Collaborative Research - The Bean Beetle Microbiome Project: A Research-Education Collaboration

最近的国家报告呼吁对本科实验室课程进行改革，使所有学生都有研究经验。基于课程的本科生研究经验(CURE)已被证明是一项成功的教育创新，使更多的学生能够进行研究。这项教育研究项目的生物学背景是一种基于豆甲肠道细菌微生物群的治疗方法。来自不同机构和地理位置的学院和大学教职员工将参加研讨会，作为该项目的一部分，学习如何使用豆甲，研究它们的微生物群，评估微生物群落数据，并在他们的课程中实施菜豆甲虫微生物组治疗。与豆甲虫的合作将使学生研究人员能够轻松地操纵可能影响肠道细菌的因素，这是脊椎动物或其他昆虫模型系统不可能做到的。学生将有自由设计自己的实验和提出自己的研究问题，就像实习科学家所做的那样。该项目的目的是在以课程为基础的研究课程的背景下检查学生自主(即选择自己的研究问题)的重要性，并指导科学教育工作者改变学习和教授科学的方式。该项目有可能使包括少数族裔服务和两年制大学在内的一系列机构的学生受益，因为它增加了学生在科学方面的留存，并培养了他们从事STEM职业或研究生院的兴趣。这个项目的总体目标是确定学生自主性在跨不同机构的发现疗法中的重要性。这一目标将通过传播、实施和评估数据密集型豆甲微生物群疗法来实现，该疗法将同时促进我们对昆虫宿主-微生物相互作用的理解。第一个目标是研究学生自主性在发现疗法中的重要性。学生的成绩将使用调查、结构化访谈和焦点小组的混合方法进行评估。第二个目标是利用实验方法，利用菜豆甲虫模型系统，促进对昆虫宿主-微生物相互作用的研究。第三和第四个目标是在研究豆壳虫微生物群落的研究方案以及生物信息学和微生物群落分析的数据科学方面通过动手研讨会发展教员专业知识。第五个目标是促进在不同机构实施数据密集型课程研究。来自实践工作坊的教员将在两个不同的学期实施豆壳虫微生物群治疗。该项目旨在增加参与治疗、继续从事科学工作并攻读STEM学科研究生学位的少数族裔和两年制大学生的数量。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Recent national reports call for undergraduate laboratory courses to be transformed so that all students have research experiences. Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) have proven to be a successful educational innovation for enabling more students to do research. The biological context for this education research project is a CURE that is based on the gut bacterial microbiome of the bean beetle, Callosobruchus maculatus. College and university faculty from a range of institutions and geographic locations will attend workshops as a part of this project to learn how to work with bean beetles, study their microbiome, evaluate microbial community data, and implement bean beetle microbiome CUREs in their courses. Working with bean beetles will allow student researchers to readily manipulate factors that might affect gut bacteria in ways that would not be possible with vertebrates or other insect model systems. Students will have the freedom to design their own experiments and to develop their own research questions, as practicing scientists do. The project is designed to examine the importance of student autonomy (i.e. choosing their own research questions) in the context of course-based research classes, and to guide science educators as they change the way in which science is learned and taught. This project has the potential to benefit students at a range of institutions including minority serving and two-year colleges by increasing the retention of students in science and fostering interest in pursuing STEM careers or graduate school. The overall goal of this project is to determine the importance of student autonomy in a discovery CURE across diverse institutions. This goal will be achieved by disseminating, implementing, and assessing a data-intensive bean beetle microbiome CURE that will simultaneously advance our understanding of insect host-microbe interactions. The first objective is to examine the importance of student autonomy in a discovery CURE. Student outcomes will be assessed using a mixed methods approach with surveys, structured interviews, and focus groups. The second objective is to foster research on insect host-microbe interactions using experimental approaches with the bean beetle model system. The third and fourth goals are to develop faculty expertise with hands-on workshops in research protocols for examining microbial communities in bean beetles, and in data science for bioinformatics and microbial community analyses. The fifth objective is to foster the implementation of data-intensive course-based research at diverse institutions. Faculty from the hands-on workshops will implement a bean beetle microbiome CURE in two different semesters. The project is designed to increase the number of minority and two-year college students who participate in CUREs, stay engaged in science, and pursue graduate degrees in STEM disciplines.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.