NIST FALCON! Redesigning your courses to build systems thinking skills
Start time
September 23, 2022 12:00 PM
End time
September 23, 2022 01:00 PM
Presented By
National Institute on Scientific Teaching
Location
Online
Workshop Worth
3
Description
** For participants in Biology 5001: This activity is 3 points total with a *required* reflection.
FALCoN with Jenny Momsen and Team. Redesigning your courses to build systems thinking skills: Part 1: Using conceptual modeling to connect ideas in biology
FALCoN with Jenny Momsen and Team. Redesigning your courses to build systems thinking skills: Part 1: Using conceptual modeling to connect ideas in biology
Description
Biology is fundamentally a science of living systems, and biologists think and reason in terms of systems, a skill acquired after years of practice or advanced learning. Frameworks such as Vision & Change (V&C) recognize the relevance of systems and identify systems as a foundational concept for life science learning, but do not specify strategies for preparing students to become systems thinkers. While some students intuitively pick up systems thinking (ST) skills, we need to make these skills explicit in our classrooms.In this two-part workshop series, we will explore (1) the practice of modeling to support student reasoning about biological systems, and (2) using the Biology Systems Thinking Framework (BST) in your courses. Part 1: Using conceptual modeling to connect ideas in biology Biology instruction should engage students in the practices and ways of thinking used by biologists. Biologists regularly use models to describe living systems, and to explain and predict system behaviors. Model-based approaches to biology teaching and learning leverage theory and evidence to design learning environments where students construct models as artifacts that reflect their mental models and learn by evaluating, testing, revising, and extending their models. Developing and implementing model-based instruction can be challenging for many reasons. In this workshop, we will describe a conceptual modeling framework that is particularly well suited for modeling biological systems in the classroom. In this framework, models are explanatory constructs that illustrate systems in terms of their components and the relationships among them. Together, components and relationships explain how a system functions. This workshop will provide participants with the tools for incorporating conceptual modeling into biology instruction and will prepare participants for Part 2 of this workshop series, “Using the Biology Systems Thinking Framework to organize biology curricula.”
Biology is fundamentally a science of living systems, and biologists think and reason in terms of systems, a skill acquired after years of practice or advanced learning. Frameworks such as Vision & Change (V&C) recognize the relevance of systems and identify systems as a foundational concept for life science learning, but do not specify strategies for preparing students to become systems thinkers. While some students intuitively pick up systems thinking (ST) skills, we need to make these skills explicit in our classrooms.In this two-part workshop series, we will explore (1) the practice of modeling to support student reasoning about biological systems, and (2) using the Biology Systems Thinking Framework (BST) in your courses. Part 1: Using conceptual modeling to connect ideas in biology Biology instruction should engage students in the practices and ways of thinking used by biologists. Biologists regularly use models to describe living systems, and to explain and predict system behaviors. Model-based approaches to biology teaching and learning leverage theory and evidence to design learning environments where students construct models as artifacts that reflect their mental models and learn by evaluating, testing, revising, and extending their models. Developing and implementing model-based instruction can be challenging for many reasons. In this workshop, we will describe a conceptual modeling framework that is particularly well suited for modeling biological systems in the classroom. In this framework, models are explanatory constructs that illustrate systems in terms of their components and the relationships among them. Together, components and relationships explain how a system functions. This workshop will provide participants with the tools for incorporating conceptual modeling into biology instruction and will prepare participants for Part 2 of this workshop series, “Using the Biology Systems Thinking Framework to organize biology curricula.”
Make sure you RSVP with the CLSE and the hosting unit!
· RSVP for the workshop with the CLSE here by clicking “RSVP” in the upper right corner. If you decide not to attend, please “Cancel RSVP”.
· Also RSVP with the hosting unit (if other than the CLSE) using the event webpage linked above.
Following the workshop, email Erica Szeyller.1 to document your attendance for the full event time. If you were not able to attend the full event, email Erica Szeyller.1 to discuss the possibility of 5001 course points.
