A Multi-institutional Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience in Genetics

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This project aims to serve the national interest by increasing undergraduate students’ participation in authentic STEM research. Research experiences are known to improve student performance and retention in STEM classes and majors. However, research opportunities can be limited and inequitably available. As a result, many institutions are developing course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) in which all students in a course participate in a research project. This proposal aspires to develop a national consortium of undergraduate laboratory courses that implement a CURE based on the analysis of genetic mutations in the fruitfly. The project, called Fly-CURE, allows students to engage in authentic, inquiry-based research by mapping the location of mutations in the fruitfly genome and studying the mutations’ anatomical and behavioral effects. Fly-CURE is currently active in seven institutions. The project intends to expand Fly-CURE to include a network of 20 institutions. The plans for expansion are targeted to institutions, such as community colleges, that have limited capacity to provide their students with research experiences. The project intends to hold annual workshops for faculty and to pair experienced Fly-CURE faculty with novice faculty, to support and guide new faculty as they establish Fly-CURE on their campuses. As Fly-CURE expands, the project team plans to gather information about how participating in Fly-CURE affects student performance, and to compare this performance with that of students enrolled in traditional genetics courses without CUREs.CUREs transform traditional undergraduate laboratory courses into places where undergraduates can participate in an authentic research project. Providing students with authentic research experiences as undergraduates has been demonstrated to have lasting impacts on students’ knowledge and attitudes toward research and can positively impact the number of students from underrepresented groups pursuing STEM degrees. Two major obstacles stand in the way of more widespread CURE implementation. First is the creation of a sustainable research project that can be completed by undergraduates in a classroom lab setting, and the second is the development of a CURE project that exposes students to a similar spectrum of learning objectives as a traditional laboratory course. This project proposes expand a sustainable CURE project that overcomes both obstacles. Specifically, it plans to grow the Fly-CURE from seven universities to twenty, creating a sustainable Fly-CURE Consortium of institutions that all implement a common undergraduate genetics laboratory component involving mapping and characterization of novel Drosophila melanogaster mutants identified in a genetic screen. Expansion of the Fly-CURE will be accomplished through recruitment and training of new faculty who will implement the research project in their genetics laboratory. The project will measure the impact of the CUREs on student attitudes towards research and gains in common genetics learning objectives, comparing students who participate in Fly-CURE with a comparison group that do not. These findings are anticipated to be widely applicable to undergraduate departments working to provide across-the board research experiences for undergraduate STEM majors. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.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.