Integrating Discovery-Based Research into the Undergraduate Curriculum Report of a Convocation (2015) / Chapter Skim
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4 Leveraging Available Resources to Create Greater Access to Research Opportunities
4 Leveraging Available Resources to Create Greater Access to Research Opportunities
Pages 31-44
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From page 31... ...
In the second panel of the convocation, four speakers provided examples of courses that incorporate research, while also describing the availability of the infrastructure required to make those courses work. In each example -- ranging from on-site sustainability research, to remote access to shared instrumentation, to accessing on-line databases, to "virtual internships" -- students engage in activities available only in the context of research, but they do so through regular courses using available resources, demonstrating the widespread applicability of coursebased research.
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From page 32... ...
"Real people living in a real dorm tossed real recyclable bottles into the regular trash bins. What is the story?
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From page 33... ...
McDonald drew several lessons from the experience: The campus context provides an abundant and rich laboratory setting for data collection, analysis, and synthesis. The Living Lab course relates to students' everyday experiences of occupied indoor and outdoor space to sharpen their observation skills.
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From page 34... ...
I feel as though incorporating these practices into our projects is not only a great start to our introduction into the field, but also a start of finally realizing that these practices shouldn't be supplemental to the overall process, but rather already incorporated into the design process." Sharing Instruments to Support Discovery-Based Research The use of sophisticated analytical instruments in classes can have a major impact on students and is a common subject of proposals to government agencies like the National Science Foundation (NSF) , noted Jeffrey Ryan, professor of geology and chair of the School of Geosciences at the University of South Florida.
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From page 35... ...
The program has been expanded to three other institutions: Florida International University, Florida Gulf Coast University, and Valencia College, which is a two-year college. The intervention now has different scales, including term projects, sets of related laboratory activities, single-laboratory demonstrations, and in-class demonstrations.
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From page 36... ...
It bundles several high-powered tools into an easy graphical user interface to assemble gene models, investigate genomes, work with phylogenetic trees, and analyze DNA barcodes. DNA barcoding is a simple laboratory procedure that Micklos called the "do everything" research tool.
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From page 37... ...
and provides opportunities for student discovery and publication of novel findings. The most exciting thing about DNA barcoding, said Micklos, is that it quickly brings students to the frontiers of scientific knowledge.
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From page 38... ...
"[With this access] many of us who are mainly educators in primarily undergraduate institutions are doing research that's every bit as good as the research in Research One institutions, and coming along are lots of students." However, taking advantage of this capability means living with several paradigm shifts, he said, including the transition from limited data to unlimited data, the transition from a world where hypotheses are underdetermined by data to a 15 The need for PCR technology may present a barrier for some high school teachers to adopt this approach although a number of loaner programs exist.
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From page 39... ...
Understanding the study of complex civic issues, said Burns -- which involve what June Osborn called "multidisciplinary troubles" -- requires a broad, open, and inclusive notion of what constitutes research, basically seeking the widespread application of discoverybased methods in undergraduate education. General information about SENCER is available at http://sencer.net.
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From page 40... ...
. Real internships or real research experiences have some obvious advantages, Shaffer acknowledged, including real-world experience and work on immediate problems.
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When seniors on a team graduate, the rising students fill their places, and new students are brought onto the team. Returning students train incoming students, offering a mentoring program that is both free and effective (Figure 4-3)
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From page 42... ...
Students reported positive responses to virtual internships, and the positive responses increased from the first internship to the second. Because the computer programs used in virtual internships can record every keystroke and every decision made in navigating through the application, they also produce a wealth of data about the actions students take and the connections they make among the skills, knowledge, identity, values, and epistemology of their fields.
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From page 43... ...
One solution is to educate IRB members about the nature of educational research so that they do not perceive dangers where none exist. A National Research Council committee has studied this problem and has issued recommendations designed to balance respect for the individuals whose consent to participate makes research possible, with respect for the social benefits that productive research communities make possible (NRC, 2014a)
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