Ecological Sciences Education for All: Engaging Non-science Majors, Connecting Curriculum and Current events, Incorporating Cultural Relevance, and Advancing Systemic Change

This award will support the 7th Life Discovery Conference on biology education, with a focus on Ecological Sciences for All. The Conference will be co-organized by the Ecological Society of America (ESA), the Botanical Society of America, and the Society for the Study of Evolution. The project will support attendance of 50 participants from community colleges, primarily undergraduate institutions, and minority-serving institutions, as well as undergraduate preservice high school biology teachers.

The Conference will help participants learn about practical ideas and innovations that can be readily applied in classrooms, laboratories, and field sites. It will also advance understanding of effective improvements in ecological sciences education at multiple levels. The overall goal is to place the biology education of science and non-science majors into the context of demographic, economic, and environmental changes in society.

In doing so, it seeks to help to address ambivalence or hostility toward science that may occur in the classroom.

The conference will extend education reform efforts propelled by Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education a decade ago and highlight recent advances to provide a cohesive and modern approach to ecology education through ESA’s Four-Dimensional Ecology Education framework. It will encourage the sharing of teaching ideas at any stage of development for constructive peer feedback, thus providing a professional environment for innovation in education practice.

It will also offer participants an opportunity to join a community of practice through the post-conference Faculty Mentoring Network to incorporate ideas gained from the conference into the classroom. Participant evaluations will assess three key aspects of the conference. First is the degree to which participants felt their goals were met in attending the conference.

Second is how helpful the thematic tracks were and if participants found practical teaching ideas and strategies to incorporate the themes of the conference. Third is the degree to which participants can develop new collaborations. The three professional societies organizing the conference and conference collaborators will elevate the themes of the conference throughout their multiple fields of influence.

Increasing the used of more effective, inclusive teaching practices in biology classrooms can advance the nation toward the vision of a diverse and ecologically literate workforce and citizenry capable of contributing to the scientific study, management, and informed dialogue about our changing ecological systems.

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.