Undergraduate instructional biology laboratories are typically taught within two paradigms. Some labs focus on protocols and techniques delivered in “cookbook” format with defined experimental outcomes. There is increasing momentum to alternatively employ student-driven, open-ended, and discovery-based strategies, often
Integrating Undergraduate Research and Faculty Development in a Legacy Astronomy Research Project
We present results from a highly successful model of faculty development and undergraduate research and education, the Undergraduate ALFALFA Team (UAT), an NSF-sponsored 23-institution collaboration. We recommend that granting agencies identify funding resources to support similar efforts for other large-scale scientific projects.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1637339
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10168033
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society
- Volume:
- 59
- Issue:
- 7
- ISSN:
- 2330-9458
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 69
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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via course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) using crowd-sourcing initiatives. A fraction of students also participate in funded research in faculty research labs, where they have opportunities to work on projects designed to expand the frontiers of human knowledge. These experiences are widely recognized as valuable but are not scalable, as most institutions have many more undergraduates than research lab positions. We sought to address this gap through our department’s curriculum by creating an opportunity for students to participate in the real-world research process within a laboratory course. We conceived, developed, and delivered an authentic, guided research experience to students in an upper-level molecular biology laboratory course. We refer to this model as a “research program-linked CURE.” The research questions come directly from a faculty member’s research lab and evolve along with that research program. Students study post-transcriptional regulation in mycobacteria. We use current molecular biology methodologies to test hypotheses like “UTRs affect RNA and protein expression levels,” “there is functional redundancy among RNA helicases,” and “carbon starvation alters mRNA 5′ end chemistries.” We conducted standard assessments and developed a customized “Skills and Concepts Inventory” survey to gauge how well the course met our student learning outcomes. We report the results of our assessments and describe challenges addressed during development and execution of the course, including organizing activities to fit within an instructional lab, balancing breadth with depth, and maintaining authenticity while giving students the experience of obtaining interpretable and novel results. Our data suggest student learning was enhanced through this truly authentic research approach. Further, students were able to perceive they were participants and contributors within an active research paradigm. Students reported increases in their self-identification as scientists, and a positive impact on their career trajectories. An additional benefit was reciprocation back to the funded research laboratory, by funneling course alumni, results, materials, and protocols. -
ABSTRACT Summer undergraduate research experiences (SUREs) provide important onramps to secondary STEM graduate degrees and subsequent careers. Studies demonstrate that these experiences increase the likelihood of students advancing to a graduate-level STEM degree, positively impact STEM identity and confidence, and imbue a sense of professional belonging. In 2020, COVID-19 shutdowns eliminated many in-person SUREs. In response, we launched the National Summer Undergraduate Research Project (NSURP). While NSURP addressed an immediate need for a flexible research experience, we found that this model extends access to underrepresented minorities because it provides authentic research experiences for students who are unable to travel to a research location, and/or who have familial responsibilities that necessitate a flexible work model, and/or students facing financial challenges. What began as an emergency summer research program for undergraduates to address laboratory closures resulted in what we believe is a necessary and normalized addition to the undergraduate STEM training and preparation repertoire.more » « less
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null (Ed.)Abstract The objectives of this study were to evaluate the current status of exposure to bio-engineering research in community college (CC) students and University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) students, and to estimate relationships between research activities sponsored by the Mechanical Engineering (ME) S-STEM Scholarship Program and improvement in student enrollment/diversification, retention rates, and graduation rates. The analysis drew on data from ME undergraduate academic records at UMBC from 2008 to 2019. A survey was designed to assess the research exposure of CC and UMBC students and their evaluation of the research components included in recruitment and curriculum activities. Results show that exposure to research measured by attending a research seminar was low for the participants, around 37% for CC students and 21% for ME students at UMBC. The survey results indicate the positive impact of the scholarship programs at UMBC on the research exposure and research experience. The impact is more evident in students who originally transferred from a CC. The large increase in recruited female and CC students over the past 10 years indicated that the research-related activities of the ME S-STEM program played an instrumental role in those increases. Because of the research-related activities, the ME S-STEM program achieved retention and graduation rates higher than those in the ME undergraduate program (89% versus 60% for the 6 year graduation rate), as well a higher percentage of students enrolled in graduate school (30% versus 10%). We conclude that there is still a need to implement research-related activities in the ME undergraduate program, starting with student recruitment and continuing through the academic program. Results suggest that there is a positive impact of ME S-STEM research activities on student diversification, retention rates, and percentage of our graduates who are pursuing graduate degree.more » « less
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The NSF-sponsored Undergraduate ALFALFA (Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA) Team (UAT) is a collaborative, multifaceted program of faculty and undergraduate research at a consortium of 23 diverse U.S. institutions, founded to promote undergraduate research and faculty development within the extragalactic ALFALFA HI blind survey project and follow-up programs. The objective of the UAT is to provide opportunities for faculty and students from a wide range of public and private colleges and especially those with small astronomy programs to learn how science is accomplished in a large collaboration while contributing to the scientific goals of a legacy radio astronomy survey. Partnering with Arecibo and Green Bank Observatories, the UAT has worked with 334 undergraduates (40% women) and 32 (48% women) faculty in the past 10 years, offering annual workshops, observing runs, and research projects (academic year and sumer), and presentation of results at national meetings such as the AAS (at AAS233: Burhenne et al., Cane et al., Gault et al., Hetrick et al., Jong et al., Kumagai et al., Luna et al., Olivieri Villalvazo et al., Page et al., Poulin et al., Rea et al., Rehmn et al., Reiter et al., ). In this presentation, we summarize the UAT program and outcomes, highlight several current Team research efforts, including multiwavelength followup observations of ALFALFA sources, the UAT Collaborative Groups Project, and the Arecibo Pisces-Perseus Supercluster Survey (APPSS), and suggest how our model could be applied to other legacy projects. This work has been supported by NSF grants AST-0724918/0902211, AST-075267/0903394, AST-0725380, AST-1211005, AST-1211683, and AST-1637339.more » « less
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