A Combination Course and Lab-Based Approach To Teaching Research Skills to Undergraduates

Undergraduate research is an important capstone experience that provides students with the conceptual and technical aptitude for graduate or industrial research. However, this experience is often compressed into a single term in a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) or run by indiv...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of chemical education 2016-03, Vol.93 (3), p.434-438
Main Authors: Danowitz, Amy M., Brown, Ronald C., Jones, Clinton D., Diegelman-Parente, Amy, Taylor, Christopher E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aptitudes
Basic Skills
Capstone Experiences
College Science
College students
Curricula
Elementary school students
Ethics
Industrial research
Information literacy
Pennsylvania
Program Proposals
Research Methodology
Research Proposals
Research Skills
Science Instruction
Science Laboratories
Skill development
Skills
Student Improvement
Student Research
Students
Teaching Methods
Team teaching
Undergraduate Students
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Summary:Undergraduate research is an important capstone experience that provides students with the conceptual and technical aptitude for graduate or industrial research. However, this experience is often compressed into a single term in a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) or run by individual faculty members for select students on an ad hoc basis as an undergraduate research experience (URE). One alternative to these two possibilities is to use a team-taught course during students’ third year to help them develop fundamental skills that they use to prepare and present a research proposal. This proposal serves as a vehicle for improving students’ ability to assimilate information from the primary research literature and for them to practice evaluating the safety and research ethics aspects of projects. Students also use their proposals as research plans for their remaining year and a half of college. Data gathered indicate that this course was effective and that it could be a useful addition to other departments’ curricula, particularly at teaching-focused institutions.
ISSN:0021-9584
1938-1328
DOI:10.1021/acs.jchemed.5b00390