Reyes-Nava Nayeli G, Esparza David, Suarez Victor, Quintana Anita, Olimpo Jeffrey T
Department of Biological Sciences, The University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX 79968.
J Undergrad Neurosci Educ. 2024 Aug 31;22(3):A265-A272. doi: 10.59390/NQCA2038. eCollection 2024 Spring.
Recent efforts to engage postsecondary science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students in the rigors of discovery-driven inquiry have centered on the integration of course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) within the biology curricula. While this method of laboratory education is demonstrated to improve students' content knowledge, motivations, affect, and persistence in STEM, CUREs may present as cost- and/or resource-prohibitive. Likewise, not all lecture courses have a concomitant laboratory requirement. With these caveats in mind, we developed the intervention, which provided students enrolled in a standalone Developmental Neurobiology course with an immersive, semester-long "dry-lab" experience incorporating many of the same elements as a CURE (e.g., collaboration, use of experimental design skills, troubleshooting, and science communication). Quantitative and qualitative assessment of this intervention revealed positive pre-/post-semester gains in students' content knowledge, attitudes toward the research process, and development of science process skills. Collectively, these data suggest that interventions such as the can be an effective alternative to a "wet-lab" experience.
近期，为了让高等院校的科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）专业学生投身于严谨的探索驱动型探究中，相关努力主要集中在将基于课程的本科研究经历（CUREs）融入生物学课程体系。虽然这种实验室教育方法已被证明能够提高学生的学科知识、学习动力、情感体验以及在STEM领域的坚持度，但CUREs可能存在成本过高和/或资源受限的问题。同样，并非所有的讲座课程都有相应的实验要求。考虑到这些限制因素，我们开发了一种干预措施，为参加独立的发育神经生物学课程的学生提供了一种沉浸式的、为期一学期的“虚拟实验室”体验，其中融入了许多与CURE相同的元素（例如合作、实验设计技能的运用、故障排除以及科学交流）。对该干预措施的定量和定性评估表明，学生在学期前后的学科知识、对研究过程的态度以及科学过程技能的发展方面均取得了积极的进步。总体而言，这些数据表明，类似这样的干预措施可以成为“实体实验室”体验的有效替代方案。
