Transcript Slide 1

TCAP Education
Goals:
1. Increase and diversify future plant breeder pipeline
2. Improve our collective education programs
(Capacity to deliver + Problem solving experience)
3. Develop a better pipeline and better programs
How do we
Purdue
by
understanding
what works, and what does not.
attract more
Nebraska
students to be
Plant Breeders?
How do we
improve
diversity?
How do we
Deciding?
improve
training?
Nebraska
Education Team:
•Brakke (PBL, Undergrad,
Student mentor, MSIs)
• Lee (Learning Objects,
Student mentor, MSI)
•Namuth-Covert (Online
PBTN:
Students learn concepts and skills in an environment
that emphasizes conditions of the professional environment
•Directed by Plant Breeding Challenges
•Online network (Meeting Space, Work Space, Supplemental
Courses, Learning Objects, Computational Tools, Database,
Professional Development and Collaboration)
network, network training)
•Centralized trainings (Workshops, Symposia, Experiential Trips)
•Sherman (Oversee
•Training at home institutions (Coursework, Research)
Education, Online content,
Centralized trainings, Mentor,
Mentor training, MSIs,
Recruitment)
Recruitment:
Graduate
Students
Undergraduate
Students
•MSI Bridge
•Outreach
Participating Universities:
PIs
Evaluation:
•Rainbow – MSI
Outside:
•Advisory Panel
•NAPB
•Industry
•International Breeding
Community
•1 Evaluation Graduate
student Oversight by
Lawrenz– effectiveness of
PBL, Network
•Evaluation of created
materials -UNL
Year 1:Education Deliverable 1
• What
– Online environment built and tested
• Audience
– Students and Participants in PBTN
• Impact
– Enable us to deliver content, build
collaboration, mentor etc.
• What you can do
– Help test and participate in trainings
Year 1: Education Deliverable 2
• What
– Online course developed
• Audience
– Graduate and Undergraduate Students
• Impact
– Supplement and improve training of students
• What you can do
– Complete survey about content needs
– Provide content or mentor when asked
Practice of Problem Based
Learning
(Amador, Miles, Peter, 2006)
• Puts students in driver
seat
– Deeper understanding
(greater retention,
integration and application)
– Responsibility for learning
• Faculty shift to
participants in a process
and managers of groups
PBL Example: One of the expected results of climate
change is a more volatile environment. How would you
design a plant breeding program with a more variable
environment in mind?
Students
• Assess the state of their knowledge—individually and collectively
• Identify knowledge gaps
• Seek more information from a variety of sources
• Revisit the problem in light of new information
• Collaborate to propose solutions and design strategies
• Share solutions with group
• Students assess feasibility of strategies
Faculty
• Craft ill-structured problems
• Promote thinking by posing questions
• Draw attention to the processes used
Year 1: Education Deliverable 3
• What
– Education tools developed (PBL focus)
• Audience
– Faculty and Undergraduate Students
• Impact
– Support Faculty in using plant breeding
examples in education of students
– Introduce students to career
• What you can do
– Serve on editorial board
Year 1: Education Deliverable 4
• What
– MSI Bridge Building
• Audience
– Faculty and Students at MSIs, T-CAP
Participants
• Impact
– Build long term relationships between MSIs
and T-CAP
• What you can do
– Mentor and MSI faculty and/or student
MSI collaboration
• MSI faculty provide
– Advice on mentoring minority students
– Direction in curriculum development
– Mentor students
– Recruitment of students
• Wheat/Barley CAP PIs provide
– PBL and learning object curriculum
– PBL support
– Research support
– Experience for students
MSI Student Research Support
1) Student research support at MSI partnering with MSI faculty
– Faculty support for mentoring students
– Student support
2) Student summer internships at CAP institutions
– Support will include stipend and travel
– PIs at CAP institutions will mentor students
Both types of support will require
• Students and faculty to participate in PBTN
• Students to report and make presentation summarizing research
experience.
• Student presentations at MSI will encourage more students to
participate.
• Each year 10 proposals will be awarded for a total of 70,000 per
year.
Year 1: Deliverable 5
• What
– Initiate training of 11 Graduate students partnered with 11
undergraduate students
• Audience
– Students and PIs
• Impact
– Create cohort to participate in PBTN and test new training
models
– Mentoring training
• What you can do
– Identify students
– Mentor students
– Support student full participation in PBTN
Year 1: Deliverable 6
• What
– Plant breeding for climate change symposium in
association with NAPB
• Audience
– Students and PIs from plant breeding community
• Impact
– Support exchange of ideas between professional
plant breeders/students, people working on different
crops, public/private breeders to address challenges
in breeding for climate change
• What you can do
– Participate in NAPB
– Send your students to NAPB
Breeding for Climate Change
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National Association of Plant Breeders Meeting
When: May 23-25
Where: TAMU
Who: all plant breeders and students
Breeding for climate change speakers
– Joe Bouton
– Steve Bebe
• Student speaker competition
Year 1: Deliverable 7
• What
– High-throughput phenotyping for climate
change workshop
• Audience
– Students, PIs and other TCAP participants
• Impact
– Provide training in spectral phenotyping
• What you can do
– Finalize equipment decision
– Attend training and send others
Year 1: Deliverable 8
• What
– Development of evaluation tools and begin evaluation
• Audience
– Students, PIs and other TCAP participants
• Impact
– Ensure project is meeting goals
– Improving project
– Measure impact
• What you can do
– Participate in evaluations
Questions about PBTN
• How do we set learning goals?
• How do we interact with research part of
grant including database?
• What is an appropriate weekly time
commitment for students?
• How do we ensure full student
participation?
– Credit
– Grades
Questions to resolve about PBL
• Amount of PBL in PBTN
• Complexity and sequencing of problems
• Delivery
– all at once
– phased
• How do we form groups
– Students form own code of conduct for group
– Or we impose
• Assessment and grading
– Group
– Individual
– Peer evaluation
• How do we ensure PBL meets learning objectives
Questions about MSI Bridge
• How do we establish strong bridges and
ensure as broad of participation as
possible?
• How do we encourage MSI faculty and
students to participate in PBTN?
• What research projects will provide best
collaborations between MSIs and TCAP?
• Which PIs are willing to host summer MSI
students?
PBTN:
•Directed by Plant Breeding Challenges
Education Team:
•Brakke (PBL, Undergrad,
Student mentor, MSIs)
• Lee (Learning Objects,
Student mentor, MSI)
•Namuth (Online network)
•Online network (Meeting Space, Work Space,
Supplemental Courses, Learning Objects,
Computational Tools, Database)
Recruitment:
•Centralized trainings (Workshops, Symposia,
Experiential Trips)
•Outreach
•MSI Bridge
•Training at home institutions (Coursework,
Research)
•Sherman (Oversee
Education, Online content,
Centralized trainings, Mentor,
Mentor training, MSIs,
Recruitment)
Graduate
Students
Undergraduate
Students
Evaluation:
•Rainbow – MSI
Participating Universities:
PIs
•NAPB
•2 Evaluation Graduate
students – effectiveness of
PBL, Network, Yearly
activities
•Industry
• Oversight by Lawrenz
Outside:
•Advisory Panel
•International Breeding
Community
Action Plan Online Environment
• Computer programmer/post doc hired by Feb 1
• Namuth-Covert online course
– Generate ideas for PBTN
– Begin testing social networking tools
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Testing in summer
Training in summer
PBTN ready for full use by fall
Monitor function in fall
Solicit feedback as possible PBTN creation and use
Assessment/evaluation
Publication on PBTN implementation/year 1 of use
Action Plan Online Course
• Survey PIs and others for content needs
Feb
• Use Delphi study
• Design problems that engages content
• Set up mentors for problem modules
• Test content in Fall 2011
Action Plan Education Materials
• Survey MSI faculty and other
undergraduate faculty for ideas of needed
curriculum support
• Create materials in collaboration with
undergraduate faculty with support of
TCAP experts
• Encourage use and test
PBTN Guiding Principles
• Enable students to develop higher level of understanding
– Ability to use knowledge to solve problems
– Practice through forums, blogs, journals and small groups
• Learner at Center
• Faculty role as coach/mentor
• Content
– Consists of core principles as well as customized and personalized
– Accessed in a variety of ways to reach different learning styles
• Environment and context
– Include a variety of experiences (individual and group, synchronous and
asynchronous
• Transparent process with explicit expectations
• Development of online environment guided e.g. by Quality Matters
Rubric (www.QualityMatters.org)
Plant Breeder Training Network
Outputs
• Collaborative training environment that builds community and
delivers content through on-line and face-to-face interactions
• Graduate and undergraduate curriculum created and delivered
• Training in both scientific and “soft” skills
• Mentoring training
• Hands-on training of undergraduates and graduate students
• Problem-based learning (PBL) modules
• Support for educators in PBL
• Workshops (e.g., MAS, GS)
• Symposia (e.g. student and NAPB)
• Student internships
• International trip and collaboration
• Bridges built with MSIs
Education Sustainability
• Integrated with Research
– Support research goals with training and labor (e.g. T3)
– Researchers support with expertise and training students
• Human Capital
– 29 plant breeders
– 100+ undergrads
– Introduction of others to plant sciences
• Relationships
– MSI and other faculty (long term recruitment)
– Students (peer, public and private breeders)
• Resources
– Learning Objects
– PBL modules
• Networks
– Infrastructure
– Plant Breeding University without Walls
Student Development assessed by
changing relationship with content
• Understand and articulate provided content
• Asses and analyze provided content
• Intensely explore, engage and identify more
content
• Create new content
• Customize content to meet personal goals and
projects
Online Best Practices
Boettcher and Conrad (2010)
• Be present daily
• Create supportive community
• Explicit expectations of students and mentors
– Modes of Communication
– Time investment required
– Assessment
• Variety
– Individual and group work
– Synchronous and asynchronous activities
– Open student forum, problem-solving forum, discussion posts
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Get feedback as you go
Discussion posts that invite responses, questions and reflections
Provide digital content
Combine core concept learning with customized personal learning
Quality Matters Rubric (www.QualityMatters.org)
Need to develop for Online Course
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Course goals
Time commitment
Student Credit
Syllabus
Content resources
Discussion catalysts
Student projects (group and individual)
Teaching guides
Assessment plan
Online environment
http://breeze.unl.edu/pbtn/
PI Commitment
• Support to PIs
– $28,000 for a PhD student
– $5,000 for an undergraduate student that will work with the PhD
student
– $3,000 for travel for both the PhD and undergraduate students
• PI will:
– Mentor graduate student
– Enable graduate student to mentor undergrad
– Enable PhD and undergraduate students to participate fully in
PBTN
– Participate in PBTN
– Host a MSI students and/or mentor MSI faculty
Undergraduate Student Selection
• Coursework in biology, genetics or plant
science.
• Strong interest in research (prior work
experience or letter of recommendation
from one instructor).
• Commitment to participate in the
undergrad plant breeder network.
• One page essay on societal importance of
plant sciences