Dear:

    The Faculty Institutes For Reforming Science Teaching Through Field Stations Project (the FIRST project) is a professional development program for faculty at universities, four-year and community colleges. FIRST is designed to prepare communities of faculty associated with field stations to utilize inquiry-based, active learning approaches for reforming undergraduate biology courses and curriculum. The project is being implemented and sustained by teams centered at five biological field stations throughout the US. The NAME OF SITE was selected to participate in the FIRST project. By awarding funds to the FIRST project, the National Science Foundation recognized field stations as an exceptional opportunity to teach biology in ways that truly enhance student learning. Field stations are particularly well suited to inquiry-based learning called for in science education reform as their unique natural settings foster learning communities and cooperative activities

    Each field station participating in FIRST was asked to recruit three biology faculty from their station or adjacent region to form an institutional team based out of the field station that will further expand expertise in teaching inquiry in field situations. In May these teams met at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology for a week long institute. Here they gained expertise in inquiry-based learning and prepared plans to implement a regional network of faculty to translate the goals of FIRST to actions in a variety of biology courses. NAME OF PERSON is part of the institutional team from the NAME OF SITE who attended the May institute. Her contributions to the group were most useful and well received by her colleagues.

Should you be interested in more information on the FIRST project please feel free to contact us.

Yours sincerely,

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