Dear Department Chair or Faculty Member:

We invite you to participate in the PULSE: Vision & Change Certification Program Pilot, PhaseOne. You are being invited to apply as a partner of the PULSE Community. The goal is to determine your department’s progress in aligning with the recommendations of the 2011 report “Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action” from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Science Foundation. As you may know, this report calls for an emphasis on unifying core concepts, the development of core student competencies, learner-centered pedagogies, and a de-emphasis on detailed content coverage that characterizes many undergraduate curricula (

The Certification Program Pilotgrows out of the Partnership for Undergraduate Life Science Education (PULSE: a national project initiatedby the National Science Foundation, National Institute of General Medical Sciences, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute. For the last year, PULSE Leadership Fellows have been developing strategies for widespread implementation of the Vision and Change Report recommendations at the department level.

Institutions chosen to participate in the PULSE: Vision & Change Certification Program Pilot, PhaseOne would

  • engage with rubrics that will help assess your current situation and monitor progress toward your goals
  • assess the current alignment of your curriculum with Vision and Change
  • learn about the strategies used by departments that have successfully adopted the Vision and Change recommendations
  • learn about a PULSE toolkit filled with resources for life science education
  • have an in-depth site visit from a Certification Team composed of PULSE Fellows.
  • have a follow-up visit from a PULSE ambassador to brainstorm additional approaches to curriculum transformation.

ThePULSE: Vision & Change Certification Program Pilot, PhaseOne is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation, which covers all travel costs for the Certification team to visit your campus.

Thank you for your leadership in transforming education in the Life Sciences.

Sincerely,

The PULSE Leadership Fellows, Certification Working Group:

Pamela Pape-Lindstrom (Everett Community College, PI), Tom Jack (Dartmouth College, co-PI), Kate Marley (DoaneCollege, co-PI), Karen Aguirre (Coastal Carolina University, co-PI), Teri Balser(University of Florida), Kathy Miller (Washington University in St. Louis), Marcy Osgood (University of New Mexico School of Medicine), Sandra Romano (University of the Virgin Islands), Judy Awong-Taylor (Georgia Gwinnet College) and Ellen Goldey (Wofford College)

PULSE founded and supported by the National Science Foundation, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, National Institute of General Medical Sciences