Developing an Assessment to Address Undergraduate Biology Student Understanding of Genetics and Race

该项目旨在通过调查遗传学知识和种族信仰之间的关系来服务于国家利益。它将在本科生物学课程中提供资源来评估这种关系。对于本科生来说，认为社会定义的人类种族在基因上是不同的是很常见的。本科生也可能高估了社会定义的种族群体之间的差异，而低估了他们之间的差异。这可能会导致在理解环境如何影响基因表达以及多个基因如何影响单一性状方面面临挑战。将这些想法与社会定义的种族群体可以根据遗传学进行分类的错误观念联系在一起，可能会导致种族偏见。这个项目将产生一个新的评估，它结合了关于种族的信念的量表和与遗传学和种族的生物学事实有关的概念性问题。这一评估工具将帮助本科生教师确定这些主题的教学方式是否会影响学生对种族的信念。此外，这一工具将用于遗传学课程的开发，以防止关于人类遗传学和种族的误解的传播。该项目的第一个目标是开发一种工具，既包括内容知识的测试，也包括与种族本质主义有关的信念的量表，适用于注册参加生物学入门课程的学生。种族本质主义是一种信念，认为社会定义的种族群体在基因上是不同的和自然的。该项目将包括收集这一新组合仪器的结构有效性、内部结构和可重复性证据的步骤。这一工具将广泛用于评估大学教师教授与种族有关的遗传学的能力，并衡量课程对学生与遗传学和种族本质主义有关的信念的影响。此外，该项目还将测试一个模型，了解学生的种族/民族以及他们对遗传学和种族的概念理解如何影响他们对遗传和种族本质论的信念。该项目的第二个目标是设计和试行一项干预措施，旨在帮助本科生学习科学准确的多因素遗传学概念和种族背景下的人口思维。新工具的试验将在不同的校园进行，包括社区学院、为拉美裔服务的机构和一所研究密集型大学，因此有可能接触到广泛的从业者。项目成果将通过本科生生物学教师和科学教育研究人员感兴趣的各种会议和出版物进行传播。该项目旨在减少传统遗传学课程可能对STEM中代表性不足群体的本科生产生的负面影响(例如，心理威胁、持久性下降、对STEM职业失去兴趣)。NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生的STEM教育的有效性。通过参与的学生学习路径，该计划支持有前景的实践和工具的创建、探索和实施。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。

This project aims to serve the national interest by investigating the relationship between knowledge of genetics and beliefs about race. It will produce a resource in undergraduate biology courses to assess this relationship. It is common for undergraduate students to think that socially defined human races are genetically distinct. Undergraduates also may overestimate the differences between socially defined racial groups and underestimate the differences within them. This can lead to challenges in understanding how the environment influences gene expression and how multiple genes can impact a single trait. The association of such ideas with the misconception that socially defined racial groups can be categorized based on genetics can result in racial bias. This project will result in a new assessment that combines a scale for beliefs about race and conceptual questions related to the biological facts concerning genetics and race. This assessment instrument will help undergraduate instructors determine if the way these topics are taught have an impact on students’ beliefs regarding race. Additionally, this instrument will be used in the development of genetics lessons that prevent the spread of misconceptions about human genetics and race. The first goal of this project is to develop an instrument that includes both a test of content knowledge and a scale for beliefs related to racial essentialism that is applicable to students enrolled in introductory biology courses. Racial essentialism is the belief that socially defined racial groups are genetically distinct and natural. The project will include steps to collect evidence of construct validity, the internal structure, and of repeatability for this new combined instrument. This instrument will be widely usable to assess university instructors’ abilities to teach genetics as it relates to race and to measure the impact of the curricula on students’ beliefs related to genetic and racial essentialism. Additionally, the project will also test a model of how students’ race/ethnicity and their conceptual understanding of genetics and race impact their beliefs about genetic and racial essentialism. The second goal of the project is to design and pilot an intervention designed to help undergraduates learn scientifically accurate conceptions of multifactorial genetics and population thinking in the context of race. The piloting of the new instrument will take place on diverse campuses, including community colleges, Hispanic-serving institutions, and a research-intensive university, and hence has potential to reach a wide audience of practitioners. Project outcomes will be disseminated through various meetings and publications of interest to undergraduate biology instructors and science education researchers. The project intends to reduce the negative impacts (e.g., psychological threat, decreased persistence, loss of interest in a STEM career) that a traditional genetics curriculum can have on undergraduates from groups underrepresented in STEM. 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.