RCN-UBE: The Undergraduate Student Experiences with Citizen Science Network to Transform Learning and Broaden Participation in Science

该项目旨在通过增加学生对科学的参与，促进学生在STEM领域的坚持，为国家利益服务。此外，科学数据的数量和质量对高校所在的地方社区也具有重要意义。这些国家利益将通过促进有效实施一种教育方法来解决，这种方法结合了学生参与研究和社区参与学习的高影响力实践。具体来说，拟议的网络将使本科教师能够有效地与学生一起使用公民科学，以培养准备就业、具有科学素养、具有批判性的思考者，这些思考者使用科学建设性地参与他们的社区。公民科学——即将公众纳入科学方法以推进科学知识或应用的目标——有时被称为社区科学、参与式科学或公众参与科学研究。将公民科学纳入高等教育将改善学生的学习成果，同时帮助教师保持灵活、协作的学习方法，这些方法包括技术和承认学生生活的社会背景。这个研究协调网络将创建一个多样化的教师实践社区，投资于使用公民科学，让本科生在面对面和在线环境中参与真实的科学实践，改善学生和教师的学习成果，并扩大科学参与。这个实践社区将使公民科学更具影响力和效率，它将把个人聚集在一起，开发和测试推荐的实践，以便与学生一起实施和评估公民科学，促进教师采用公民科学，并协助公民科学项目的工作人员吸引教师使用他们的项目。网络信息将通过社交媒体、网络网站上的数字资源、办公时间通过视频会议的临时会议以及同行评议的出版物广泛共享。这项工作将通过将教育理论框架映射到公民科学在高等教育中的使用，为公民科学使用的不同方面（例如，在线教学，作为社区参与学习的一种手段）制定建议，并促进多机构研究合作来测试这些建议，从而进一步推动生物教育研究领域。随着网络中新的少数民族服务机构的教师增加他们对公民科学的使用，网络活动可能对那些参与科学的比例低于他们在总人口中的代表性的学生群体特别有影响。该项目由生物基础设施司生物科学理事会和本科教育司教育和人力资源理事会共同资助，作为其应对《本科生物学教育的愿景与变革：行动呼吁》（http://visionandchange/finalreport/）所提出的挑战的努力的一部分。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

This project aims to serve the national interest by increasing student engagement with science and facilitating the persistence of students in STEM fields. In addition, the quantity and quality of scientific data will have significance to the local communities in which colleges and universities are located. These national interests will be addressed by facilitating the effective implementation of an educational approach that combines the high impact practices of student participation in research and community-engaged learning. Specifically, the proposed network will empower undergraduate instructors to use citizen science effectively with their students to create job ready, scientifically literate, critical thinkers who use science to engage constructively with their communities. Citizen science - that is, the inclusion of the public in the methods of science with the goal of advancing scientific knowledge or application, is sometimes called community science, participatory science, or public participation in scientific research. The inclusion of citizen science in higher education will improve student learning outcomes while helping instructors to maintain flexible, collaborative approaches to learning that embrace technology and acknowledge the social context in which students live.This research coordination network will create a diverse community of practice of instructors invested in using citizen science to engage undergraduate students in authentic scientific practices in both face-to-face and online settings, improve student and instructor learning outcomes, and broaden participation in science. This community of practice will make citizen science more impactful and efficient by bringing together individuals to develop and test recommended practices for the implementation and assessment of citizen science with students, facilitate the adoption of citizen science by instructors, and assist citizen science project staff in attracting instructors to use their project. Network information will be shared widely through social media, digital resources on the network website, office hour drop-in sessions via videoconferencing, and peer reviewed publications. This work will further the field of biology education research by mapping educational theoretical frameworks to the use of citizen science in higher education, developing recommendations for different aspects of the use of citizen science (e.g., for online instruction, as a means of community engaged learning), and fostering multi-institutional research collaborations to test these recommendations. As instructors at new minority serving institutions in the network increase their use of citizen science, the network activities may be particularly impactful for groups of students whose proportionate participation in science is below their representation in the overall population. 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.