Combining Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences with Place-based Learning to Increase Student Retention, Civic Engagement, and Self-efficacy

促进学生的科学学习和留住STEM领域的学生需要教育经验，帮助他们成长为敬业、有道德的公民，同时也是创新的科学家。该项目旨在通过让学生参与与当地社区感兴趣的问题相交叉的科学研究来提供这些教育经验。具体来说，这个项目将让大学和社区学院的学生研究当地重要的生物资源——博尔德的历史悠久的苹果树。在19世纪中期，美国有数千种不同的苹果品种。当苹果产业选定少数几个品种在世界范围内推广时，其他品种就被遗忘了。今天，在整个博尔德县，这些被遗忘的苹果树仍然生长在居民的院子里或公园里。然而，它们开始死亡，社区正面临失去这种重要的生态、遗传和历史资源的风险。该项目将让学生参与研究和保护历史悠久的苹果树的项目，使学生能够利用他们的科学知识为社区服务。这个项目有可能增加未来科学家参与为美国公民服务的公民行动。该项目将开发和研究基于课程的本科研究经验的影响，并将其与在地学习相结合，从而为学生创造与社区相关的研究机会。学生们将参与研究项目，绘制博尔德县苹果树的分布图，描述这些树与当地生态的相互作用，确定目前正在生长的遗传品种，并嫁接树木以保护这些遗传和文化资源。预计参与这项研究将帮助学生培养对当地社区和科学社区的归属感，将增加他们的公民参与和公民效能，并将改善机构-社区关系。这个项目的科学和教育目标都将被评估，以跟踪进展，发现学生发展成为具有公民意识的科学家的过程，并为广泛传播这个模型做好准备。该项目的更广泛影响包括，它有可能增加未来科学家的公民参与，提高学生对STEM的归属感和持久性，并增强高等教育机构如何为更广泛的利益服务。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Promoting students' science learning and retaining students in STEM fields requires educational experiences that help them grow as engaged and ethical citizens who are also innovative scientists. This project aims to provide these educational experiences by engaging students in scientific research that intersects with issues of interest to the local community. Specifically, this project will involve university and community college students in researching a locally important biological resource, Boulder's historic apple trees. In the mid-1800s, there were thousands of diverse apple varieties in the United States. When the apple industry settled on a handful of varieties to promote worldwide, the rest of the varieties were forgotten. Across Boulder County today, these forgotten apple trees are still growing in residents' yards or in public parks. However, they are beginning to die, and the community is at risk of losing this important ecological, genetic, and historic resource. This project will engage students in research projects to study and preserve historic apple trees, enabling the students to use their scientific knowledge to serve their community. This project has the potential to increase the engagement of tomorrow's scientists in civic action that will serve citizens of the United States. This project will develop and study the impact of course-based undergraduate research experiences that incorporate place-based learning, thus creating community-relevant research opportunities for students. Students will engage in research projects to map the location of apple trees in Boulder County, characterize how these trees interact with the local ecology, identify which genetic varieties are currently growing, and graft the trees to preserve these genetic and cultural resources. It is expected that participation in this research will help students develop a sense of belonging to their local communities and to their scientific communities, will increase their civic engagement and civic efficacy, and will improve institution-community relationships. Both the scientific and educational goals of this project will be assessed to track progress, discover the processes by which students develop into civically-minded scientists, and prepare this model for broad dissemination. Among the broader impacts of this program are its potential to increase the civic engagement of future scientists, improve students' sense of belonging to and persistence in STEM, and enhance how institutions of higher education can serve the broader good.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.