A Competency-based Research Laboratory Curriculum for Life Science Majors Integrating the Professional Development of Future Faculty

本项目由具有项目型本科实验课程开发和评估经验和专业知识的教师团队（CCLI 1类项目，DUE 0737131）领导，正在为大型大学生命科学专业开发、评估和传播一门高年级跨院系研究型实验课程。学生们从事各种各样的研究项目，包括病毒发现和三维成像，宏基因组细菌群落分析，海胆功能基因组学，植物-微生物相互作用和衣藻基因建模。该计划的主要组成部分包括：1)指导所有本科生在两个专业（微生物学，免疫学和分子遗传学，分子，细胞和发育生物学）的研究经验，2)学生以研讨会形式的研究报告，3)学生撰写的研究论文，4)由研究和教学人员组成的多学科团队的讲座，以及5)利用生物信息学和数学建模工具（如NCBI-BLAST，RDP-II和IMG）进行计算机研究。该项目还获得了2010年HHMI科学教育基金的支持。智力价值：该项目有助于建立一个不断增长的数据库（CURL，本科研究实验室联盟，在线笔记本）关于细菌土壤群落的信息。在试点课程中，学生实验室的结果已经导致了对洛杉矶市可再生能源项目重要的细菌群落的分离和表征。此外，目前的项目正在探索和展示有效的方法，将试点项目中开发的教学方法扩展到生物学的其他子学科。至于与理解有效的本科教育方法相关的结果，评估计划包括对学生能力和学生对科学印象的课程前和课程后表现的评估。纵向评估被用来记录学术成就和科学事业抱负。更广泛的影响：由一个非专业的课程配置组成，这种课程模式正在消除跨学科教学的障碍。通过与当地文理学院和综合性大学举办一系列邀请讲习班，以确定它们的需求和满足这些需求的实际方法，正在制定战略，向其他有兴趣采用类似方法进行生物学本科教育的四年制大学传播课程改进措施。此外，正在与当地社区学院进行协商，以确保转学生能够充分利用正在开发的新课程。

Led by a team of faculty with experience and expertise in development and assessment of a project-based undergraduate laboratory course (a Type 1 CCLI project, DUE 0737131), this current project is developing, evaluating and disseminating an upper-division interdepartmental, research-based laboratory curriculum for life science majors in a large university setting. Students are engaged in a variety of research projects ranging from virus discovery and three dimensional imaging, metagenomic bacterial community analysis, sea urchin functional genomics, plant-microbe interactions, and Chlamydomonas gene modeling. The principal components of this program include: 1) mentored research experiences for all undergraduates in two majors (Microbiology, Immunology & Molecular Genetics, and Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology), 2) research presentations by students in a seminar format, 3) research papers written by students, 4) lectures by a multi-disciplinary team of research and teaching faculty, and 5) computer-based investigations with bioinformatics and mathematical modeling tools (e.g. NCBI-BLAST,RDP-II and IMG). This project is also receiving support from a 2010 HHMI Science Education grant.Intellectual Merit: This project is contributing to a growing database (the CURL, Consortium of Undergraduate Research Laboratories, Online Notebook) of information about bacterial soil communities. Results from student laboratories in pilot courses have already resulted in isolation and characterization of bacterial communities important to a renewable energy project within the city of Los Angeles. In addition, the current project is exploring and demonstrating effective ways to expand the teaching approaches developed in the pilot project to be applicable to other sub-disciplines within biology. As regards results germane to understanding effective approaches in undergraduate education, the evaluation plan includes pre and post course assessment of student performance with respect to competencies and student impressions of science. Longitudinal assessments are being used to document scholastic achievements and scientific career aspirations. Broader Impacts: Comprised of a non-departmental configuration of courses, this curricular model is removing barriers to interdisciplinary teaching. Through a series of invitational workshops with local liberal arts colleges and comprehensive universities to determine their needs and practical ways of meeting them, strategies are being devised to disseminate the curricular enhancements to other four-year institutions interested in developing similar approaches to undergraduate education in biology. In addition consultation with local community colleges is on-going to ensure that transfer students will be able to take full advantage of the new courses being evolved.