Wolkow Tom D, Jenkins Jill, Durrenberger Lisa, Swanson-Hoyle Kylie, Hines Lisa M
Department of Biology, College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs, CO 80918.
Department of Teaching and Learning, College of Education, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs, CO 80918.
J Microbiol Biol Educ. 2019 Jun 28;20(2). doi: 10.1128/jmbe.v20i2.1679. eCollection 2019.
Universities have been called upon to integrate research experiences into early, introductory courses to better prepare our STEM workforce. This call is primarily based on short-term studies that link research experiences with knowledge and perception gains. However, the influence of pre-existing student characteristics has not been fully disentangled from the research experience, and the long-term stability of these gains is uncertain. To address these issues, we integrated a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) into randomly assigned sections of a required freshman-level biology laboratory course. We previously reported that this CURE resulted in immediate targeted knowledge and perception gains. Here, we evaluate the stability of these gains as students progressed through a biology degree program. At sophomore year, the impact of the CURE on student perception was still apparent. When compared to controls, students who participated in the CURE perceived a greater understanding of what researchers do and an increased interest in pursuing a research career. However, by senior year, these positive perceptions had fallen to levels shared by control groups. Targeted knowledge gains persisted throughout this study. Our results support CURE logic models predicting that multiple CUREs will be required to sustain perception gains.
大学被要求将研究经历融入早期的入门课程中，以便更好地培养我们的STEM领域劳动力。这一要求主要基于将研究经历与知识和认知收获联系起来的短期研究。然而，学生先前存在的特征所产生的影响尚未与研究经历完全区分开来，而且这些收获的长期稳定性也不确定。为了解决这些问题，我们将基于课程的本科研究经历（CURE）融入到一门大一必修生物学实验课程的随机分配部分中。我们之前报告称，这种CURE带来了即时的目标知识和认知收获。在此，我们评估随着学生完成生物学学位课程，这些收获的稳定性。在大二时，CURE对学生认知的影响仍然明显。与对照组相比，参与CURE的学生对研究人员的工作有更深入的理解，并且对从事研究职业的兴趣增加。然而，到了大四，这些积极的认知已降至对照组的水平。在整个研究过程中，目标知识收获持续存在。我们的结果支持CURE逻辑模型，该模型预测需要多次CURE才能维持认知收获。
