Beyond Bio 101 is an online version of a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) report that summarizes the changes taking place in undergraduate biology programs. As the largest private philanthropy in the United States, the HHMI has awarded more than $335 million in grants to 220 colleges and universities through their Undergraduate Biological Sciences Education Program. The grants were used to support these institutions’ efforts to “expand research opportunities for students, update courses and facilities, attract talented women and under‐represented minorities to science, and reach out to science teachers and schools in their communities.” It is the results of these efforts that are drawn together in this report to illustrate the transformation of biology education and the inherent benefits to our future scientists and citizens.
The six chapters of this report use specific programs and initiatives to examine undergraduates in the biological sciences, changes in the classroom, laboratory experience, faculty issues, and how to attract and retain diverse students. The report can be viewed on the web, downloaded, or ordered in print.
This report has been well adapted to the web and has a visually appealing format that is easy to navigate. It is broken down into manageable subsections of the six chapters for viewing online. Each subsection has a sidebar menu with links to other sections and links to portions of the report that discuss related approaches at other schools. The schools that are used as examples throughout the report are hyperlinked on a separate web page which serves as a useful index. These links were all functional and linked to the appropriate portions of the report at the time of review. There is also a “Resources” web page that has a nice collection of mostly functional links to other web sites in the categories of general biology education resources, teaching, laboratories, and minorities and women.
One drawback is that the web site lacks a date of any kind indicating when it was created; but the print version was published in 1996. Finally, there is a page of awards and reviews for this web site from eight other web entities, including USA Today and Excite Reviews. Most of these web sites no longer have their reviews of Beyond Bio 101 available.
The report can also be downloaded in its entirety onto Unix, IBM PC compatible, or Macintosh systems. However, no guidance is given for downloading, unzipping, and viewing the files. I was unsuccessful in my attempts to view these files on Macintosh or Unix systems. If all else fails, the free print version of the report (in full color) can be ordered on the web site or by writing the HHMI.
This web site would be more useful if it took better advantage of the web environment’s unique ability to hyperlink. For example, there is a list of all the institutions that received HHMI awards which is not hyperlinked to web sites for those specific programs. There was an attempt to connect readers to campus web sites by including one link to an Excite listing of campus web sites; but the link is now dead. Furthermore, links to substantive information outside of the report, such as to profiles of HHMI grants and to the Undergraduate Biological Sciences Education Program itself, were also dead. This inattention to the currency of links may hinder those who are interested in following up in these areas.
No matter which version (print or web) is chosen, this report is worthwhile for any higher education institution that is struggling with attracting undergraduates and modernizing its programs. Also, librarians and educators interested in specific examples of approaches taken to improve undergraduate science programs will find this report useful. Options for the web version of this report are to link to it as a hot site from library web sites or to link to it as an electronic full text resource (with the caveat that it may not be a permanent web resource).
