Methods and facts based on the theory of evolution have become increasingly important, not only within biology, but also within medicine, information technology, resource management, the humanities and social sciences, among many other fields. The practical skills of biologists, from the splicing of genes to environmental monitoring and beyond, are highly sought after in the industrial sector as well as in management. Global challenges associated with food production, environment and climate also require solutions that utilize biology. The role of biologists in society can be seen as a triangle that is under constant development between the endpoints of theory, practice and community relevance. The vision behind bioCEED is to provide a practice in biology education and means to educate future biologists, in a way that reflects a society where the role of biology and biologists is constantly changing. To achieve this, bioCEED has three main goals:
- Include the whole “biological triangle” in biology education – give the students experience with theoretical knowledge, practical skills and tasks relevant to society throughout their whole course of study.
- Shift from a teaching culture to a learning culture
- Bring the best of the research culture into the teaching
The goal is that our education will develop fundamental scientific skills and attitude among our students and train them in how to solve important challenges in science, industry and the society as whole. bioCEED is a cooperation between the biology education at the University of Bergen (lead by the Department of Biology, with contributions from many internal and external cooperators) and at the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS - Arctic Biology), educational science (Department of Education at UiB) and the society and industrial sector (represented and coordinated by the Institute of Marine Research (IMR), but with many important research-, industry- and management institutions) as well as our with national and international collaborators.
