FIRST REPORT UPDATE

The FIRST project is an NSF sponsored professional development program that encourages faculty to implement active learning in field and classroom situations. Teams associated with five field stations - Archbold Biological Station, Hancock Biological Station, San Diego State University Biological Field Stations, Southwestern Research Station, and St. Croix Watershed Research Station – have worked with faculty in their regions to build a network to implement the FIRST project.
During the past academic year the five institutional teams associated with each of the field stations have been implementing the active learning activities they have developed in their courses. Field station teams have been assisting in the evaluation of the faculty efforts, and planning for the next phase of the project. A proposal has been submitted to NSF’s Division of Undergraduate Education’s Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement program’s National Dissemination Track to continue professional development for faculty. We propose to work with the original field station teams to sustain and enhance the network they have developed, and to add four new field station teams who will be mentored by the original field station teams.
Information on the FIRST project can be found at
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~jhodder
Jan Hodder
Oregon Institute of Marine Biology