The National Research Council's
Board on
Life Sciences, in cooperation with the NRC's
Center
for Education, has initiated The National Academies Summer Institute
on Undergraduate Education in Biology. The idea for the Summer Institute emerged
from the 2003 NRC report
Bio2010:
Transforming Undergraduate Education for Future Research Biologists.
Bio2010
identified faculty development as a crucial component in improving undergraduate biology
education and the authoring committee suggested that a Summer Institute to bring life
sciences faculty together to work on improving education with a focus on integrating current
scientific research and appropriate pedagogical approaches to create courses that actively engage
students in the ways that scientists think.
The Summer Institute provides a venue for university faculty to meet for intensive discussions,
demonstrations, and working sessions on research-based approaches to undergraduate biology
education. The idea is to generate the same atmosphere as a Cold Spring Harbor research course,
with the topic being education rather than, for instance, phage genetics.
The current target audience for the Summer Institute is faculty at Research I universities
where large classes provide significant impediments to reform, especially at the introductory
level. Institutions will be encouraged to send teams of 2-3 faculty members to facilitate
implementation of ideas after participants return home. There will be a particular emphasis
on including junior faculty as members of the team.
