Insights from a Convocation: Integrating Discovery-Based Research into the Undergraduate Curriculum

CBE—Life Sciences Education Vol. 15, 1–7, Summer 2016 Feature From the National Academies Insights from a Convocation: Integrating Discovery-Based Research into the Undergraduate Curriculum Sarah C. R. Elgin, † Gita Bangera, ‡ Sean M. Decatur, § Erin L. Dolan, ∥ Laura Guertin, ¶ Wendy C. Newstetter, # Elvyra F. San Juan, @ Mary A. Smith,** Gabriela C. Weaver, †† Susan R. Wessler, ‡‡ Kerry A. Brenner, §§ and Jay B. Labov ∥∥ * Department of Biology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130; ‡ RISE Learning Institute, Bellevue College, Bellevue, WA 98007; § Office of the President, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH 43022; ‖ Texas Institute for Discovery Education in Science, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712; ¶ Department of Earth Science, Penn State Brandywine, Media, PA 19063; # College of Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332; @ Office of the Chancellor, California State University System, Long Beach, CA 90802; **Department of Biology, North Carolina AT †† Department of Chemistry, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003; ‡‡ Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521; §§ Board on Science Education and ‖‖ Board on Life Sciences, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Washington, DC 20001 INTRODUCTION Recommendation 2 of the February 2012 report Engage to Ex- cel from the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST, 2012) urges the science, technology, en- gineering, and mathematics (STEM) education community and funding agencies to “advocate and provide support for replacing standard laboratory courses with discovery-based research courses.” The report justifies this recommendation as follows: Traditional introductory laboratory courses at the un- dergraduate level generally do not capture the creativ- ity of STEM disciplines. They often involve repeating classical experiments to reproduce known results, rather than engaging students in experiments with the possibility of true discovery.… Engineering curricula in the first two years have long made use of design courses that engage student creativity. Recently, re- search courses in STEM subjects have been implement- ed at diverse institutions, including universities with large introductory course enrollments. These courses CBE Life Sci Educ June 1, 2016 15:fe2 DOI:10.1187/cbe.16-03-0118 *Address correspondence to: Jay B. Labov (jlabov@nas.edu) © 2016 S. C. R. Elgin et al. CBE—Life Sciences Education © 2016 The American Society for Cell Biology. This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). It is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial– Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0). “ASCB®”and “The American Society for Cell Biology®” are regis- tered trademarks of The American Society for Cell Biology. make individual ownership of projects and discovery feasible in a classroom setting, engaging students in authentic STEM experiences and enhancing learning and, therefore, they provide models for what should be more widely implemented. (pp. iv–v) This recommendation has engendered wide discussion and motivated formation of a committee at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to orga- nize a convocation to explore opportunities and challenges of developing, implementing, and sustaining course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs), one mech- anism for reaching large numbers of undergraduates. This column reviews the considerations leading up to the May 2015 convocation and summarizes the report that emerged (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2015). 1 Emerging evidence (cited in the PCAST report and else- where) indicates that engaging students in research as early as possible during their undergraduate years is one of the best strategies for supporting and retaining under- graduates in STEM. Until recently, undergraduates have primarily participated in research through apprentice- ships, wherein an individual faculty member (or one of their graduate students or postdoctoral fellows) supervises the work of one or several students. Apprenticeships can be beneficial and even life and career changing for many students, yet their one-on-one design inherently limits the number of students who can participate. Providing all be- ginning STEM students with an individualized mentored The report is available for purchase or free download of a PDF at www.nap.edu/catalogue/21851. 15:fe2, 1