The American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) is awarded a grant to work with the collaborating organizations in the Partners in Undergraduate Life Science Education (PULSE) initiative: National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health-NIGMS (NIH), and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and the PULSE working partner, Know Innovation (KI), to achieve the goal of coordinating systemic change in undergraduate life science education. AIBS core strengths in working with the community and facilitating high quality peer advisory and review services are a strong addition to this unique and exciting program designed to mobilize change in undergraduate life sciences education. The award fits the EArly-concept Grants for Exploratory Research because of its high potential for producing an implementation framework for transforming biology departments within the nation?s colleges and universities.
AIBS will work with the program partners throughout its lifespan by 1) working to raise awareness of the PULSE project among the community and encouraging participation in the project and 2) facilitating the selection of the Vision and Change Fellows in the initial phase.
Both the selection of Fellows and promotion of the project to the broad biology education community are integral to the success of the PULSE project. AIBS is extremely well qualified to carry out both of these activities. The Institute has years of experience successfully conducting high quality peer-review for private foundations, government agencies, and other clients. AIBS has been very successful in reaching intended audiences through its public policy and media relations work. The proposed strategy for developing and promoting a press release about the Request for Applications and Selection of Fellows is based upon expertise gained over the years and knowledge about the focused effort required to effectively reach an intended audience. Other scientific disciplines will learn about the outcomes of the PULSE project because AIBS is actively involved in collaborations and coalitions across the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines.
The results of AIBS?s work will ensure that the top individuals in the country are poised to work with the leaders in life science research and education, NSF, NIH, and HHMI, to move institutional reform efforts forward. The proposed activities are expected to make a significant contribution to an unprecedented transformation of the undergraduate biology education community's understanding of institutional barriers to change and of strategies for overcoming them.
The American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) received a grant in May 2012 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to help advance the goals of the Partners for Undergraduate Life Sciences Education (PULSE) initiative. PULSE was jointly funded by the NSF, the National Institutes of Health-NIGMS (NIH), and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) to stimulate systemic reform within undergraduate life sciences departments at two and four year colleges and universities. AIBS worked with the funding partners via the PULSE Steering Committee and Knowinnovation (KI) to work towards these goals. AIBS’s specific role from May 2013 through the end of April 2013 was two-fold: to help facilitate the selection of Vision and Change Leadership Fellows and to raise awareness of and encourage participation in PULSE by all who have a stake in undergraduate life sciences education. To fulfill its role in facilitating the selection process, AIBS established a secure online application website and solicited applications from leaders within broad undergraduate biology community. By the May 2012 deadline, AIBS received just over 250 applications from a wide range of institution types. During the summer, AIBS helped to facilitate the review process. Once the finalists were identified, AIBS secured commitments from the 40 individuals who were invited to serve for a year as a Vision and Change Leadership Fellow. Throughout the duration of the project, AIBS worked to raise awareness of and to encourage participation in PULSE by the biology community. After the Fellows were confirmed, AIBS sent out a press release announcing the selection of the Fellows, contacted the media-relations staff at each of the Fellows’ institutions, and the professional societies to which the Fellows belonged to increase the profile of the selected individuals within their own communities and increase the visibility of PULSE more broadly. AIBS staff further promoted the work of the Fellows through BioScience in an "Eye on Education" column. It briefly described the history of PULSE, the Fellows’ working groups and projects, and how their efforts fit into the bigger picture of undergraduate biology education reform. The column was published in the April 2013 issue of BioScience as an open-access article (www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/bio.2013.63.4.4) and on the AIBS website in HTML format (www.aibs.org/eye-on-education/eye_on_education_2013_04.html). The work of the PULSE Vision and Change Leadership Fellows continues. Updates about the project, along with links to the original press releases, are available on the AIBS website at: www.aibs.org/education/pulseproject.html. Anyone invested in improving undergraduate biology education can join the community at http://pulsecommunity.org. Last Modified: 06/21/2013 Submitted by: Susan Musante The start date of the project in second paragraph of our Project Outcomes Report is incorrect. It should should state that: "AIBS’s specific role from May 2012 through the end of April 2013 was two-fold..."
