Intellectual merit: This project integrates recommendations by the Vision and Change initiative to revise and revitalize the first year biology sequence at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK). A community-based approach is being used to monitor and document the integration of Vision and Change concepts, competencies, and research by UTK biologists into three courses. Faculty and graduate students are developing new instructional strategies and assessing the impacts on student learning. In part, the effort involves 1) developing and implementing a new curriculum, 2) providing professional development for the UTK biology community, 3) assessing and evaluating student learning in light of the curricular changes, and 4) disseminating the student learning and curriculum change results. The project is providing one model of how an outcomes-based and community-based reform at a large state university can integrate Vision and Change into introductory biology courses. The creation and use of open-ended assessments based on Vision and Change concepts is also building capacity in assessment of undergraduate biology learning.
Broader impacts: By engaging dozens of UTK faculty, graduate students, and staff in best practices for teaching and learning, the project is providing thousands of undergraduates the tools to become more biologically literate. It prepares students for open-ended questioning, and encourages them to think like biologists. Moreover, the project functions as a model of reform whose deliverables are freely available for use by other institutions. UTK community members are also visiting selected institutions to encourage them to enact similar curricular reforms within their introductory biology courses.
