Athens, Ga. – The National Academies recently bestowed the title of Education Fellow in the Life Sciences to 39 educators around the country, including three from the University of Georgia, who successfully completed a summer institute aimed at fostering innovative approaches to teaching undergraduate biology.
Those named from UGA are Norris Armstrong, assistant professor of genetics; William E. Barstow, professor of plant biology and associate chairman and director of Undergraduate Degree Programs, Division of Biological Sciences; and Marguerite “Peggy” Brickman, assistant professor of plant biology.
“We are working on many projects to improve our classes,” said Armstrong, “including incorporating active learning strategies in the lectures and labs. Peggy is looking at ways to use technology to improve the labs, and I am looking at ways to use writing assignments in large lectures.”
The fellows are members of teams from 20 research-intensive universities who were selected to attend the summer institute based on the teams’ ideas for enhancing undergraduate biology education and a commitment by their universities to support teaching innovations. Teams also were chosen based on their willingness to collaborate on the development of “teachable units” –curriculum packages encompassing up to a week of classes and laboratory activities on a specific topic – and their pledge to implement at least one of the teachable units in the courses they teach this year. Admission to the summer institute was highly competitive.
The institute grew out of a recommendation in a report issued last year by the National Academies’ National Research Council titled “Bio2010: Transforming Undergraduate Education for Future Research Biologists,” which called for changes in the way college students are taught biology. The report noted that undergraduate biology education was failing to keep pace with revolutionary advances in biomedical research that require those working in the field to have a good understanding of other scientific disciplines, such as math and computer sciences, and urged instructors to integrate other subjects into their biology classes.
The 2004 summer institute focused on how to improve large introductory biology courses taught by the fellows.
“These fellows are at the forefront of cutting-edge changes in the ways that we should be teaching undergraduate biology,” said Bruce Alberts, president of the National Academy of Sciences. “They will play a vital role in better preparing all students for life in a world that will be increasingly dominated by science and technology, as well as attracting some of them to a career in biomedical research.”
In addition to the fellows, the Academies also named 18 Education Mentors in the Life Sciences. The recipients of this title were speakers, facilitators or organizers at the institute and will continue to serve as mentors to participants for at least the next academic year.
The National Academies Summer Institute on Undergraduate Education in Biology was held in August at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Major funding for the institute was provided by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, along with support from the host university and the National Academies.
