Collaborations Grow through the Introductory Biology Project

When Elena Bray-Speth, assistant professor of biology at Saint Louis University, presented her case study on the evolution of fur color in mice, little did she know that someone in the audience had developed a case on the very same topic. That person was Jim Smith, principal investigator (PI) of Evo-Ed (http://lbc.msu.edu/evo-ed), a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded project that currently houses four evolutionbased case studies. "Elena and I met just after her session and I showed her our cases," said Smith, who is a professor in the Lyman Briggs College and the Department of Entomology at Michigan State University. The connection between Bray-Speth and Smith was made possible by the Introductory Biology Project (IBP; http://ibp.ou.edu) during a conference held in late June at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, DC. Gordon Uno, PI of the IBP at the University of Oklahoma, organized the conference, which is one of many meetings he has hosted on the introductory biology experience. The IBP was the first Research Coordination Network for Undergraduate Biology Education (RCN–UBE) funded by the NSF in 2009. Its goal is to foster networking opportunities and new collaborations between those creating, implementing, or evaluating best practices in introductory biology teaching and learning. The IBP summer conference brought together over 150 individuals focused on this goal, including graduate students and postdoctoral scholars, textb...
Source: Eye on Education - Category: Biology Authors: Source Type: news