Polar (DCL- 16-119): Development and Evaluation of an Interdisciplinary Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience in Arctic Sciences

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A team of scientists and educators at Arizona State University will develop and implement a highly interdisciplinary Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) to engage students in polar research. The interdisciplinary experience will pair undergraduate students from both science and non-science majors to conduct group research projects in the Arctic and to design innovative ways to communicate results to the public. During the course, students will compare the Arctic ecosystems, specifically ecosystems at the Kilpisjärvi Biological Research Station in northern Finland, with those from the desert environment in which they currently reside. Research opportunities for students range from Arctic ecosystem studies to use of the Kilpisjärvi Atmospheric Imaging Receiver Array, a dual array of omnidirectional VHF radio antennas focused on auroras. Through this innovative learning opportunity, students will design, implement and present both an independent science-based research project and a communications project to explain their findings. Student participants will be selected from the diverse student body at Arizona State University's West Campus. The intellectual merit of the project rests on the effectiveness of this pilot CURE, which will be evaluated using a mixed method approach to determine how the experience impacted student learning and how it impacts student interest in scientific research and in postgraduate studies. The broader impacts of the project include involving students from diverse backgrounds, including minorities, first-generation college students and veterans, in polar research and training students in the effective communication of science. This project offers an opportunity to determine the impact of a short international research experience on diverse students. In addition, the two years of support for this course will lay the foundation for the future iterations of the course, which are planned to be self-sustaining.