THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
Summer Institute on Undergraduate Education in Biology
Sunday, June 25 to Friday, June 30, 2006
Overview
2006 Co-Directors:
Jo Handelsman, University of Wisconsin-Madison
William B. Wood, University of Colorado at Boulder
Location:
The Fluno Center for Executive
Education
University of Wisconsin-Madison
601 University Avenue
Madison, WI 53715-1035
Overall Strategy
The goal of the Summer Institute for Undergraduate Education in Biology is
to transform biology education at research universities by improving
classroom education and attracting more diverse students to research. We
intend to train a new generation of faculty by introducing them to a
scientific approach to teaching that reflects the way we function as
researchers. The target group is novice and experienced instructors of
introductory biology survey, introductory molecular biology/genetics, and
introductory ecology/evolution courses with high enrollments. We will
select from the applicant pool 18 pairs of faculty from 18 different
research universities. The Institute format is designed to model the
scientific teaching principles of active learning, assessment, and
diversity. Activities include reflective writing, planning, reading,
researching, discussing teaching methods and philosophy, interactive
presentations, and development of effective teaching materials that all of
the participants will teach and evaluate at their home institutions in the
ensuing academic year.
In addition to classroom teaching skills and materials, participants will
learn how to teach seminars in mentoring and scientific teaching in the
classroom. The mentoring seminar is directed toward graduate students and
postdocs who are supervising undergraduates in the research lab. The
seminar materials are well-developed and tested, making it easy to offer
with little preparation or time commitment.
The instructional materials and the mentoring and teaching seminar
materials will be accompanied by assessment tools that the participants
will administer. The results of the initiatives from all of the campuses
will be shared with the participants and published. Participants'
campuses will provide financial support to their teams to facilitate the
implementation of these new teaching initiatives.
Participants are required to:
- Participate in teams that include one junior and one senior faculty
member. The team may be comprised of two faculty members, or one faculty
member and one member of the instructional staff from the same campus.
The faculty member may be either active in instruction or in an
administrative position that will help the team implement change.
- Write a short teaching philosophy before arriving at the Summer
Institute
- Stay for the entire Summer Institute
- Teaching introductory biology survey, introductory molecular
biology/genetics, or introductory ecology/evolution courses in the ensuing
academic year
- Implement at least one module developed at the Summer Institute into
their introductory biology, molecular biology/genetics, or ecology/evolution
course during the '06-'07 academic year (modules might be an activity
inserted into an existing syllabus)
- Teach, or recruit a colleague to teacher, a seminar in mentoring or
a seminar in scientific teaching for graduate students, postdocs, or
faculty
- Evaluate the introductory biology modules and seminars
- Participate in follow-up Summer Institute evaluation during and at
the end of the '06-'07 academic year
Participants' campuses are required to:
- Provide funds for participants to travel to the Summer
Institute
- Provide a minimum of $5000 to each participating team to assist them
in implementing new teaching strategies and in conducting follow-up
activities in their classes
- Support and encourage the activities of the participants in their
departments and campus-wide
- Ensure that the activities associated with the Summer Institute are
treated favorably by tenure committees
The National Academies Summer Institute will provide:
- Lodging, food, and all other meeting expenses for participants
- Resources, experiences, instructors, and evaluators to help
participants develop and evaluate teaching skills and modules
- Facilitators to work with the groups as needed, helpign them hone
their modules, suggesting resources, and providing advice or expertise
- Internet access for all participants throughout the Summer
Institute
- A listserv for all participants to communicate as they implement the
teaching materials
- Data about the implementation at the end of the academic year
following the Summer Institute
Structure of the Summer Institute:
- Participants will engage in teaching and learning through
interactive presentations, mini-seminars, group work, and
discussions.
- In small, multi-university groups, participants will develop,
review and revise modules for introductory biology courses by establishing
learning goals, describe the outcomes expected of students (assessment),
and design/adapt activities that will actively engage students in learning
and meeting the goals.
- Participants will learn to teach the mentoring and scientific
teaching seminars.
- Participants will be accountable for implementing and evaluating
modules and the mentoring or scientific teaching seminar at their home
institutions and reporting findings to the Summer Institute for
publication.
Participants will work in groups of about 6. Groups will be organized
around large principles of biology (genetics, cell biology, ecology,
evolution, etc). Each member of the group must be able to teach (or
influence the teaching of) this topic in an introductory course and groups
will be assigned before the Summer Institute based on information provided
by participants. The groups will choose a specific concept (natural
selection, genetic drift, energy transduction, etc) within their broad
principle for which they will develop and review three modules to be
implemented in at least one lecture or lab. Each module will addres at
leasts one theme of the Summer Institute: active learning, assessment, or
diversity. The modules may be developed
de novo or adapted from
the Internet, teaching books or journals, previous Summer Institutes, or
other existing instructional materials. The groups will modify the
materials to fit their courses (incorporating modifications tailored to
each campus), discuss their context in the course, and design assessment
tools to evaluate learning.
Components of the module:
- Teaching plan that includes
- learning goals that are essential and important for
students to know, understand, and be able to do
- activities that will help students meet the goals
- assessments that will determine how well the students have
met the goals and provide students with feedback about their progress
toward the goals
- Description of how the module addresses the following themes:
- Scientific teaching
- Diversity
- Active learning
- Assessment
Tentative Agenda
Morning Sessions: Interactive presentations about teaching
and learning
Afternoon Sessions: Group work time to reflect on topics
from the morning sessions, apply the day's topics to development of a
module, teach the module to another group for practice and review, and
revise/submit the module to the Summer Institute database.
