RCN-UBE Incubator: Enhancing Undergraduate Biology Education through Science Communication

面对环境变化的加速步伐，既需要有科学素养的公众，也需要新一代的生态学家和其他科学家准备向教育工作者、政策制定者、管理者和其他人传播科学知识。近年来，努力提高研究生和教师的沟通技巧。然而，本科生的数量远远超过拥有高级学位的科学家，并且可能与广泛的公共利益相关者频繁互动。生物学本科生的理想位置，以帮助翻译科学，并达到广泛的受众。为了更好地服务于这些角色，本科生需要在科学传播方面进行正式的培训和实践。SciComm RCN-UBE将统一一组致力于提高本科生沟通技能的研究人员，以便他们能够更有效地向公众传达科学发现。所有类型的有效科学传播都能让公民参与科学实践和发现，教育政策制定者，并促进科学过程及其发现的准确表达。目前，加强本科生科学传播的工作都是在孤岛上进行的，他们之间几乎没有交流。因此，有必要将从业人员聚集在一起，评估最佳做法，并制定明确的研究议程。为此，SciComm网络有两个目标：1）建立一个合作的，跨学科的学者社区，致力于为公众培训本科生进行有效的科学传播; 2）传播教学工具，阐明研究议程，并计划对本科生科学传播培训计划进行客观评估。这些目标将通过举办一个研讨会，以促进来自11个不同机构的教师之间的合作-公立和私立大学，少数民族服务机构，博物馆，军事学院和社区学院-评估现有的科学传播计划，并生成基于网络的本科科学传播资源库。SciComm还旨在确定科学传播教育中突出的“重大挑战”，并与科学学习研究人员和评估人员协商，以提供定量和定性评估培训在发展本科生沟通技能，内容知识和自我效能方面的作用。通过这种方式，SciComm将使该领域超越承认在科学传播方面培训本科生的必要性，以改善其工作方式，从而影响公众对科学的感知和理解。（IUSE：EHR）计划，以表彰该项目与IUSE总体目标的一致性：EHR计划。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。

Confronting the accelerated pace of environmental change demands both a scientifically literate public and a new generation of ecologists and other scientists prepared to communicate scientific knowledge to educators, policymakers, managers, and others. In recent years, efforts have been made to enhance the communication skills of graduate students and faculty. However, undergraduate students far outnumber scientists with advanced degrees and are likely to interact frequently with a broad set of public stakeholders. Biology undergraduates are ideally situated to help translate science and reach a broad audience. To better serve these roles, undergraduates need formal training and practice in science communication. The SciComm RCN-UBE will unify a group of researchers dedicated to improving the communication skills of undergraduate students so they may more effectively convey scientific discoveries to the public. Effective science communication of all types engages citizens in scientific practices and discovery, educates policymakers, and facilitates an accurate representation of the scientific process and its discoveries.Work to enhance undergraduate science communication is currently happening in silos with little communication between them. There is thus a need to bring practitioners together to assess best practices and articulate a clear research agenda. To that end, the SciComm Network has two objectives: 1) build a collaborative, interdisciplinary community of scholars dedicated to training undergraduate students in effective science communication for the public; and 2) disseminate teaching tools, articulate a research agenda, and plan for objective evaluation of undergraduate science communication training programs. These objectives will be achieved by holding a workshop to facilitate collaboration between faculty from eleven diverse institutions--public and private universities, minority-serving institutions, a museum, a military academy, and community colleges--evaluating existing science communication programs and generating a web-based repository of undergraduate science communication resources. SciComm also aims to identify outstanding "grand challenges" in science communication education and consult with science learning researchers and evaluators to provide quantitative and qualitative assessments of the role of training in developing undergraduate communication skills, content knowledge, and self-efficacy. In this way, SciComm will move the field beyond acknowledging the need to train undergraduate students in science communication to improving how it is done, thereby impacting the perception and understanding of science by the public at large.Co-funding for this project is being provided by the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE: EHR) program in recognition of the project's alignment with the overarching goals of the IUSE: EHR program.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.