Water in your neighbourhood: a model for implementing a semester-long course-based undergraduate research project in introductory biology

Abstract

Undergraduate biology education has changed over the past decade, incorporating an iterative and evidence-based approach. Many educational assessments have confirmed the effectiveness of integrating authentic research and open-ended inquiry into introductory biology courses, demonstrating a significant positive impact on students' learning and attitude towards STEM majors. Despite these findings, only a handful of Biology instructors in 2year colleges adopt this approach, and when adopted, most activities constitute a small fraction of these courses. Finding a feasible, sustainable, semester-long, and cost-effective strategy to incorporate authentic research in the curriculum which promotes integrated understanding of science and addresses socio-scientific issues, is a big challenge for both instructors and administrators at 2-year colleges. Here we present a unique model incorporating a semester-long authentic research-based set of laboratories in introductory Biology through which students investigate the water quality in areas close to their communities. Our approach is fully aligned with all five core components of an effective Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience according to CUREnet. The laboratories were developed to be fully incorporated into the teaching curriculum. Each laboratory was designed to ensure students acquire the knowledge and skills set out in the course syllabus through a process of discovery designed to promote students' engagement.

Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) for Preservice Biology Teachers: Two Insights More Promising

“…For example, BK items such as the classification of mushrooms based on their characteristics, ways of reproduction and roles in life-based on students' daily environmental observations. These findings supported previous research, highlighting the need for contextual mastery, especially in planning biology lessons (Allen et al, 2004;Fuentes & Entezari, 2020;Mataniari et al, 2020). The important thing in mastering BCxK is that preservice biology teachers can use authentic creative assessments that are developed by themselves related to material analysis and fundamental competency achievements or combined with TK.…”