BIORETS: Research Experiences for Teachers in the Biology of Plants, Animals, Microorganisms, and their Environments

西密歇根大学BIORETS项目的总体目标是为密歇根州西南部的初中和高中科学教师提供真实的研究经验和变革性的课程改进和专业发展机会。这个BIORETS网站每年6月至8月为12名教师提供为期七周的密集暑期体验。教师将围绕一个统一的主题进行真实的研究：生物有机体如何与其他有机体及其环境相互作用。暑期研究体验将与教师研究研讨会、专业发展工作坊、动手实验室教学单元演示、午餐时间关于研究和课程发展的讨论、书面课程材料、关于研究和课程发展的海报演示以及暑期后的课堂参观相补充。外部评估小组将评估项目进展，确定项目对教师参与者及其学生的影响，并提供改进反馈。BIORETS计划的更广泛的影响包括：(1)扩大科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)方面的代表性不足的群体的参与；(2)促进对植物、动物、微生物及其环境生物学的发现和了解；(3)加强研究和教育的基础设施；(4)向广大受众传播在BIORETS会议期间创建的课程材料。该BIORETS计划将为教师参与者提供一个支持的氛围，让他们进行引人入胜、真实和独立的暑期研究。实践研究经验和互补的教师研究研讨会有望加深教师的研究素养和他们在生物科学方面的知识。此外，教师将体验团队合作和实验，从而产生新的研究想法和方法。教师的暑期研究项目分为六个主题：(1)植物-环境相互作用，(2)动物-环境相互作用，(3)微生物-环境相互作用，(4)植物-微生物相互作用，(5)动物-微生物相互作用，(6)植物-动物相互作用。这些项目旨在帮助教师全面了解生物与其环境之间的多方面相互作用，并确定他们对整体研究主题的贡献。这些项目的组成部分已被发现可以在大学实验室课堂上实施，因此，教师不仅会对研究课题和科学方法有更深入的了解，而且会有一套实用的教学模块转移到自己的课堂上。西密歇根大学的教师导师、研究生和实验室协调员将与教师参与者密切合作，将他们的研究经验转化为课程改革。这些变化预计将丰富教师的课堂教学实践，激励更多的初中生和高中生，包括未被充分代表的少数族裔学生，考虑在STEM接受高等教育和从事职业，特别是在生物科学方面。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。

The overall goal of this BIORETS program at Western Michigan University is to provide middle and high school science teachers in Southwest Michigan with authentic research experience and transformative curricular improvement and professional development opportunities. This BIORETS site offers an intensive seven-week summer experience for 12 teachers per year in June to August. Teachers will conduct authentic research revolving around a unifying theme: how biological organisms interact with other organisms and their environments. The summer research experience will be complemented with faculty research seminars, professional development workshops, demonstrations of hands-on laboratory teaching modules, lunch time discussions on research and curricular development, written curricular materials, poster presentations on research and curricular development, and after-summer classroom visits. An external evaluation team will assess program progress, determine program impacts on teacher participants and their students, and provide feedback for improvement. The broader impacts of this BIORETS program include: (1) Broaden participation of under-represented groups in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM); (2) Advance discovery and understanding in the biology of plants, animals, microorganisms and their environments; (3) Enhance infrastructure for research and education; (4) Disseminate curricular materials created during the BIORETS session to a wide audience.This BIORETS program will provide a supportive atmosphere for teacher participants to perform captivating, authentic, and independent summer research. The hands-on research experience and complementary faculty research seminars are expected to deepen teachers’ research literacy and their knowledge in biological sciences. In addition, teachers will experience teamwork and experiments that lead to the generation of new research ideas and approaches. Teachers’ summer research projects are organized into six topics: (1) plant-environment interactions, (2) animal-environment interactions, (3) microbe-environment interactions, (4) plant-microbe interactions, (5) animal-microbe interactions, and (6) plant-animal interactions. Such projects are designed to help teachers to gain a holistic understanding of the multifaceted interactions among living organisms and their environments, and to identify their own contributions to the overall research theme. Components of these projects have been found to be implementable in college laboratory classrooms; therefore, the teachers will not only leave with deeper understanding of the research topic and the scientific method but also with a set of practical teaching modules to transfer to their own classrooms. Faculty mentors, graduate students, and lab coordinators at Western Michigan University will work closely with teacher participants to translate their research experiences into curricular changes. Such changes are expected to enrich teachers’ classroom teaching practices, inspire a larger number of middle and high school students, including under-represented minority students, to consider higher education and careers in STEM, especially in biological sciences.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.