Engaging Students in Authentic Microbiology Research in an Introductory Biology Laboratory Course is Correlated with Gains in Student Understanding of the Nature of Authentic Research and Critical Thinking

TH!NK is a new initiative at NC State University focused on enhancing students’ higher-order cognitive skills. As part of this initiative, I explicitly emphasized critical and creative thinking in an existing bacteriophage discovery first-year research course. In addition to the typical activities associated with undergraduate research such as review of primary literature and writing research papers, another strategy employed to enhance students’ critical thinking skills was the use of discipline-specific, real-world scenarios. This paper outlines a general “formula” for writing scenarios, as well as several specific scenarios created for the described course. I also present how embedding aspects of the scenarios in reviews of the primary literature enriched the activity. I assessed student gains in critical thinking skills using a pre-/posttest model of the Critical Thinking Assessment Test (CAT), developed by Tennessee Technological University. I observed a positive gain trend in most of the individual skills assessed in the CAT, with a statistically significant large effect on critical thinking skills overall in students in the test group. I also show that a higher level of critical thinking skills was demonstrated in research papers written by students who participated in the scenarios compared with similar students who did not participate in the scenario activities. The scenario strategy described here can be modified for use in biology and other STEM disciplines, as well as in diverse disciplines in the social sciences and humanities.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Targeting Critical Thinking Skills in a First-Year Undergraduate Research Course

Carson

2015

“…Course-based research experiences engage students in the scientific process, improving student attitudes toward research and learning, and increasing self-confidence with respect to lab-related tasks (15–17). Providing more-authentic research experiences in introductory courses increases retention of STEM majors and improves critical thinking (18, 19). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Poster Development and Presentation to Improve Scientific Inquiry and Broaden Effective Scientific Communication Skills

Rauschenbach

Keddis

Davis

2018

We have redesigned a tried-and-true laboratory exercise into an inquiry-based team activity exploring microbial growth control, and implemented this activity as the basis for preparing a scientific poster in a large, multi-section laboratory course. Spanning most of the semester, this project culminates in a poster presentation of data generated from a student-designed experiment. Students use and apply the scientific method and improve written and verbal communication skills. The guided inquiry format of this exercise provides the opportunity for student collaboration through cooperative learning. For each learning objective, a percentage score was tabulated (learning objective score = points awarded/total possible points). A score of 80% was our benchmark for achieving each objective. At least 76% of the student groups participating in this project over two semesters achieved each learning goal. Student perceptions of the project were evaluated using a survey. Nearly 90% of participating students felt they had learned a great deal in the areas of formulating a hypothesis, experimental design, and collecting and analyzing data; 72% of students felt this project had improved their scientific writing skills. In a separate survey, 84% of students who responded felt that peer review was valuable in improving their final poster submission. We designed this inquiry-based poster project to improve student scientific communication skills. This exercise is appropriate for any microbiology laboratory course whose learning outcomes include the development of scientific inquiry and literacy.

“…(A) Average scores on all assessment methods (1–6) and the average overall course grade over two semesters (7). (B) Average scores on selected quiz questions (provided in Appendix 4.1).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The central idea of the course is based on understanding and analyzing microbial diversity. This course encourages active learning through hands-on laboratory experiments, data collection, analysis, evaluation and synthesis, as well as class discussion and writing exercises, thus providing an authentic research experience which is beneficial to undergraduates for developing analytical and critical thinking skills (2, 7, 16). In addition, this semester-long course allows students to develop laboratory skills in the areas of microbiology, molecular biology, and bioinformatics, with the additional possibility of discovering novel species of bacteria and archaea.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Metagenomic Approaches to Identify Novel Organisms from the Soil Environment in a Classroom Setting

Rahman

Charles

Kaur

2016

Molecular Microbial Metagenomics is a research-based undergraduate course developed at Georgia State University. This semester-long course provides hands-on research experience in the area of microbial diversity and introduces molecular approaches to study diversity. Students are part of an ongoing research project that uses metagenomic approaches to isolate clones containing 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid (rRNA) genes from a soil metagenomic library. These approaches not only provide a measure of microbial diversity in the sample but may also allow discovery of novel organisms. Metagenomic approaches differ from the traditional culturing methods in that they use molecular analysis of community deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) instead of culturing individual organisms. Groups of students select a batch of 100 clones from a metagenomic library. Using universal primers to amplify 16S rRNA genes from the pool of DNA isolated from 100 clones, and a stepwise process of elimination, each group isolates individual clones containing 16S rRNA genes within their batch of 100 clones. The amplified 16S rRNA genes are sequenced and analyzed using bioinformatics tools to determine whether the rRNA gene belongs to a novel organism. This course provides avenues for active learning and enhances students’ conceptual understanding of microbial diversity. Average scores on six assessment methods used during field testing indicated that success in achieving different learning objectives varied between 84% and 95%, with 65% of the students demonstrating complete grasp of the project based on the end-of-project lab report. The authentic research experience obtained in this course is also expected to result in more undergraduates choosing research-based graduate programs or careers.