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BioCore Guide: A Tool for Interpreting the Core Concepts of Vision and Change for Biology Majors.

ABSTRACT: Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education outlined five core concepts intended to guide undergraduate biology education: 1) evolution; 2) structure and function; 3) information flow, exchange, and storage; 4) pathways and transformations of energy and matter; and 5) systems. We have taken these general recommendations and created a Vision and Change BioCore Guide-a set of general principles and specific statements that expand upon the core concepts, creating a framework that biology departments can use to align with the goals of Vision and Change. We used a grassroots approach to generate the BioCore Guide, beginning with faculty ideas as the basis for an iterative process that incorporated feedback from more than 240 biologists and biology educators at a diverse range of academic institutions throughout the United States. The final validation step in this process demonstrated strong national consensus, with more than 90% of respondents agreeing with the importance and scientific accuracy of the statements. It is our hope that the BioCore Guide will serve as an agent of change for biology departments as we move toward transforming undergraduate biology education.

SUBMITTER: Brownell SE

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4041499 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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BioSkills Guide: Development and National Validation of a Tool for Interpreting the <i>Vision and Change</i> Core Competencies.

Project description:To excel in modern science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers, biology majors need a range of transferable skills, yet competency development is often a relatively underdeveloped facet of the undergraduate curriculum. We have elaborated the Vision and Change core competency framework into a resource called the BioSkills Guide, a set of measurable learning outcomes that can be more readily implemented by faculty. Following an iterative review process including more than 200 educators, we gathered evidence of the BioSkills Guide's content validity using a national survey of more than 400 educators. Rates of respondent support were high (74.3-99.6%) across the 77 outcomes in the final draft. Our national sample during the development and validation phases included college biology educators representing more than 250 institutions, including 73 community colleges, and a range of course levels and biology subdisciplines. Comparison of the BioSkills Guide with other science competency frameworks reveals significant overlap but some gaps and ambiguities. These differences may reflect areas where understandings of competencies are still evolving in the undergraduate biology community, warranting future research. We envision the BioSkills Guide supporting a variety of applications in undergraduate biology, including backward design of individual lessons and courses, competency assessment development, and curriculum mapping and planning.

| S-EPMC8693931 | biostudies-literature

A One-Year Introductory Biology Majors' Lab Sequence Incorporating Vision & Change.

Project description:The introduction of Vision and Change by AAAS and the recommendation that biology departments amend their curricula to focus on key concepts and skills necessary for graduates have led to a re-envisioning of introductory curricula across the nation. Many of the "standard" biology text books have realigned their focus with Vision and Change, while new texts have emerged that completely revise how we teach introductory biology majors. One such textbook is Integrating Concepts in Biology (ICB), by Campbell, Heyer, and Paradise. Many departments, including ours, have adopted this text as a novel way to teach biology majors, focusing on active learning, the scientific method, and specifically, understanding data. However, with all of these revisions to biology textbooks, there have been no revisions or insights into corresponding labs for a typical 1-year introductory course sequence. Here, we provide a description of our 1-year lab sequence, emphasizing the scientific method and novel research, with a focus on the five "Big Ideas" presented in ICB. By removing the "cookbook" labs typical of most introductory laboratory courses, we found that this system better emphasized the focus of Vision and Change and, concomitantly, student appeared to enjoy the lab sequence and see the relevance to class material better, compared to previous years. We believe that this lab organization is a simple design that is not resource-intensive and can be utilized at schools of any size or budget.

| S-EPMC6508917 | biostudies-literature

GenBio-MAPS: A Programmatic Assessment to Measure Student Understanding of Vision and Change Core Concepts across General Biology Programs.

Project description:The Vision and Change report provides a nationally agreed upon framework of core concepts that undergraduate biology students should master by graduation. While identifying these concepts was an important first step, departments also need ways to measure the extent to which students understand these concepts. Here, we present the General Biology-Measuring Achievement and Progression in Science (GenBio-MAPS) assessment as a tool to measure student understanding of the core concepts at key time points in a biology degree program. Data from more than 5000 students at 20 institutions reveal that this instrument distinguishes students at different stages of the curriculum, with an upward trend of increased performance at later time points. Despite this trend, we identify several concepts that advanced students find challenging. Linear mixed-effects models reveal that gender, race/ethnicity, English-language status, and first-generation status predict overall performance and that different institutions show distinct performance profiles across time points. GenBio-MAPS represents the first programmatic assessment for general biology programs that spans the breadth of biology and aligns with the Vision and Change core concepts. This instrument provides a needed tool to help departments monitor student learning and guide curricular transformation centered on the teaching of core concepts.

| S-EPMC6757222 | biostudies-literature

CURE in a Box: an Online CURE for Introductory Biology Majors That Incorporates Vision and Change.

Project description:Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) help fulfill the recommendation of Vision and Change for biology curricula to focus on key concepts and skills to better prepare students for careers in the sciences. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced many schools to move instruction online, highlighting the dearth of resources available for offering a CURE for introductory biology outside of the traditional laboratory-based setting. Here, we present a revision of our first-semester General Biology laboratory for a synchronous online setting where students perform a research-based wet lab component at home using an affordable preassembled kit while still meeting the CURE learning objectives. This template can be utilized by other colleges and universities that are looking to offer a safe, reliable, and affordable CURE in their introductory biology courses whether in a virtual or face-to-face environment.

| S-EPMC8012037 | biostudies-literature

Do Biology Majors Really Differ from Non-STEM Majors?

Project description:Recent calls to action urge sweeping reform in science education, advocating for improved learning for all students-including those majoring in fields beyond the sciences. However, little work has been done to characterize the differences-if any exist-between students planning a career in science and those studying other disciplines. We describe an attempt to clarify, in broad terms, how non-STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) majors differ from life sciences majors, and how they are similar. Using survey responses and institutional data, we find that non-STEM majors are not unilaterally science averse; non-STEM majors are more likely than biology majors to hold misconceptions about the nature of science, yet they are not completely ignorant of how science works; non-STEM majors are less likely than biology majors to see science as personally relevant; and non-STEM majors populations are likely to be more diverse-with respect to incoming knowledge, perceptions, backgrounds, and skills-than a biology majors population. We encourage science educators to consider these characteristics when designing curricula for future scientists or simply for a well-informed citizenry.

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Exploring Biology: A Vision and Change Disciplinary First-Year Seminar Improves Academic Performance in Introductory Biology.

Project description:The transition to college is challenging for most students, especially those who aspire to major in the science, technology, engineering, or mathematics disciplines, in which introductory courses can be large and instruction less than optimal. This paper describes a novel, disciplinary first-year seminar (FYS) course, Exploring Biology, designed to address many of the challenges facing aspiring biology students beginning their academic careers at a large public research university. The course addresses typical FYS goals, such as community building, introduction to resources, and academic skill development, and introduces students to the core concepts of biology defined in the 2011 Vision and Change report. Relative to a matched comparison group of students, Exploring Biology alumni were retained at higher rates and had higher levels of academic performance in a subsequent introductory biology course, suggesting Exploring Biology has a positive impact on future academic performance in the discipline. Results from course evaluations and an alumni survey show that, overall, students valued both the FYS components and biology components of the course. These results provide evidence that the Exploring Biology disciplinary FYS model is an intervention that may increase academic success and retention in biology.

| S-EPMC5998329 | biostudies-literature

The Math-Biology Values Instrument: Development of a Tool to Measure Life Science Majors' Task Values of Using Math in the Context of Biology.

Project description:In response to calls to improve the quantitative training of undergraduate biology students, there have been increased efforts to better integrate math into biology curricula. One challenge of such efforts is negative student attitudes toward math, which are thought to be particularly prevalent among biology students. According to theory, students' personal values toward using math in a biological context will influence their achievement and behavioral outcomes, but a validated instrument is needed to determine this empirically. We developed the Math-Biology Values Instrument (MBVI), an 11-item college-level self--report instrument grounded in expectancy-value theory, to measure life science students' interest in using math to understand biology, the perceived usefulness of math to their life science career, and the cost of using math in biology courses. We used a process that integrates multiple forms of validity evidence to show that scores from the MBVI can be used as a valid measure of a student's value of math in the context of biology. The MBVI can be used by instructors and researchers to help identify instructional strategies that influence math-biology values and understand how math-biology values are related to students' achievement and decisions to pursue more advanced quantitative-based courses.

| S-EPMC5589425 | biostudies-literature

Laboratory activity to effectively teach introductory geomicrobiology concepts to non-geology majors.

Project description:We have designed a three-week experiment that can complement any microbiology course, to teach main geomicrobiology concepts for non-geology majors. One of the most difficult concepts for non-geology majors to comprehend is how bacteria serve as a platform for different mineralization reactions. In our three-week laboratory practice, students learn the main principles and conditions required for an induced bacterial mineralization. Upon completion of the laboratory experience, students will: 1) learn how microbial-induced mineralization (such as calcium carbonate formation) is affected by differential media and growth conditions; 2) understand how bacterial physiology affects any induced in situ or in vitro mineralization; 3) comprehend how growing conditions and bacterial physiologies interrelate, resulting in differential crystal formation. The teaching-learning process was assessed using a pre-/posttest with an increase from 26% to 76% in the number of positive answers from the students. We also measured the students' proficiency while conducting specific technical tasks, revealing no major difficulties while conducting the experiments. A final questionnaire was provided with satisfactory evaluations from the students regarding the organization and content of the practices. 84-86% of the students agreed that the exercises improved their knowledge in geomicrobiology and would like to attend similar laboratories in the future. Such response is the best indicator that the laboratory practice can be implemented in any undergraduate/graduate microbiology course to effectively teach basic geomicrobiology concepts to non-geology majors.

| S-EPMC3867758 | biostudies-literature

Using the Intended-Enacted-Experienced Curriculum Model to Map the <i>Vision and Change</i> Core Competencies in Undergraduate Biology Programs and Courses.

Project description:One critical step in the challenging process of curricular reform is determining how closely a curriculum aligns with national recommendations. Here, we examine the alignment of teaching, assessment, and student experience in undergraduate biology courses with the Vision and Change core competency recommendations. We applied the intended-enacted-experienced curriculum model to obtain a more complete, multiperspective view of the curriculum. First, we developed and piloted the BioSkills Curriculum Survey with more than 100 biology instructors across five institutions. Using multilevel logistic regression modeling of the survey data, we found that instructors were equally likely to report teaching all competencies; however, they reported assessing some competencies more than others. After adding course characteristics to our model, we found that the likelihood of teaching certain competencies depended on course type. Next, we analyzed class materials and student perceptions of instruction in 10 biology courses in one department. Within this smaller sample, we found that instructors messaged a narrower range of competency learning outcomes on their syllabi than they reported teaching on the survey. Finally, modeling revealed that inclusion of an outcome on assessments, but not syllabi, increased the likelihood that students and their instructor agreed whether it was taught.

| S-EPMC9250375 | biostudies-literature

Conceptual Elements: A Detailed Framework to Support and Assess Student Learning of Biology Core Concepts.

Project description:The Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: Call to Action report has inspired and supported a nationwide movement to restructure undergraduate biology curricula to address overarching disciplinary concepts and competencies. The report outlines the concepts and competencies generally but does not provide a detailed framework to guide the development of the learning outcomes, instructional materials, and assessment instruments needed to create a reformed biology curriculum. In this essay, we present a detailed Vision and Change core concept framework that articulates key components that transcend subdisciplines and scales for each overarching biological concept, the Conceptual Elements (CE) Framework. The CE Framework was developed using a grassroots approach of iterative revision and incorporates feedback from more than 60 biologists and undergraduate biology educators from across the United States. The final validation step resulted in strong national consensus, with greater than 92% of responders agreeing that each core concept list was ready for use by the biological sciences community, as determined by scientific accuracy and completeness. In addition, we describe in detail how educators and departments can use the CE Framework to guide and document reformation of individual courses as well as entire curricula.

| S-EPMC5459242 | biostudies-literature

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