Biology

In 2014, the University of Michigan launched an NSF-funded program to reinvent introductory teaching and learning in the core STEM disciplines.  REBUILD (Researching Evidence-Based Undergraduate Instructional and Learning Developments) aimed to promote recruitment, retention, and academic excellence in STEM disciplines by catalyzing the use of evidence-based teaching methods and learning analytics.  Toward this end, REBUILD faculty and postdocs led reform efforts in traditionally lecture-based, high-enrollment courses and labs in Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Math, and Physics.

Yale’s Foundations Biology Course is a year-long interdepartmental biology sequence consisting of four half credit modules. The series provides an excellent interdisciplinary biology foundation for students considering careers in the biological sciences or health sciences.

The Rainforest Expedition and Laboratory course introduces undergraduates to research by providing them an opportunity to discover novel microorganisms in the Amazonian rainforest and screen them for natural products with applications for human health and the environment. The students learn about biodiversity, the process of scientific inquiry, and the open-ended possibilities available for scientific investigation.

The Yale Scientific Teaching Course works to improve undergraduate STEM education by training a new generation of scientific teachers to bring the spirit and rigor of research into the undergraduate classroom. Graduate students and postdocs who take Theory and Practice of Scientific Teaching develop a working knowledge of scientific teaching, namely how to engage students through active learning, how to effectively use assessments to gauge student learning, and how to build an inclusive learning environment for all students

As a direct result of the AAU STEM Initiative, we have substantial evidence of institutional change occurring at Washington University. This includes the funding of a new initiative to continue increasing adoption of evidence-based pedagogies in STEM, as well as expansion and adoption of programs begun by the AAU Initiative.

As a direct result of the AAU STEM Initiative, we have implemented numerous professional development activities for our faculty. Professional development is being implemented in a multi-pronged fashion, and includes observation and feedback for faculty, and multiple professional development activities including multi-day summer institutes, a mentoring program, a community of practice, and a speaker series.

The primary focus is to implement and evaluate our multiple-strategy approach for incorporating active learning into lower-level STEM courses. The multiple-strategies approach allows instructors flexibility in integrating active learning into a framework that meshes with their approach to teaching and with the demands of their discipline and the academic department with which the instructor is affiliated.

Our project aims to increase undergraduate persistence in the sciences through introductory laboratory courses in which students perform real research experiments and analyze and report their results. They will take part in scientific process and join our department's scientific community early on in their biology careers at the University of Pittsburgh.

The University of Pittsburgh's SEA-PHAGES program is a national, two-semester, discovery-based undergraduate research course that aims to increase undergraduate interest and retention in the biological sciences through immediate (freshman-year) immersion in authentic, valuable, yet accessible research.

The University of Pittsburgh's Discipline-Based Science Education Research Center (dB-SERC) promotes and supports evidence-based teaching practices which bridge the gap between teaching and learning.