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Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education (V&C)

Status: Archived

Archived funding opportunity

This document has been archived.

Important information about NSF’s implementation of the revised 2 CFR

NSF Financial Assistance awards (grants and cooperative agreements) made on or after October 1, 2024, will be subject to the applicable set of award conditions, dated October 1, 2024, available on the NSF website. These terms and conditions are consistent with the revised guidance specified in the OMB Guidance for Federal Financial Assistance published in the Federal Register on April 22, 2024.

Important information for proposers

All proposals must be submitted in accordance with the requirements specified in this funding opportunity and in the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) that is in effect for the relevant due date to which the proposal is being submitted. It is the responsibility of the proposer to ensure that the proposal meets these requirements. Submitting a proposal prior to a specified deadline does not negate this requirement.

This funding opportunity is no longer current and has been archived.

Synopsis

The National Science Foundation's (NSF's) Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) in the Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR) acknowledges the need to expand and chronicle educational change efforts across the nation.  To this end, DUE invites proposals to study the impact of the Vision and Change (V&C) movement in Undergraduate Biology Education. Specifically, this program seeks to support projects that evaluate a combination of factors such as the awareness, acceptance, adoption, and adaptation of V&C principles and outcomes including changes in curriculum, laboratories, and student retention, completion, and learning. Collectively, results of these projects are anticipated to describe the nature and extent of V&C’s use within the undergraduate biology curriculum. The projects could also describe key factors and approaches taken by the V&C community that have the potential to be useful for improving undergraduate education in other scientific disciplines or in interdisciplinary STEM education. 

Advances in the frontiers of biology and educational research have enabled the biological sciences communities to explore effective teaching approaches and promote student learning (NRC 2003, 2009). Key stakeholders of these communities were energized to revise and revitalize biology education and to launch the V&C movement (AAAS 2011, 2015, 2018). It is now time to examine the roles of V&C in the improvements in biology education.

DUE has a long history of promoting systemic improvements in how faculty, departments, and STEM professional societies develop and apply innovations in undergraduate STEM education. As summarized by Levers for Change (AAAS, 2019), most successful efforts have been focused on specific STEM disciplines. NSF is interested in exploring potential relationships between the V&C principles and the current national state of undergraduate biological education, including biological knowledge, concepts, and science process skills. This program description is a call for proposals to analyze the breadth and fidelity with which V&C principles were implemented and the resulting effects on students. Proposal budgets should be commensurate with the scope and scale of the proposed work and level of effort.

Although the list below is by no means exhaustive, proposals of interest include projects that aim to examine one or more of the following areas:1) Analyses of the nature, extent of use, and influence of the V&C principles on undergraduate biology education across multiple institutions and/or biological disciplines; 2)Investigations of how V&C influences faculty to change their teaching strategies and learning approaches, content and curriculum, and their expectations of students; 3) Examinations of changes in students’ conceptual understanding, skills, and competencies; determination of how these gains impact science self-efficacy, retention, and graduation rates, as well as diversity and inclusion in biological sciences; and analyses of potential causation and/or correlation of these outcomes with V&C principles; 4)Determinations of how V&C has impacted professional societies and engaged them in undergraduate biology education, setting standards, providing vetted educational resources, engaging students in both research and education, enhancing professional development, and implementing standards of recognition or status for educators.

Program contacts

Pushpa Ramakrishna
pusramak@nsf.gov (703) 292-2943
Ellen Carpenter
elcarpen@nsf.gov (703) 292-5104
V.Celeste Carter
vccarter@nsf.gov (703)292-4651

Awards made through this program

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