RCN-UBE: Assessment of Competence in Experimental Design in Biology (ACED-Bio) Network

Purdue University, West Lafayette IN

Investigators

Abstract

This RCN-UBE project seeks to create a network of educational specialists (who study how students learn) and scientists (who are active researchers) to develop assessment tools that directly measure what students learn about experimental design in biology through undergraduate research and classroom experiences. Collaboratively, these two groups will develop common learning standards about the concepts underlying an experiment and the nature of representations students should apply in reasoning about experiments and visualizing data. They also will evaluate existing assessments and create and validate new assessments based on the standards to reveal areas of student difficulties, leading to new instructional and mentoring approaches targeting those areas. While an increasing number of studies focus on helping students decipher the experimental research process in general, most assessment tools only indirectly measure what undergraduates learn from performing biology experiments. The intellectual merit of this project is that it addresses the need to develop assessments that directly measure what students learn about biology research to strengthen their research skills. It is envisaged that these assessments will have both summative and formative applications as activities for promoting learning about experimental research competencies. The broader impacts of the project lie in the fact that faculty involved in the project come from a variety of biology sub-disciplines at different career levels and from a wide range of institutions, providing an opportunity for liberal arts colleges and master's-degree-granting institutions, in particular, to provide input to the development of assessments that can positively impact their students. As a key outcome, the common standards and assessments will be used across multiple institutions and disciplines of biology. This project is funded jointly by the Directorate for Biological Sciences and the Directorate of Education and Human Resources, Division of Undergraduate Education in support of efforts to address the challenges posed in Vision and Change in Undergraduate Education: A Call to Action http://visionandchange.org/finalreport/