Stephanie Gardner - US grants

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goals of the proposed work are to elucidate the protein-protein interactions and signal transduction pathways involved in the recruitment of GLuR2-containing receptors in response to high frequency stimulation to synapses that formerly lacked them. A combination of electrophysiology, biochemistry (peptide perfusion), pharmacology, and transgenic animals will be used. To dissect the roles of individual proteins in GluR2 regulation the interaction between the C-termini of the AMPA receptor subunits with intracellular proteins will be disrupted with the use of small peptides directed against the interaction sites on GluR1, 2, 3, and 4 subunits. Complementary to this approach will be to use transgenic animals that lack GluR2-interacting proteins (GRIP1/GRIP2 or PICK1) or that lack the last 7 amino acids of the C-terminus of GluR1, GluR2, GluR3, or GluR4. Next, the targets of Ca2+ influx through Ca2+- permeable AMPA receptors will be dissected with pharmacological manipulations of kinases and phosphatases. This project will potentially reveal the determinants of the distribution and regulation of AMPA receptor subunits in general, a process that contributes to the fundamental function of glutamatergic synapses throughout the nervous system.

(Biological Sciences 61)
A widely used successful model for incorporating research into chemistry laboratory courses (from the Center for Authentic Science Practice in Education, "CASPiE") is being adapted in a first-year biological science laboratory course at a research university (Purdue University) and a primarily undergraduate institution (Purdue University North Central). The overarching goal is to advance students' understanding of the scientific method, of biological research and of its products. Simultaneously, the method is improving students' ability to communicate scientific data and principles at an early stage in their undergraduate education. With the assistance of personnel at Purdue University that developed the CASPiE model, three new modules are being developed, each based on the research of one of three different faculty members, one in bacterial genetics, one in neuro-anatomy, and one in population biology. Each module is designed so that students work in teams to analyze preliminary results, use such results to revise the experimental design for further inquiry, and collectively summarize the conclusions of the research and present final results in poster format. The modules can be used in multiple years and shared with other institutions. Rubrics for course grading are being adapted from those already developed for the CASPiE model, as are CASPiE instruments for assessment of the educational outcomes of the new laboratory course.

The intellectual merit of the proposed work is rooted in both science education and biological science. In terms of education, the work investigates whether: (1) a successful model for incorporating research into introductory laboratory courses in Chemistry can be adapted to the Life Sciences; (2) a research-based learning experience can not only provide basic skills for students, but also enhance students' scientific understanding and their ability to communicate science; and, (3) early exposure to research in an undergraduate program will improve both student retention in science and their willingness to seek out independent research experiences. In addition the research that students conduct is contributing to faculty-guided projects investigating bacterial genetics, neuro-anatomy, and population genetics.

The broader impacts of the work are also varied. It is an example of how to adapt undergraduate teaching modules across different science fields and within different institution types. Results from the project are adding, as well, to our growing body of knowledge about the efficacy of introducing research modules into introductory courses.

This RCN-UBE project seeks to create a network of educational specialists (who study how students learn) and scientists (who are active researchers) to develop assessment tools that directly measure what students learn about experimental design in biology through undergraduate research and classroom experiences. Collaboratively, these two groups will develop common learning standards about the concepts underlying an experiment and the nature of representations students should apply in reasoning about experiments and visualizing data. They also will evaluate existing assessments and create and validate new assessments based on the standards to reveal areas of student difficulties, leading to new instructional and mentoring approaches targeting those areas.

While an increasing number of studies focus on helping students decipher the experimental research process in general, most assessment tools only indirectly measure what undergraduates learn from performing biology experiments. The intellectual merit of this project is that it addresses the need to develop assessments that directly measure what students learn about biology research to strengthen their research skills. It is envisaged that these assessments will have both summative and formative applications as activities for promoting learning about experimental research competencies.

The broader impacts of the project lie in the fact that faculty involved in the project come from a variety of biology sub-disciplines at different career levels and from a wide range of institutions, providing an opportunity for liberal arts colleges and master's-degree-granting institutions, in particular, to provide input to the development of assessments that can positively impact their students. As a key outcome, the common standards and assessments will be used across multiple institutions and disciplines of biology.

This project is funded jointly by the Directorate for Biological Sciences and the Directorate of Education and Human Resources, Division of Undergraduate Education in support of efforts to address the challenges posed in Vision and Change in Undergraduate Education: A Call to Action http://visionandchange.org/finalreport/

This proposal was submitted in response to EHR Core Research (ECR) program announcement NSF 15-509. The ECR program of fundamental research in STEM education provides funding in critical research areas that are essential, broad and enduring. EHR seeks proposals that will help synthesize, build and/or expand research foundations in the following focal areas: STEM learning, STEM learning environments, STEM workforce development, and broadening participation in STEM. The ECR program is distinguished by its emphasis on the accumulation of robust evidence to inform efforts to (a) understand, (b) build theory to explain, and (c) suggest interventions (and innovations) to address persistent challenges in STEM interest, education, learning, and participation. The proposed study will explore trajectories of development in high school and undergraduate students' understanding of evidence in the context of biology teaching and learning. One of the difficulties experienced by many science learners is that they do not fully understand the evidence base that underpins contemporary science. This study will examine students' developing understanding of evidence in the context of biology learning. This research will contribute to fundamental knowledge on STEM learning and STEM learning environments by providing information on trajectories of development in students' understanding and use of evidence as a central part of their learning in biology through the secondary and post-secondary years. The project will also provide information on how variations in how teachers and instructional materials support students' understanding and reasoning about evidence influence this development. The instructional resources developed as part of this project (e.g., grade band appropriate teacher guides and exemplars of supported assignments and assessments) will be of direct value to biology educators. The outcomes of this study will help educators better prepare students who want to pursue careers in science, including research careers. Furthermore, knowledge developed by the project may support the development of scientific literacy and participation in evidence-based decision making around public policy on scientific issues among citizens.

The project will use a design-based research approach to achieve the following objectives: a) Develop a conceptual analysis of varied facets of disciplinary evidence that are important to evolutionary thinking in biology learning; b) Describe trajectories of learning in high school and undergraduate students' understanding and use of biological evidence for evolution; c) Examine how variations in instructional scaffolding relate to patterns of student learning within each grade band; and d) Develop design knowledge to facilitate integration of disciplinary evidence scaffolding in high school and undergraduate biology instruction. First, data will be collected on what students know and learn about biological evidence in the context of routine biology instruction. Subsequently the team will integrate instructional scaffolds that foster more nuanced and multifaceted understandings of biological evidence. Two variations will be examined: 1) Generic evidence scaffolds will remind students of different aspects of using evidence in science (e.g. "refer to all the evidence when constructing an explanation"), but without explicit links to relevant disciplinary knowledge for each aspect. 2) disciplinary evidence scaffolds will explicitly remind students of key disciplinary knowledge related to each aspect of evidence. The project will use a mixed method approach, combining qualitative and quantitative cognitive science techniques to collect and analyze data from a) student learning artifacts, b) pre and posttests of biology content knowledge, and their understanding and use of evidence in biology, c) videotaped classroom lessons, and d) interviews with teachers and students. These methods will allow for quantitative comparisons of group performance across the two instructional conditions and supplement these comparisons with rich descriptive data about how students learn in varied instructional contexts.

Calls for reforms at all levels of undergraduate teaching in STEM fields encourage students to be active participants in the process of science with inquiry and quantitative data analysis, interpretation and construction of graphs, and decision-making. But there is currently a dearth of research-backed tools and curriculum for teaching overarching skills involved in the scientific process, including generating testable hypotheses, experimental design, exploring and interpreting data, and making evidence-based arguments. This is especially true in the large introductory classes that constitute many students' first exposure to a scientific field in college. This project will build on a budding research base exploring where students have trouble with using graphs with and how they learn to construct graphs. It will expand this research base both in depth and breadth, using the GraphSmarts Research Tool, which was purposefully designed to reveal students' competence and difficulties with graph construction. Data collected in this project will transform this research tool into an invaluable teaching tool which can provide both students and instructors rapid feedback on areas of student difficulty with graphing in order to fine-tune instruction and student learning of this critical skill.

The intellectual merit of this project is to leverage the resources of an industry-academia partnership to establish a rich database of student graphing practices and to use those data to equip introductory biology students with a strong foundation of graphing knowledge and skills. On a recently completed cyberlearning project, the SimBiotic Software company explored ways of giving students authentic scientific problems (using simulations) in open-ended environments, but still providing immediate and specific feedback to both students and instructors that can help guide students towards a better understanding of how to design a meaningful experiment. The current project will build tools for another key piece of the scientific process - data display and interpretation, as evidenced through constructing graphs. The first objective is to expand and validate the existing GraphSmarts tool's ability to collect the full range of common graph construction competencies among undergraduate biology students. Qualitative data from student and instructor think-aloud graphing interviews will be critical in guiding the refinement of the GraphSmarts tool to enable future data collection in the absence of interviews. The second objective is to build an additional graphing scenario in ecology/evolution using the GraphSmarts tool and implement this scenario in diverse introductory biology settings to solidify the dataset of student competencies and difficulties with graph construction. Data from this project will be critical in guiding the development of GraphSmarts teaching modules to provide real-time feedback regarding graphing difficulties to both students and instructors and offer assessments to evaluate the development of student proficiency with graphing.

A fundamental requirement for life and survival is that biological systems are robust, and that they maintain function despite external and internal perturbations such as wounding or infection. Integration of signals from multiple inputs (e.g., biochemical, mechanical) is essential to robustness, yet the mechanisms underlying such integration are poorly understood. The Emergent Mechanisms in Biology of Robustness, Integration, and Organization (EMBRIO) Biology Integration Institute will address this knowledge gap by leveraging state-of-the-art techniques for measuring cellular and tissue remodeling as well as imaging and data processing. The Institute's research will determine how living systems employ signaling molecules and intracellular second messengers (e.g., calcium), from cellular to organismal levels, to integrate signals and develop a coordinated, whole-system response to perturbations. An understanding of these dynamics and the integrated networks leading to robustness is essential for elucidating how organisms respond to attack and repair wounds. The Institute will lead to a greater understanding of how to support trans-disciplinary and cross-institutional communication and collaboration to advance science and education. Integration of activities will generate innovative curriculum and professional development tools that will be disseminated for broad use via existing NSF program infrastructure. These tools will facilitate faculty and trainee development of integrated knowledge and research approaches, like computational modeling, which will prepare students to be competitive in the STEM workforce and contribute to new discoveries in Integrative Biology.

Complex biological networks are appreciated as integral components of living systems; however, knowledge about system dynamics, integration of diverse inputs, and mechanisms to coordinate responses across broad scales of space and time is lacking. The EMBRIO Institute will innovatively address this knowledge gap by determining how living systems integrate “orthogonal” signals such as chemical and mechanical stimuli, and as a result of this signal integration, develop responsive phenotypes for survival and function. The overarching hypothesis is that multimodal signal integration by second messengers, as a conserved Rule of Life, controls and synchronizes the dynamics and organization of the cytoskeleton and cell signaling to restructure cells and tissues in response to stimulation, damage, or attack. The Institute addresses the hypothesis that, as a Rule of Life, this signal integration persists across taxa, leading to emergent behavior shared by the biological systems. The Institute will study responses to second messengers in biological systems from different kingdoms and over a range of scales, by harnessing big data (e.g., image data, AFM, simulation data) through AI and ML tools to process and interpret the data and bridge simulations across systems. The Institute will develop a unified technology to quantitatively delineate signal integration and the intracellular changes targeted by these signals, and a simulation-based fusion will be developed that takes the measurements and quantifications in one system and directly predicts the responses in other systems. The innovative approaches employed by the Institute are integrated into pedagogy through cognitive apprenticeship to advance a diverse STEM workforce.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

This project aims to serve the national interest by helping educators understand how students learn to accurately make and interpret graphs. All STEM disciplines use graphs to display, interpret, and analyze data. With today’s data analysis and visualization tools, graphing skills are even more crucial as the public gains greater access to databases and dissemination platforms that can widely share both accurate and flawed graphs. Graphing is particularly difficult in biology, where a wide range of topics leads to many different graphic contexts and where the data tend to be noisy. Currently, educators do not understand the various paths students take in learning to graph biological data or how those paths may differ based on a student’s background. Also not yet understood are the types of instructional interventions that could help students develop graphing expertise. This project will generate information to answer each of these questions. Specifically, the project will adapt, develop, and refine instructional tools for teaching graphing in a biology context. The project will involve instructors from diverse institutions that have introductory biology courses that enroll large numbers of students from different demographic backgrounds. Using a graph construction tool called GraphSmarts, the researchers can examine student performance on different graphing tasks to reveal strategies students use to improve their graphing-related abilities.

This project builds upon and expands on previous work examining the graphing practices of undergraduate students using a lobster-kelp scenario in the GraphSmarts tool. The project will develop four new scenarios for introductory biology graphing assessments. These scenarios will focus on topics in physiology, cell biology, and ecology. Instructors from different institutional types across the United States will participate in a Faculty Mentoring Network to design new assessments that share context-independent attributes with the original lobster-kelp scenario. Using backward design strategies, the instructors will develop activities to teach the new scenarios in their introductory biology courses. Then, using the GraphSmarts tool, data on student performance will be collected to measure student learning and to validate the new graphing assessments. As students explore the new scenarios, the project will gather qualitative and quantitative data including student graphs and answers to questions. The information gathered from the newly designed assessments will provide educators with a more nuanced understanding of student graphing competencies. The results will help educators across STEM fields understand barriers that students face in understanding graphing, as well as potential solutions to those barriers. The project will produce open-access materials that will be shared on the high used QUBE network. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. This is a Level III project in the Engaged Student Learning track, through which the IUSE program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.