Biological Collections Ensuring Critical Research and Education for the 21st Century (2020) / Chapter Skim
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3 Contributing to Science Education and Lifelong Learning
3 Contributing to Science Education and Lifelong Learning
Pages 71-84
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, building wonder and providing a source of inspiration and appreciation for the natural world. This chapter outlines some of the historical and contemporary uses of biological collections in STEM education and lifelong learning.
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. There are many examples of how biological collections can be incorporated into classroom curricula or as a means to provide research experience: educational kits, classroom visits, field trips, summer camps, online courses, tutorials, blogs, and teacher workshops are a few of the educational tools and programs created by biological collections staff.2,3 For example, the Arabidopsis Biological Resource Center at The Ohio State University develops and distributes kits to be used in K–12 and undergraduate classroom settings for students to learn about plant biology and topics such as genetics and gene expression, development, inheritance, hormone physiology, biological responses to the environment, and bioinformatics (see Box 3-1)
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Six of the kits, known collectively as Translating Research on Arabidopsis into a Network of Educational Resources, were developed and tested by ABRC staff. These kits are provided free of charge; most seed stocks are also provided free of charge to K–12 schools.
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Through workshops, professional conferences, webinars, and various social media venues, AIM-UP! built a biological collections data science community that exchanged ideas and generated new approaches to incorporating natural history collections and their 6 See https://www.nsf.gov/cise/harnessingdata.
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. The NSF-funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates Program has supported several programs focused on natural history collections including the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University (NSF Award #0353930)
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Davis, courtesy of the University of Florida Herbarium, Florida Museum of Natural History Led by Dr. Anna Monfils of the Central Michigan University Herbarium, BLUE develops exemplar educational modules using data derived from natural history specimens and biodiversity research.
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Of particular concern is the loss of student access to laboratories and field sites that are used for course-based undergraduate research. In response, scientists from Widener University, the Delaware Museum of Natural History, The George Washington University, and collaborators nationwide, with the support of an NSF grant for Rapid Response Research, are developing online course-based undergraduate research experiences using digitized natural history collections.12 INSPIRING A LIFELONG APPRECIATION FOR SCIENCE IN INFORMAL EDUCATION SETTINGS There is abundant evidence across all venues that people learn science in a variety of non-school settings (NRC, 2009)
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These activities can range from supporting digitization efforts to participating actively in the science as data collectors or lab assistants identifying critical taxonomic features of particular specimens. For example, in 2012, natural history collections professionals partnered with experts in citizen science and data visualization to create Notes from Nature, a "prototype citizen science application" that enabled volunteer members of the public to help digitize specimen labels and field notes (Hill et al., 2012)
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. The 2019 WeDigBio annual event leveraged seven online platforms.
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. STEM education research demonstrates that inquiry-based learning and undergraduate research experiences, such as those provided by some biological collections, improve student understanding of STEM concepts (NASEM, 2017c)
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Many classroom lessons, public exhibitions, and citizen science programs are evaluated, and some, particularly NSF-funded efforts, are even researched, but the value added to such programs by the specific and intentional use of biological collections has yet to be robustly documented21 or aggregated across projects. Evaluating the impacts of biological collectionsbased education and lifelong learning endeavors could enable a greater sense of whether and how engaging with biological collections results in better understanding and helps to meet the known learning needs of K–12 students, university students, and members of the public.
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Because the primary focus of most biological collections is research, experts in STEM education research, BOX 3-3 Tools for Developing and Evaluating Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education Programs and Learning K–12 The Next Generation Science Assessment portal describes an evidence-cen tered design process, tools, and strategies to develop classroom-based science assessments.a Undergraduate and Graduate Education Community colleges are a critical component of the undergraduate educa tion system as they are widely dispersed around the United States, can quick ly adapt to the changing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce needs, and reach a broadly diverse group of students (NRC, 2012b)
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However, there are few investigations into the unique learning opportunities associated with citizen science, though the work around identity development in citizen science heads in this direction (Ballard et al., 2018)
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These educational endeavors are rich in diversity and depth, and constitute a unique and important contribution to the nation's efforts to promote lifelong learning in STEM. As the volume and diversity of digital biological collections data expand, the educational opportunities in data science will also expand to complement disciplinary and transdisciplinary learning.
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