scholarly journals A Central Support System Can Facilitate Implementation and Sustainability of a Classroom-Based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) in Genomics

2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 711-723 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Lopatto ◽  
Charles Hauser ◽  
Christopher J. Jones ◽  
Don Paetkau ◽  
Vidya Chandrasekaran ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Support System ◽  
Undergraduate Research ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
It Services ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Central System ◽  
Laboratory Courses ◽  
Collegial Support ◽  
Central Support ◽  
Genomics Education

In their 2012 report, the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology advocated “replacing standard science laboratory courses with discovery-based research courses”—a challenging proposition that presents practical and pedagogical difficulties. In this paper, we describe our collective experiences working with the Genomics Education Partnership, a nationwide faculty consortium that aims to provide undergraduates with a research experience in genomics through a scheduled course (a classroom-based undergraduate research experience, or CURE). We examine the common barriers encountered in implementing a CURE, program elements of most value to faculty, ways in which a shared core support system can help, and the incentives for and rewards of establishing a CURE on our diverse campuses. While some of the barriers and rewards are specific to a research project utilizing a genomics approach, other lessons learned should be broadly applicable. We find that a central system that supports a shared investigation can mitigate some shortfalls in campus infrastructure (such as time for new curriculum development, availability of IT services) and provides collegial support for change. Our findings should be useful for designing similar supportive programs to facilitate change in the way we teach science for undergraduates.

scholarly journals Student music stimuli composition in a scaffolded course-based undergraduate research experience

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
Abbey L. Dvorak ◽  
Eugenia Hernandez-Ruiz ◽  
Halle Nick ◽  
Ruowen Qi ◽  
Celeste Alderete ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Music Therapy ◽  
Undergraduate Research ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Teaching Model ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Education Students ◽  
Research Experiences ◽  
Graduate Assistants ◽  
Undergraduate Research Experiences

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CURE) allow students opportunities to develop research skills. In a scaffolded CURE, music therapy and music education students composed, evaluated, and selected the music stimuli used in a music and mindfulness study with non-musicians at Site 1 and musicians at Site 2. The purposes of this paper are to (a) describe the process of student music stimuli composition and evaluation for use in a course-based undergraduate research experience and (b) identify benefits, challenges, and lessons learned from the viewpoints of students, graduate assistants, and faculty who participated in the multi-site study. Eight students, two graduate assistants, and two faculty provide an overview of the CURE teaching model and assignments, and share first-person accounts of their experiences participating in this CURE.  

scholarly journals The Genomics Education Partnership: Assessing and Improving a Course‐based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE)

2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (S1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Lee Reeves ◽  
Ana Maria Barral ◽  
Karim A. Sharif ◽  
Michael J. Wolyniak ◽  
Wilson Leung ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Research ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Genomics Education

A Six-Year Review of the Biomedical Engineering in Simulations, Imaging, and Modeling Undergraduate Research Experience

2020 ◽  
Vol 142 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie M. George ◽  
Zachary J. Domire
Keyword(s):  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Biomedical Engineering ◽  
Undergraduate Research ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Motivating Factors ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Research Experiences ◽  
Summer Research Program ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Undergraduate research continues to serve as an effective strategy for mitigating the effects of a leaky pipeline. Significant funding from institutions and government agencies has increased the number of students participating in undergraduate research. In this paper, we report on the six-year experience of a National Science Foundation funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site: Biomedical Engineering in Simulations, Imaging, and Modeling (BME-SIM). The operation and evaluation of the program are both described. We report on the results from 55 students over six summers from 2014 to 2019. Our program was successful in attracting a diverse group of participants including 46% under-represented minority students and 53% women. Based on evaluation results, students reported significant gains in technical skills, communication skills, and knowledge of graduate school. Our findings indicate baseline gender differences for several learning outcomes, where women and nonbinary students report lower levels of mastery. These gaps are closed by the end of the program except for confidence in skills, which is still significantly lower than those reported by male counterparts. The impact of the experience on ultimate career path is difficult to determine due to underlying biases and other motivating factors; however, 67.6% of graduates have entered graduate programs. Finally, we have provided lessons learned for those who are interested in building a summer research program. In conclusion, we have described the successful implementation of an REU site and the positive learning outcomes of the student participants.

Cases and Commentaries

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Kovac
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Undergraduate Research ◽  
Ethical Problem ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Industrial Chemistry ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Ethical Problems ◽  
Laboratory Courses ◽  
Course Of Action ◽  
Life Problems

Just as in chemistry, the best way to learn ethical problem solving is to confront context-rich, real-life problems (Jonsen and Toulmin 1988; Davis 1999, 143–175). The broad variety of ethical problems, or cases, presented here are hypothetical situations, but represent the kinds of problems working chemists and students face. Cases raising similar ethical questions are grouped together. To reach a diverse audience, I sometimes write several variations of the same situation. For example, a question might be posed from the perspective of the graduate student in one version and from the perspective of the research di­rector in another. For important issues I provide cases that are accessible to undergraduates who have very little research experience, usually in the context of laboratory courses. For advanced undergraduates, some cases involve undergraduate research projects. Most of the cases involve situations encountered in graduate research in universities, but some also concern industrial chemistry. Finally, a few cases present ethical problems that arise in cooperative learning, a pedagogical technique that is becoming increasingly important in undergraduate education. Each case, or related set of cases, is followed by a commentary that outlines the important issues and discusses possible solutions. Some of the commentaries are quite extensive and actually present and defend my preferred course of action; others are brief and merely raise questions that should be considered in designing a solution. The commentaries model the ethical problem-solving method presented in Chapter 6. As I have emphasized repeatedly, most ethical problems do not have clean solutions. While some courses of action are clearly wrong, there may be several morally acceptable and defensible ways to proceed. Consequently, readers might disagree with my proposed solutions for good reasons. For example, if I use a consequentialist approach, my assessment of the relative positive and negative weights of the consequences might be challenged, or I simply might have forgotten to consider some factor. Where I have made a definite recommendation, I give the reasons for my choice and contrast it with other alternatives.

scholarly journals Using Zebrafish to Implement a Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience to Study Teratogenesis in Two Biology Laboratory Courses

Zebrafish ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 293-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Swapnalee Sarmah ◽  
Grady W. Chism ◽  
Martin A. Vaughan ◽  
Pooja Muralidharan ◽  
Jim A. Marrs ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Research ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Laboratory Courses ◽  
Biology Laboratory

Industrial Mentors: An Often Untapped Resource in Undergraduate Research Programs

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laila Guessous ◽  
Brian Sangeorzan ◽  
Qian Zou ◽  
Xia Wang
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Mechanical Engineering ◽  
Undergraduate Research ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Research Programs ◽  
Untapped Resource ◽  
Made In

Students taking part in a 10-week summer research experience for undergraduates (REU) program in the department of mechanical engineering at Oakland University receive three levels of mentorship: from faculty, graduate students and researchers/engineers from industry. Industrial mentors, all of whom volunteer to take part in the experience, play a variety of roles as part of the program and are viewed by the authors as an often untapped resource in undergraduate research programs. This paper focuses on the experience gained from involving industrial mentors in the REU program and on the lessons learned: what worked, what didn’t work and what improvements can be made in the following years.

scholarly journals Cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes associated with student engagement in a novel brain chemoarchitecture mapping course-based undergraduate research experience

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina E. D’Arcy ◽  
Anais Martinez ◽  
Arshad M. Khan ◽  
Jeffrey T. Olimpo
Keyword(s):  
Brain Mapping ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Undergraduate Research ◽  
Scientific Discovery ◽  
Tissue Level ◽  
Cognitive Outcomes ◽  
Science Identity ◽  
Brain Atlas ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Laboratory Courses

AbstractCourse-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) engage emerging scholars in the authentic process of scientific discovery, and foster their development of content knowledge, motivation, and persistence in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Importantly, authentic research courses simultaneously offer investigators unique access to an extended population of students who receive education and mentoring in conducting scientifically relevant investigations and who are thus able to contribute effort toward big-data projects. While this paradigm benefits fields in neuroscience, such as atlas-based brain mapping of nerve cells at the tissue level, there are few documented cases of such laboratory courses offered in the domain.Here, we describe a curriculum designed to address this deficit, evaluate the scientific merit of novel student-produced brainatlasmapsofimmunohistochemically-identifiednervecellpopulations for the rat brain, and assess shifts in science identity, attitudes, and science communication skills of students engaged in the introductory-level Brain Mapping and Connectomics (BM&C) CURE. BM&C students reported gains in research and science process skills following participation in the course. Furthermore, BM&C students experienced a greater sense of science identity, including a greater likelihood to discuss course activities with non-class members compared to their non-CURE counterparts. Importantly, evaluation of student-generated brain atlas maps indicated that the course enabled students to produce scientifically valid products and make new discoveries to advance the field of neuroanatomy. Together, these findings support the efficacy of the BM&C course in addressing the relatively esoteric demands of chemoarchitectural brain mapping.

scholarly journals Keeping students connected and engaged in a wet-lab research experience during a time of social distancing via mobile devices and video conferencing software

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michel Shamoon-Pour ◽  
Caitlin J. Light ◽  
Megan Fegley
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Devices ◽  
Undergraduate Research ◽  
Video Conferencing ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Innovative Technology ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Wet Lab ◽  
Remote Learning

AbstractTwo major COVID-19 pandemic challenges presented for in-person instruction included adhering to social distancing guidelines and accommodating remote learners who were temporarily isolated or permanently participating from afar. At Binghamton University, our First-year Research Immersion (FRI) program was challenged with providing students with a wet lab course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE), an intense hands-on experience that emphasized student teamwork, lab protocol development, iteration, troubleshooting and other elements of the process of science that could not be replicated in a fully remote environment. We developed an innovative technology approach to maximize all students’ connection to the lab research experience utilizing dedicated mobile devices (iPod Touch) and video conferencing software (Zoom) to synchronously connect remote learners to in-person learners, peer mentors and instructors in our FRI research labs. In this way, despite limited lab capacities and fluctuating remote learning populations, we were able to connect remote learners to their peers and mentors in real-time and give them responsibilities that allowed them to be engaged and feel like meaningful participants in the research process. Although our students reported a preference for in-person labs, they noted this hybrid model was better than other traditionally employed remote-learning lab options. We believe lessons learned here can be applied to improve access to research in all situations and allow us to be prepared for other catastrophic disruptions to the educational system.

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