Integrated Biology and Undergraduate Science Education: A New Biology Education for the Twenty-First Century?

For more than a decade, numerous reports have called for a rethinking and restructuring of high school and undergraduate science education to make it more relevant and accessible to a broader spectrum of students (Handelsman et al., 2006; Hulleman and Harackiewicz, 2009; National Research Council [NRC], 1996, 1997, 1998, 2002, 2003a,b,c, 2005, 2008; National Science Foundation [NSF], 1996) and to base our strategies on the expanding body of research on human learning and cognition (NRC, 2000b; Allen and Tanner, 2007; Morse and Jutras, 2008; DeHaan, 2009, Pfund et al., 2009, Labov et al., 2009). In 2009, several important publications, conferences, and events have pointed toward confluence around more interdisciplinary and interconnected approaches and themes for undergraduate education in the life sciences. These events have included the following: