From Discovery to Market: Integrating Interdisciplinary Skills through a Collaborative Research-Based Lab Curriculum

本科生的研究经验和以探究为基础的实验室提高了学生的保留率、毕业率，以及在STEM领域追求更高学位和职业的动力。然而，许多本科课程和实验室的结构并不能让学生参与积极的学习和真实的研究，缺乏这样的创新学习环境是学生成功的关键障碍。该项目将建立在休斯顿大学(UH)开发的课程模式的基础上，将尖端研究带入本科课堂，并为具备STEM知识的劳动力做好创新准备。环境采样研究模块(ESRM)是在过去九年中在密歇根大学设计、开发并成功实施的，它将在一系列机构、学生类型和课程中传播，让学生参与跨学科的协作研究，这些研究填充了日益增长的环境污染地理分布数据库。该项目的一个新方面是一个专注于创业的学习活动，它将教会学生如何将他们的数据推向市场。这一主题在学术科学课程中并不常见。ESRM整合了教育、研究和创业，将通过贡献研究数据、挖掘他们自己的和共享的数据以及营销他们的研究产品，为学生提供参与科学发现过程的机会。六个机构将在该项目中合作：呃(得克萨斯州)、阿尔文社区学院(得克萨斯州)、路易斯安那理工大学(路易斯安那州)、草原景观农工大学(得克萨斯州)、罗切斯特理工学院(纽约)和南犹他州大学(犹他州)。(其中三个位于墨西哥湾沿岸，那里最近的环境灾难将提供有关土壤和水污染以及微生物修复的宝贵数据。)项目组的活动将包括开发使用计算工具、比较数据分析、基因组空间分析和创业应用的跨学科学习模块；举办培训教师的讲习班；将ESRM学习活动与跨学科技能组合进行映射；以及开发一个门户网站，以传播学习活动、扩展的ESRM数据库、关于学生研究的信息和发表的论文。该项目将通过探索(1)ESRM的调整如何使不同的学生、机构和教职员工受益，以及(2)学生参与协作的多机构研究体验和接触真实的研究问题如何影响他们对STEM领域的参与和兴趣，为STEM教育研究做出贡献。

Undergraduate research experiences and inquiry-based laboratories increase student retention, graduation rates, and motivation to pursue advanced degrees and careers in STEM fields. However, many undergraduate courses and labs are not structured to engage students in active learning and authentic research, and the lack of such innovative learning environments presents a key barrier to student success. This project will build on a curricular model developed at the University of Houston (UH) to bring cutting-edge research into undergraduate classes and prepare a STEM-literate workforce equipped for innovation. The Environmental Sampling Research Module (ESRM), which was designed, developed, and successfully implemented at UH over the past nine years, will be disseminated across a range of institutions, student types, and courses to engage students in interdisciplinary, collaborative research that populates a growing database of the geographic distribution of environmental contamination. A novel aspect of the project is a learning activity focusing on entrepreneurship, which will teach students how to bring their data to market. This topic is not common in academic science curricula.Integrating education, research, and entrepreneurship, the ESRM will provide opportunities for students to engage in the process of scientific discovery by contributing to research data, mining their own and shared data, and marketing the products of their research. Six institutions will collaborate in the project: UH (Texas), Alvin Community College (Texas), Louisiana Tech University (Louisiana), Prairie View A&M University (Texas), Rochester Institute of Technology (New York), and Southern Utah University (Utah). (Three of those are on the Gulf Coast, where recent environmental disasters will provide valuable data on soil and water pollution and microbial remediation.) Activities of the project team will include developing interdisciplinary learning modules that use computational tools, comparative data analysis, genome-spatial analysis, and entrepreneurial applications; holding workshops to train faculty; mapping ESRM learning activities to interdisciplinary skill sets; and developing a web portal to disseminate the learning activities, the expanded ESRM database, information about students' research, and published papers. The project will contribute to STEM education research by exploring (1) how the adaptations of the ESRM benefit diverse students, institutions, and faculty and (2) how students' participation in collaborative, multi-institutional research experiences and exposure to authentic research questions influence their engagement and interest in STEM fields.