Department of Measurement, Evaluation, Statistics, and Assessment, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467.
Biology Department, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467.
CBE Life Sci Educ. 2018 Spring;17(1). doi: 10.1187/cbe.17-01-0012.
National reports have called for the introduction of research experiences throughout the undergraduate curriculum, but practical implementation at many institutions faces challenges associated with sustainability, cost, and large student populations. We describe a novel course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) that introduces introductory-level students to research in functional genomics in a 3-credit, multisection laboratory class. In the Pathways over Time class project, students study the functional conservation of the methionine biosynthetic pathway between divergent yeast species. Over the five semesters described in this study, students ( = 793) showed statistically significant and sizable growth in content knowledge ( = 1.85) and in self-reported research methods skills ( 0.65), experimental design, oral and written communication, database use, and collaboration. Statistical analyses indicated that content knowledge growth was larger for underrepresented minority students and that growth in content knowledge, but not research skills, varied by course section. Our findings add to the growing body of evidence that CUREs can support the scientific development of large numbers of students with diverse characteristics. The Pathways over Time project is designed to be sustainable and readily adapted to other institutional settings.
国家报告呼吁在本科课程中引入研究经验，但许多机构在实际实施过程中面临着与可持续性、成本和大量学生群体相关的挑战。我们描述了一种新颖的基于课程的本科研究经验 (CURE)，该经验在一门 3 学分的多节实验室课程中向入门级学生介绍功能基因组学研究。在“Pathways over Time”课程项目中，学生研究不同酵母物种间甲硫氨酸生物合成途径的功能保守性。在本研究描述的五个学期中，学生（=793）在内容知识（=1.85）和自我报告的研究方法技能（0.65）、实验设计、口头和书面交流、数据库使用和协作方面表现出统计学上显著且显著的增长。统计分析表明，内容知识的增长对于代表性不足的少数族裔学生来说更大，而且内容知识的增长（而非研究技能）因课程部分而异。我们的研究结果增加了越来越多的证据，即 CURE 可以支持具有不同特点的大量学生的科学发展。“Pathways over Time”项目旨在具有可持续性，并易于适应其他机构环境。
