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Building, Using, and Maximizing the Impact of Concept Inventories in the Biological Sciences: Report on a National Science Foundation–sponsored Conference on the Construction of Concept Inventories in the Biological Sciences

Kathy Garvin-Doxas^*, Michael Klymkowsky, and Susan Elrod

*Center for Integrated Plasma Studies, Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309; and Biological Sciences Department, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA 93407

Address correspondence to: Kathy Garvin-Doxas (garvindo{at}colorado.edu)

The meeting "Conceptual Assessment in the Biological Sciences" was held March 3–4, 2007, in Boulder, Colorado. Sponsored by the National Science Foundation and hosted by University of Colorado, Boulder's Biology Concept Inventory Team, the meeting drew together 21 participants from 13 institutions, all of whom had received National Science Foundation funding for biology education. Topics of interest included Introductory Biology, Genetics, Evolution, Ecology, and the Nature of Science. The goal of the meeting was to organize and leverage current efforts to develop concept inventories for each of these topics. These diagnostic tools are inspired by the success of the Force Concept Inventory, developed by the community of physics educators to identify student misconceptions about Newtonian mechanics. By working together, participants hope to lessen the risk that groups might develop competing rather than complementary inventories.