A Competency-based Research Laboratory Curriculum for Life Science Majors Integrating the Professional Development of Future Faculty

University Of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

Led by a team of faculty with experience and expertise in development and assessment of a project-based undergraduate laboratory course (a Type 1 CCLI project, DUE 0737131), this current project is developing, evaluating and disseminating an upper-division interdepartmental, research-based laboratory curriculum for life science majors in a large university setting. Students are engaged in a variety of research projects ranging from virus discovery and three dimensional imaging, metagenomic bacterial community analysis, sea urchin functional genomics, plant-microbe interactions, and Chlamydomonas gene modeling. The principal components of this program include: 1) mentored research experiences for all undergraduates in two majors (Microbiology, Immunology & Molecular Genetics, and Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology), 2) research presentations by students in a seminar format, 3) research papers written by students, 4) lectures by a multi-disciplinary team of research and teaching faculty, and 5) computer-based investigations with bioinformatics and mathematical modeling tools (e.g. NCBI-BLAST,RDP-II and IMG). This project is also receiving support from a 2010 HHMI Science Education grant. Intellectual Merit: This project is contributing to a growing database (the CURL, Consortium of Undergraduate Research Laboratories, Online Notebook) of information about bacterial soil communities. Results from student laboratories in pilot courses have already resulted in isolation and characterization of bacterial communities important to a renewable energy project within the city of Los Angeles. In addition, the current project is exploring and demonstrating effective ways to expand the teaching approaches developed in the pilot project to be applicable to other sub-disciplines within biology. As regards results germane to understanding effective approaches in undergraduate education, the evaluation plan includes pre and post course assessment of student performance with respect to competencies and student impressions of science. Longitudinal assessments are being used to document scholastic achievements and scientific career aspirations. Broader Impacts: Comprised of a non-departmental configuration of courses, this curricular model is removing barriers to interdisciplinary teaching. Through a series of invitational workshops with local liberal arts colleges and comprehensive universities to determine their needs and practical ways of meeting them, strategies are being devised to disseminate the curricular enhancements to other four-year institutions interested in developing similar approaches to undergraduate education in biology. In addition consultation with local community colleges is on-going to ensure that transfer students will be able to take full advantage of the new courses being evolved.