Finding Some Good in an Invasive Species: Introduction and Assessment of a Novel CURE to Improve Experimental Design in Undergraduate Biology Classrooms

Abstract

Reports such as Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education call for integration of course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) into biology curricula and less emphasis on “cookbook” laboratories. CUREs, often characterized by a single open-ended research question, allow students to develop hypotheses, design experiments, and collaborate with peers. Conversely, “cookbook” labs incentivize task completion and have pre-determined experimental outcomes. While research comparing CUREs and “cookbook” labs is growing, there are fewer comparisons among CUREs. Here, we present a novel CURE built around an invasive grass, Bromus inermis. We evaluated this CURE’s effectiveness in improving students’ understanding of the Vision and Change competency relating to the application of the scientific process through development and testing of hypotheses. We did so by comparing changes in pre- and posttest scores on the Experimental Design Ability Test (EDAT) between Brome CURE students and students in a concurrent CURE, SEA-PHAGES. While students in both CUREs showed improvements at the end of the semester, Brome CURE students showed a greater increase in EDAT scores than did SEA-PHAGES CURE students. Additionally, Brome CURE students had significantly higher gains in 6 of the 10 EDAT criteria. We conclude that the Brome CURE is an effective ecological parallel to the SEA-PHAGES CURE and can help students gain a meaningful understanding of Vision and Change competencies. Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education

A course-based undergraduate research experience examining neurodegeneration in Drosophila melanogaster teaches students to think, communicate, and perform like scientists

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Measuring integrated understanding of undergraduate chemistry research experiences: assessing oral and written research artifacts

“…Some instruments are ''authentic assessments,'' which are meaningful opportunities for students to integrate and apply their knowledge to novel, complex, and/or realistic situations that simulate typical activities of scientists (Wiggins, 1998;Dog ˘an and Kaya, 2009;Laungani et al, 2018). For example, the Experimental Design Ability Test (EDAT) gives students a real-world scenario and research question and tasks them with designing an appropriate experiment, and has been used in chemistry and the life sciences (Sirum and Humburg, 2011;Goodey and Talgar, 2016).…”

The Conceptualization of Quantitative Reasoning among Introductory Biology Faculty

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