Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences or CUREs promote student-centered learning through infusion of research principles within an undergraduate course. This is an ideal pedagogy for use in General Chemistry. CUREs provide access to research experience to a broader audience, which increases engagement and success. A CURE model was implemented in a second semester General Chemistry course at Pasadena City College, a Hispanic serving institution (HSI) community college. Student success rate in the CURE chemistry classroom increased by over 20% and students’ completion rates increased over 5%. In addition, success, and completion rates of Hispanic students in the class showed no achievement gap and an over 10% higher completion rate compared to students that took the non-CURE chemistry course. CUREs also had the added benefit of providing more populous groups of undergraduates with opportunities to get a taste of real-world working scenarios that would normally be reserved for upper-level graduate students. Adopting CUREs as an integral part of an institutions’ learning strategies promotes student engagement that will bridge the gaps in traditional learning, but also facilitate development of the essential soft skills required in the collaborative environment that is commonplace in working professional settings. The potential role and relationship of CUREs implementation regarding the revival and cultivation of polymathy among future students as well as its implications on the future of academic instruction based on connections made from historical and interdisciplinary observations are also explores.
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Using Inter-institutional Collaboration to Generate Publishable Findings through Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences
Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) are high-impact practices that allow students to conduct research during class time. Benefits of a CURE can be maximized when integrated into a faculty member’s ongoing research. However, this can be particularly challenging for field biologists, especially when field sites are not situated near their university. Indeed, few existing CUREs are field based. One solution is to partner with a collaborator near the field site. We describe a semester-long CURE in an animal behavior class that involved collaboration among three institutions: researchers from two “distant” institutions have ongoing research at the “local” institution where the CURE took place. This model uses remote conferencing and strategic collaboration to meet all stakeholders’ needs. Undergraduate students engaged as active participants in collaborative inquiry-based work, learned in a cooperative context, and even participated in the publication process. The local principal investigator and their institution generated a high-impact course that integrated research and teaching. Likewise, the distant principal investigators were able to collect more extensive and longer-term field-based data than otherwise possible, and they gained valuable input from the local researchers that contributed to future projects. Remote collaborations open the door to international collaboration with smaller institutions, promoting greater inclusion in science.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1846520
- PAR ID:
- 10304465
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- The American Biology Teacher
- Volume:
- 83
- Issue:
- 7
- ISSN:
- 0002-7685
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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