Catalyst Project: Infusion of Data Expertise into Undergraduate Biology Curriculum

催化剂项目为历史悠久的黑人学院和大学(HBCU)提供支持，以努力建立教职员工的研究能力，以加强科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)本科教育和研究。预计该奖项将进一步提高教职员工的研究能力，改善学院的研究和教学，并让本科生参与研究经验。奥尔巴尼州立大学打算将数据科学和计算分析融入其生物学课程。拟议的课程改进旨在纳入教学策略，以支持学生理解和解释全球可获得的生物数据的能力，这可能会增加学生对STEM研究生课程或劳动力的准备。这个项目采用了一个独特的课程框架，以促进本科生物学课程(DEUBiC)中的数据专业知识。核心假设是，拥有数据专业知识的学生准备得更充分，有资格胜任具有全球竞争力的计算科学密集型劳动力，这是通过战略性的循证教学培养出来的。奥尔巴尼州立大学的团队将在选定的现有课程中注入磨练数据专业知识的内容，并设计和提供新的高级课程：生物仪器技术、生物学高级计算资源和计算基因组学。学生将从事数据密集型研究，既作为基于课程的研究项目，也作为有指导的高级研究项目。通过基于项目的体验，学生将从新课程和灌输的课程中转移学习，提出研究问题，开发可检验的假设，并设计适当的实验来检验预测。如果成功，对科学素养、量化素养和战略学习方法的评估将贡献一份可转移的蓝图，可应用于本科STEM教育，对服务不足的社区、少数族裔和妇女具有潜在的影响。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Catalyst Projects provide support for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) to work towards establishing research capacity of faculty to strengthen science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) undergraduate education and research. It is expected that the award will further the faculty member's research capability, improve research and teaching at the institution, and involve undergraduate students in research experiences. Albany State University intends to infuse data science and computational analyses into its biology curriculum. The proposed curricular enhancements aim to incorporate teaching and learning strategies that support student’s ability to understand and interpret globally accessible biological data, which has the potential to increase student preparedness for STEM graduate programs or the workforce. This project adapts a unique curriculum framework for promoting Data Expertise in the Undergraduate Biology Curriculum (DEUBiC). The central hypothesis is that students with data expertise are better prepared and are qualified for the globally competitive computational science-intensive workforce, as developed through strategic evidence-based teaching and learning. The team at Albany State University will infuse selected existing courses with content for honing data expertise as well as design and offer new upper-level courses: Biological Instrumentation Technology, Advanced Computing Resources in Biology, and Computational Genomics. Students will engage in data intensive research both as course-based research projects, and as mentored senior research projects. Through the project-based experiences, students will transfer learning from new and infused courses to pose research questions, develop testable hypotheses and design appropriate experiments to test predictions. The assessment of scientific literacy, quantitative literacy, and strategic learning approach, if successful, will contribute a transferable blueprint that could be applied to undergraduate STEM education, with potential for impact among underserved communities, minorities and women.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.