Undergraduate Biology Education Research Gordon Research Conference Proposal: Achieving Widespread Improvement in Undergraduate Education

Gordon Research Conferences, East Greenwich RI

Investigators

Abstract

The Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Undergraduate Biology Education Research (UBER) will allow a critical mass of scholars who study how improvements in undergraduate biology education can be scaled to assemble. The five-day conference will provide opportunities for thought leaders in the UBER community to gather in an environment that encourages collaborative, face-to-face conversations about the future of the field and how the community can address emerging opportunities, challenges, and important questions. The GRC will foster the next generation of ideas for accelerating biology education research, informing national priorities, and promoting the scaling of evidence-based practices. To meet these goals, this important national gathering aims to: 1) expose a diverse assemblage of attendees to state-of-the-art approaches for teaching biology; 2) engender deep discussions about contemporary issues that will improve undergraduate biology research; and, 3) continue the development of a common language and conceptual understanding of issues related to scaling implementation of evidence-based practices in undergraduate biology education. The conference will facilitate the synthesis of research findings and the formation of new collaborations and research strands that will lead to improved biology learning for hundreds of thousands of students enrolled in diverse biology programs. The PI and advisory committee will invite participants who have recently taken on leadership positions within the higher educational system and future biology education researchers. The latter will participate in the affiliated Graduate Research Seminar, a two-day pre-meeting focused on mentoring and supporting graduate students and post-docs who represent the next generation of biology education research professionals. The collective efforts of conference attendees will help sustain and improve undergraduate biology education well into the future. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.