略，从社区学院招聘和留住教师作为基因组学教育伙伴关系的成员; 3）开发和优化基因组学教育伙伴关系新教师的在线培训系统;（4）使CUREs中的科学项目多样化。 实现这些目标将有助于一个具有成本效益的计划，提供高质量的治愈本科生的更大的多样性。基因组学教育伙伴关系是一个分散的实践社区，成立于2005年，通过以基因组学为中心的CURE将主动学习融入课程。它的研究项目调查基因和基因组的进化，以及治愈的有效性。自成立以来，基因组学教育合作伙伴关系使用了一个集中的领导结构，以创建一个全国性的研究和教学联盟。为了应对与增长相关的挑战并使其科学和教学影响多样化，同时保持其核心使命并实现可持续性，基因组学教育伙伴关系正在向分布式领导结构过渡，并扩大基因组学教育伙伴关系的科学研究项目范围。基因组学教育伙伴关系将优化一套虚拟工具，以促进协作，并在其地理上分散的成员和学员之间建立社区。 此外，它将为在资源不足的机构环境中实施课程的教师提供指导和教学助理支持。 CURE已被证明对STEM中的少数民族和弱势学生有很大的好处。 基因组学教育合作伙伴关系CURE为学生提供了一个成本极低的研究机会，使其在经济上可供广泛的机构类型使用。 该项目将增加参与教师，学生和机构的多样性。此外，基因组学教育合作伙伴关系的这种转变提供了一个机会，可以确定提高组织弹性和可扩展性的因素，为维持和扩大STEM实践社区提供了一个模式。 NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。 该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

With support from the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Program: Education and Human Resources (IUSE: EHR), this project aims to serve the national interest by improving undergraduate education in genomics. As the economy becomes more dependent on science and technology, the need for highly capable STEM workers is increasingly important. As a result, high-quality STEM education is critical for the U.S. economy, particularly STEM education that includes training in data science. It is also important to identify successful strategies to retain and inspire undergraduate STEM students, especially those from underrepresented groups, so that they may thrive in STEM careers. To help address STEM education needs, the Genomics Education Partnership seeks to integrate active learning into the undergraduate curriculum through Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) centered in genomics. In these CUREs, students engage in authentic scientific research and develop valuable skills in data science while also practicing problem solving and perseverance to produce a scientific publication. The only tool required for a student to carry out the research is access to the internet, making the program financially accessible to all institutions, including ones that are under-resourced. This project has four objectives: 1) to restructure the Genomics Education Partnership to more widely distribute management and oversight responsibilities throughout the Genomics Education Partnership; 2) to identify effective strategies for recruiting and retaining faculty from community colleges as Genomics Education Partnership members; 3) to develop and optimize a system of online training for new faculty members in the Genomics Education Partnership; and 4) to diversify the scientific projects included in the CUREs. Achieving these objectives will contribute to a cost-effective program that provides high-quality CUREs to a greater diversity of undergraduate students. The Genomics Education Partnership is a dispersed Community of Practice founded in 2005 that integrates active learning into the curriculum through genomics-centered CUREs. Its research projects investigate the evolution of genes and genomes, as well as CURE effectiveness. Since its inception, the Genomics Education Partnership has used a centralized leadership structure to create a nationwide research and teaching consortium. To meet challenges associated with growth and diversifying its scientific and pedagogical impact, while maintaining its core mission and achieve sustainability, the Genomics Education Partnership is transitioning to a distributed leadership structure and broadening the scope of Genomics Education Partnership's scientific research projects. The Genomics Education Partnership will optimize a suite of virtual tools to facilitate collaboration and build community across its geographically dispersed members and trainees. Further, it will provide mentorship and teaching assistant support for faculty implementing the curriculum in under-resourced institutional environments. CUREs have been demonstrated to have substantial benefits for minority and disadvantaged students in STEM. The Genomics Education Partnership CURE is an extremely low-cost research opportunity for students, making it financially accessible to a broad range of institutional types. This project will increase the diversity of engaged faculty, students, and institutions. Further, this transition in the Genomics Education Partnership provides the opportunity to identify factors that improve the organization's resilience and scalability providing a model for sustaining and expanding a STEM Community of Practice. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.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.