1:45 - 2:45
Lightning Talk Session 7

Improving Learning by Expanding Access to Research Experiences

Click here for Zoom recording of this session!

Moderator: Sam Wjoda, UMass Amherst

"We need to do this:" Early College Student Summer Research Experiences as a Way to Encourage STEM Majors and Careers

Russ Olwell, Merrimack College

Cindy Santana, Lawrence High School

Ambar Tavares, Lawrence High School

Undergraduate research has been long regarded as a key "high impact practice" for STEM students; these extended mentoring experiences are regarded as even more vital for students from under-represented backgrounds to thrive in the STEM setting. building on an early college program with Lawrence High School, this summer program paired faculty and high school students to conduct research, funded by the state of Massachusetts as part of the early college summer grant program. While only a pilot program, students reported greater feelings of connection to the college campus; improved laboratory and technical skills; improved comprehension of scientific literature; and overall commitment to STEM majors and careers increased. Undergraduate peer mentors were also part of the project, and reported greater scientific and technical learning as a result of informal instruction of the high school students. Implications for early college and summer bridge programs will be highlighted in this session.

BCEENET: Sharing a Passion for Natural History Collections Through CUREs Using Digitized Collections Data

Kathryn Weglarz, Westfield State University

Carly Jordan, The George Washington University

Janice Krumm, Widener University

Biological Collections in Ecology & Evolution Network (BCEENET) supports the development and implementation of CUREs by leveraging the rapidly increasing availability of digitized natural history collections data. BCEENET brings together undergraduate educators and biological collections professionals to develop course-based undergraduate research experiences using digitized natural history collections data. Research utilizing these digital data resources, such as iDigBio and GBIF, only requires access to computers and the internet. This broadens the range of institutional types able to offer CURE experiences and provides opportunities for collaboration across multiple institutions. Embedding research experiences in biology coursework is especially important for low income, first-generation, and minority undergraduate students unable to dedicate time to research outside their normal course load due to personal and financial barriers. Additionally, students with disabilities who are unable to participate in traditional wet lab or field experiences can participate fully in dNHC CUREs, working at their own pace and with access to assistive technology. Here we will share the four developed BCEENET CUREs, which can be implemented in a variety of course formats (in-person, online, and hybrid; synchronous and asynchronous), and in time frames ranging from 4-16 weeks. We will discuss the implementation of one of these CUREs in the Introductory Biology curriculum at Westfield State University. Finally, we will discuss the value we have found in participating in BCEENET, a CURE network that offers implementers support. Please visit bceenet.org to learn more about our network.

How to Make an Upper Division Lab Course as Fun as Experimental Research Is

Sara Mueller, Brown University

The instructional laboratory can be a formative environment for growing scientists. Too often the logistical and time constraints of performing physics experiments in a semester coerces instructors to engage in inauthentic forms of experimental science (e.g. prescriptive step-by-step instructions for collecting and analyzing data from ‘streamlined’ setups). In this talk, I will describe how I redesigned an upper division laboratory course to increase flexibility and reinforce authentic practices in experimental physics. Students in this course were expected to keep a comprehensive laboratory notebook instead of a polished set of reports. They presented their progress as a short slide deck in a ‘group meeting’ style meeting weekly, seeking and providing advice from their peers and instructors. In the end, an unexpected success of this flexibility led a team of students to build, develop, and publish a new laboratory activity.