ACTIONS AND ACCOUNTABILITY

1. NW-PULSE @ NW BIO 2014 SPREADING THE WORD: COMMITTEE SERVICE AND CONVERSATIONS OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY LORI KAYES, LINDA BRUSLIND, JEFF CHANG, INDIRA RAJAGOPAL VISION – Vertical integration of the life science curricula at OSU across four departments (Microbiology, Integrative Biology, Botany and Plant Pathology and Biochemistry/Biophysics) MAIN GOAL– Assess the vertical integration of courses at OSU in the context of the V&C ACTIONS AND ACCOUNTABILITY BARRIERS & CHALLENGES • Our team accomplished many items related to advancing the mission of the V&C at Oregon State University • Members of our team are serving on the following curriculum committees: • College of Science, School of Life Science • College of Ag Sciences • Botany and Plant Pathology Dept Grad Studies • Departmental (Integrative Biology, Microbiology) • Bi20x Course Development • Baccalaureate Core • Bioinformatics task force that is integrating quantitative thinking in UG teaching and connection within biology • Members have worked to spread the word of V&C and best teaching practices: • Casual conversation • Development of a biology instruction techniques group on campus that meet 2x per term to discuss innovations. • Working within departments to share syllabi and teaching plans toward the vertical integration of curricula • Change of teaching style by team members to reflect best teaching practices outlines in the V&C and work with faculty to increase their access to materials and ideas surrounding best practices in teaching. • Informing departmental faculty of the V&C and its recommendations • Request for topics and requirements desired in the intro series from faculty with upper division courses. • Departments filled out all V&C rubrics and identified areas of needed improvement • BB department assessing ability to meet new accreditation requirements aligned with V&C • Two new bioinformatics course has been created to address some deficiencies in V&C recommendations • and across to other disciplines • Biochemistry laboratory for winter term has been completely revamped so that students are doing research-based projects in teams • Integrative Biology Dept. is redesigning their Zoology major to align with V&C. • Challenges: We addressed the challenge of having very little time (as busy faculty) by utilizing projects that we were already involved in to spread the word and importance of the V&C. Faculty do not always have a good understanding of what they think that students should specifically know as they come into their upper division classes and therefore we are trying to carefully define topics for our alignment survey. • Barriers: The specific details of what should be included in an vertical alignment survey were difficult to slim down to a manageable number of topics. The magnitude of achieving vertical alignment across 4 different departments at an R1 institution is partially being addressed by the formation of the School of Life Sciences curriculum committee. • Describe any • Products: Proposal for new Zoology Major, curriculum, reports, proposals, course/curriculum revisions, learning objectives/outcomes … • Assessments: Indirect assessment for Bi212, surveys, reflections, feedback forms, interviews … SUSTAINABILITY • Recently formed School of Life Sciences in our College of Science and the curriculum committee associated with this are key to our sustainability. The SLS was formed to help with this issue. • BB dept. began a mentoring program, where juniors and seniors volunteer to mentor freshmen and sophomores.   • The BB department will be submitting the ASBMB accreditation application at the next deadline. Following the department have our graduating seniors take the ASBMB certification exam. • Networks and communities can support this effort by developing certification programs, providing opportunities to share the V&C, and promoting professional development opportunities. STRENGTHS RESOURCES & ALLIES • The developing School of Life Sciences, working curriculum committees and interdepartmental nature of our team are major strengths. • There is also a movement on the part of the upper administration to improve student learning. • Development of accreditation program that is aligned with V&C will help move departments in that direction Resources: We utilized preexisting concept lists for HHMI and Bioliteracy Project in addition to V&C to develop concept. We tapped into the curriculum committees in various levels to assist in taking the V&C directly to the decision makers. Allies: We met individually with our 4 department heads(Biology, Microbiology, Botany and Plant Pathology and Biochemistry/Biophysics) and the Dean of the College of Science to gather support This work was supported in part by NSF EAGER #51588