Implementing the Vision and Change Report on Undergraduate Biology Education

Saturday, February 19, 2011: 1:00 PM-2:30 PM
102B (Washington Convention Center )
In 2010, AAAS released a report entitled “Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education, a Call to Action.” The document was the product of a major conference of faculty, students, administrators, and other stakeholders, hosted by AAAS in July 2009 in Washington, DC. The recommendations of the report are clear. Less clear is how those recommendations are to be implemented. This symposium will present the views of three leading scientists and educators, all of whom are deeply invested in major reforms in biology education at the undergraduate level. Vision and Change laid out a range of far-reaching goals. These goals include the following: a new focus on biology courses designed for all students, not just majors, to foster broad scientific literacy; renewed effort to convey understanding of key concepts, especially with respect to evolution, pathways and transformations of energy and matter, information flow, structure and function, and systems; making science courses more relevant and outcome oriented; new programs for professional development of faculty and new reward systems to foster educational excellence; course development to train students in the computational aspects of biology and the use of modern databases; and better approaches to convey what science is and how it is actually done. The symposium will focus on strategies for implementation.
Organizer:
Michael M. Cox, University of Wisconsin
Co-Organizer:
Barbara Illman, U.S. Forest Service
Moderator:
Michael M. Cox, University of Wisconsin
Speakers:
Jo Handelsman, Yale University
What About the "How" in Educational Change?
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