Systematically Rethinking Undergraduate Biology Education
A few weeks ago Karen Guillemin of the META Center and Elly Vandegrift, Associate Director of the University of Oregon Science Literacy Program, attended the Northwest PULSE Meeting and had the opportunity to spend an intensive weekend at an idyllic retreat in the heart of Seattle, thinking about educating the next generation of biologists. The meeting was organized by the six Northwest fellows of the Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Education (PULSE), an effort supported jointly by the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institutes of Health/NIGMS (NIH/NIGMS) and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) to implement systemic changes in college-level biology education, based upon the recommendation of the 2011 Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action. This document lays out a vision for life science education that, among other achievements, would provide a solid foundation for future systems biologists.
The proposal identifies five Core Concepts for Biological Literacy:
1. EVOLUTION: the diversity of life evolved over time by processes of mutation, selection, and genetic change.
2. STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION: Basic units of structure define the function of all living things.
3. INFORMATION FLOW, EXCHANGE, AND STORAGE: the growth and behavior of organisms are activated through the expression of genetic information in context.
4. PATHWAYS AND TRANSFORMATIONS OF ENERGY AND MATTER: Biological systems grow and change by processes based upon chemical transformation pathways and are governed by the laws of thermodynamics.
5. SYSTEMS: Living systems are interconnected and interacting.
And six Core Competencies and Disciplinary Practice:
1. ABILITY TO APPLY THE PROCESS OF SCIENCE
2. ABILITY TO USE QUANTITATIVE REASONING
3. ABILITY TO USE MODELING AND SIMULATION
4. ABILITY TO TAP INTO THE INTERDISCIPLINARY NATURE OF SCIENCE
5. ABILITY TO COMMUNICATE AND COLLABORATE WITH OTHER DISCIPLINES
6. ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SCIENCE AND SOCIETY
The META Center fully supports efforts to integrate these core concepts and competencies into the UO undergraduate curriculum, and as a cross-disciplinary hub on campus, it is well positioned to promote innovative inter-departmental collaborations to achieve these educational goals.
November 12, 2013