SBIR Phase I: Online Chapter Marketplace for Biology Learning Materials

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I research project implements a replacement for the reading materials currently used by most undergraduate students in biology. The replacement will combine smaller reading sections with more active learning components such as simulated experiments. The system will be open to contributions from a wide variety of authors and professionals. Textbooks are currently used in most college biology classes to present material to students, but the learning through textbooks occurs primarily through memorization. This research project will explore new ways of making the take-home assignments of biology students more active, without losing the content needed for understanding biological systems. This research project has the potential to transform one of the pillars of science education, the textbook, from a passive reading instrument to an active learning tool. This could improve learning for the at least one million students per year that take college level biology classes each year in the U.S., and eventually could help improve learning across the sciences.