The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Directorate for Education and Human Resources Programs, Science's Signal Transduction Knowledge Environment (STKE), and Project 2061 --- with 11 other professional societies and coalitions for biology education --- have established the Biosci Ed Net (BEN) Collaborative. This Collaborative, through its Coordinating Council, is facilitating the development of digital library collections for the teaching and learning of undergraduate biology, with users at the center of the development. For the long-term, the BEN Collaborative views this initiative as a revolutionary approach for transforming undergraduate biology teaching and learning. Towards this end, the BEN Collaborative is developing a portal site to a collection of resources (tools and products), that adhere to uniform standards for the teaching and learning of biology by students at the undergraduate level. It is intended that the resources accessible through the site will have an impact on learning of the biological sciences by undergraduates with diverse interests and career aspirations (i.e., science majors, non-science majors, and prospective K-12 teachers). The materials will be collected and maintained by respected professional societies representing a broad spectrum of biological sciences, from molecular to population levels. During the next two years, the BEN Collaborative Partners are developing metadata/technical standards, and the American Physiological Society (APS), Ecological Society of America (ESA) and Science's STKE are modifying a representative sample of existing materials for the collection so that they meet these standards. In addition, Stanford University's HighWire Press is developing and testing the search engine for the portal site. Undergraduate biology educators are participating in development of standards, teaching resources, and field-testing of the portal site. Other Partners include Access Excellence (The National Health Museum), American Institute for Biological Sciences (AIBS), American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB), American Society for Microbiology (ASM), BioQuest Curriculum Consortium (BCC), National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT), National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII), and the Society for Toxicology (SOT).

Agency
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Institute
Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE)
Type
Standard Grant (Standard)
Application #
0085840
Program Officer
Herbert Levitan
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
2000-09-01
Budget End
2003-08-31
Support Year
Fiscal Year
2000
Total Cost
$799,285
Indirect Cost
Name
American Association for Advancement Science
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Washington
State
DC
Country
United States
Zip Code
20005