Enhancing Introductory Biology with the Arizona Insect DNA Barcoding Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience

在改善本科STEM教育：西班牙裔服务机构（HSI）计划的支持下，这个第二轨道项目旨在改善本科生物学教育。它将通过在一所社区大学的入门生物学中实施基于地点的课程本科研究体验（CURE）来实现这一目标，并研究CURE对学生的影响。CURE将由位于亚利桑那州图森市的皮马社区学院和亚利桑那大学合作开发。参与CURE项目的学生将生成、分析和发布对科学来说是全新的数据。为科学知识做出贡献的机会有望增加学生对科学的积极感受，这可能反过来增加他们在STEM领域的坚持和毕业。该项目将通过确定参与CURE的社区大学生是否更有可能继续学习科学并获得STEM学位，为CUREs的价值提供新的证据。在社区大学学习第一门生物学课程的大学生中，有相当大比例来自代表性不足的群体。因此，该项目有可能扩大STEM教育和STEM劳动力的参与。皮马社区学院生物学入门课程的学生将参加亚利桑那昆虫DNA条形码治疗。学生将获得、分析并发表亚利桑那大学昆虫收藏中昆虫的DNA序列。通过这项工作，学生将为亚利桑那大学的研究和整个科学界做出贡献。研究表明，学生的项目所有权、自我效能感、科学认同感和对障碍的容忍度的增加与他们在STEM领域的坚持和毕业率的提高有关。预计参加CURE的学生将比没有参加的学生在这些特征方面表现出更大的增长。该项目还将检查同一CURE中的多个经历是否比单个经历与更大的增长相关。本项目旨在通过研究参与CURE与社区大学学生成功转学至四年制大学及其随后的STEM专业毕业之间的关系，扩大对STEM学生成功的研究。因此，该项目可以为两年制和四年制院校如何合作提供一个合作模式，以提高转学成功率和提高STEM毕业率。它也有望成为一个模式，积极吸引本科生物学学生与自然历史博物馆的藏品，以有利于学生的表现和收藏的方式。该项目的研究结果将在国家科学教育会议上发表，并在同行评审的STEM和STEM教育期刊上发表。HSI计划旨在加强HSI的本科STEM教育和能力建设。HSI计划支持的项目也将产生关于如何实现这些目标的新知识。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。

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) Program, this Track 2 project aims to improve undergraduate biology education. It will do so by implementing a place-based Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) in introductory biology at a community college, and studying the CURE's impact on students. The CURE will be developed through a collaboration between Pima Community College and the University of Arizona, both located in Tucson, Arizona. Students participating in the CURE will generate, analyze, and publish data that will be new to science. The opportunity to contribute to scientific knowledge is expected to increase students' positive feelings toward science, which may in turn increase their persistence and graduation in STEM fields. This project will provide new evidence about the value of CUREs by determining whether community college students participating in a CURE are more likely to continue studying science and to graduate with a STEM degree. A significant percentage of college students who take their first biology course at a community college are from underrepresented groups. Thus, the project has the potential to broaden participation in STEM education and the STEM workforce.Students in introductory biology courses at Pima Community College will participate in the Arizona Insect DNA Barcoding CURE. Students will obtain, analyze, and publish DNA sequences from insects curated in the University of Arizona Insect Collection. Through this work, students will contribute to research at the University of Arizona and to the scientific community at large. Research has shown that increases in students' project ownership, self-efficacy, science identity, and tolerance to obstacles are associated with increases in their persistence and graduation in STEM fields. It is expected that students who participate in the CURE will demonstrate greater increases in these characteristics than those who do not participate. The project will also examine whether multiple experiences in the same CURE are associated with greater increases than a single experience. This project aims to broaden research on STEM student success by examining the relationship between CURE participation and the successful transfer of community college students to four-year institutions and their subsequent graduation in STEM. Thus, the project may provide a collaborative model for how two-year and four-year institutions can partner to improve transfer success and increase STEM graduation rates. It is also expected to serve as a model for actively engaging undergraduate biology students with natural history museum collections in ways that benefit both student performance and the collections. Results from this project will be presented at national science education conferences and submitted for publication in peer-reviewed STEM and STEM education journals. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education and build capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also generate new knowledge on how to achieve these aims.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.