NSF grant to Bautista
Nazan Bautista
A $199,352 grant from the National Science Foundation will be used to revise a science course that is widely used by not just Miami zoology, microbiology and botany majors, but by teacher education majors.
The grant, awarded to principal investigator Elisabeth Schussler (botany) and co-principal investigators Nazan Bautista (teacher education), Nancy Solomon (zoology), Bruce Steinly (zoology) and James Hickey (botany), will help to revise BOT/MBI/ZOO 115, Miami’s introductory biology laboratory course which is cross-listed in botany, microbiology, and zoology.
The goal is use the latest research to enhance laboratories in the course in a way that helps not just science majors, but also future teachers get a better understanding of what science is and how to perform scientific investigations.
Currently, many teacher education majors, especially those focusing on middle childhood, are required to take BOT/MBI/ZOO 115 to fulfill their science requirement. However, the format of the BOT/MBI/ZOO 115 labs is not consistent with what research shows to be effective practices in teaching science, says Bautista.
"This is especially important when we consider that our teacher ed majors will be required to teach their courses using the current effective practices in science education once they graduate, but they will not have experienced these practices themselves in BOT/MBI/ZOO 115," she says.
The project design includes comparing the efficacy of inquiry versus non-inquiry labs and reflective versus non-reflective practices on student understanding of the nature of science.
A summer workshop for teaching assistants, faculty and local K-12 teachers, development of innovative instructional techniques, a symposium on the nature of science and scientific inquiry and a pilot lab manual are included in the research project.