Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Fellows Annual Project Coordination meeting

Washington University, Saint Louis MO

Investigators

Abstract

An award has been made to Washington University in St. Louis to conduct a workshop from February 13-16, 2017 to promote the mission of the Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Education (PULSE). PULSE is a national network of current and former department chairs and administrators from a variety of institutional types. The PULSE Fellows seek to catalyze improvement in undergraduate life science education through promoting adoption of the recommendations in the Vision and Change Report (2011). This important report highlights that biology students are more successful when they learn underlying organizing concepts, rather than an accumulation of facts and information; when they develop important skills such as effective communication of ideas, designing experiments and interpreting data; when they learn in classrooms that engage them actively in the process of constructing their own understanding; and when they have the opportunity to participate in high impact practices such as undergraduate research or internships. Despite this wealth of data, most biology departments have not embraced this approach, but progress is being made. PULSE has already worked with over 180 institutions since 2013 and seeks to expand this number significantly over the next few years. The next PULSE workshop will be held at HHMI Headquarters in Chevy Chase, MD and will include approximately 50 PULSE Fellows, invited experts in institutional change and effective teaching and learning, and several facilitators. The goal of this meeting is to ensure that PULSE's multiple programs are well coordinated for maximum effect and that they will be assessed appropriately to identify interventions most effective in catalyzing improvement in undergraduate education. The PULSE project seeks to promote department-wide change in educational practices. PULSE works with departmental faculty, including departmental leaders, to help them reach consensus about their vision. PULSE is also testing theories of change by assessing the long-term impact of its activities on changes in departmental pedagogies, curriculum, and co-curricular programs. By establishing which types of interventions are most effective at motivating sustained change, the project will enhance understanding of change strategies that advance the goal of better teaching and learning in life sciences and across STEM. PULSE's agenda will be measurably promoted by an in-person meeting of Fellows to coordinate their activities, to plan for transition to a financially self-sustaining organization, and to further integrate newer Fellows into the organization's programs. With the goal of tipping the balance in biology departments toward adoption of best educational practices, PULSE's programs have the potential to accelerate the reform of undergraduate biology education nationwide. This project is being jointly funded by the Directorate for Biological Sciences. Division of Biological Infrastructure and the Directorate for Education and Human Resources, Division of Undergraduate Education as part of their efforts to address the challenges posed in Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action (http://visionandchange/finalreport/).