RCN-UBE Incubator: Incorporating Immunology into the Curriculum to Promote Interdisciplinary Science Education

Immunology is a content-heavy, rapidly-evolving field, which makes “keeping up” difficult for instructors. The inclusion of immunology-related topics in undergraduate biology curricula at an introductory level is limited due to lack of faculty expertise and/or costly resources required for immunology labs. Yet, immunology is important for training the next generation of scientists and medical professionals.

Demystifying immunology’s discipline-specific knowledge to encourage public dialogue has the potential to positively impact numerous societal issues, such as promoting acceptance of vaccines leading to an increase in the rate of immunization. Interdisciplinary thinking fostered by immunology is also critical to tackle current societal challenges, such as the effect of global climate change on emerging infectious diseases.

The Immunology network will connect educators who are committed to interdisciplinary undergraduate immunology education and active learning. The network will develop teaching resources that integrate immunology related interdisciplinary learning outcomes, for example those intersecting with ecology and chemistry. These interdisciplinary learning outcomes aligned with the key concepts and competencies noted in The Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action report, will be identified with feedback from the educator community.

Non-immunology educators, representing diverse institutional and disciplinary expertise, will be paired with an immunology educator for developing these interdisciplinary teaching resources, based on backward design approach and active learning strategies. The products generated at the end of this RCN-UBE incubator, will be shared with the network participants at a virtual symposium, disseminated for use by educators at the American Society for Microbiology Conference for Undergraduate Educators and as an Open Educational Resource via the QUBES hub site.

The network will result in significant professional development opportunities for faculty and empower them to positively impact diverse student populations including underrepresented and first-generation students and veterans.

This project is being funded by the Directorate for Biological Sciences, Division of Biological Infrastructure 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/).

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.