Field stations and marine laboratories (FSMLs) offer an exceptional opportunity to teach biology in ways that truly enhance student learning. FSMLs are particularly well suited to inquiry-based learning called for in science education reform as their unique natural settings foster learning communities and cooperative activities that are not always evident on main campus locations. However, the majority of faculty based at FSMLs, and those faculty that bring students to FSMLs from universities and colleges, have limited experience with effective instructional strategies to teach science through inquiry. Faculty Institutes For Reforming Science Teaching Through Field Stations (Project FIRST) is designed to prepare communities of faculty associated with field stations throughout the United States to utilize inquiry-based, active learning approaches for reforming undergraduate biology courses and curriculum. During FIRST, new faculty, senior faculty and post-doctoral students who are either based at, or associated with, a field station or marine laboratory will form a Field Station team (the FSML team) to work together to expand their knowledge of inquiry-based learning at FSMLs, ideal active learning settings. Six FSML teams will recruit one hundred eighty biology faculty from universities, and four-year and community colleges in their region to form a regional network centered at the field station or marine laboratory. The faculty will come from both science and education departments at these institutions. FSML teams will work with the regional faculty to translate and make connections between active learning models designed at field stations, and similar innovative teaching methods or strategies that would work for courses and curriculum within departments to enhance student learning. These techniques will also serve as models for the prospective K-12 teachers enrolled in the science and education courses of participating faculty. By providing these opportunities, all students should have opp ortunities to gain scientific understanding through direct experiences with methods and processes of scientific inquiry.
