NSF Award
1245778
The purpose of this project is to engage all of the introductory biology students at Gonzaga University (n=350) in a transformative research-based lab course during their freshman year. The project goals are to 1) increase the science competencies of students at all three developmental levels (beginners, intermediate, and advanced), 2) increase the retention rate of underrepresented minorities in the sciences by engaging students early on in research, and 3) inspire other institutions to implement authentic discovery-based research on a large scale in introductory laboratory courses.<br/>Because of the growing recognition that research experience in the first year is a critical influence on retention in science, many programs are now offering an alternative introductory lab sequence based on discovering new mycobacteriophages and annotating their genomes) in a two-semester course, the HHMI (Howard Hughes Medical Institute) SEA-PHAGES (Science Education Alliance-Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science) program. Based on the assumption that the gains observed among this select group of students are the kinds of gains all students could experience, the project team has devised several strategies to effectively scale up SEA-PHAGES and make it the introductory biology lab course for 350 students per year. The strategies involve 1) introducing a one-semester Gonzaga Phage Discovery Lab course for all students in the introductory biology class, 2) implementing a Phage Genomics module embedded within the 200-level Genetics Lab course, 3) offering a third course, Advanced Phage Research Lab, for upper division students, and 4) teaching the Phage Discovery Lab course for non-science majors, as well.<br/><br/>Intellectual Merit: With this number of students engaged each year, this project is obtaining strong measures of the effectiveness of the one-semester Phage Discovery lab as a research experience for a wide variety of beginning science and non-science majors. <br/><br/>Broader Impacts: The outcomes of this project, can increase the science education community's understanding of how best to increase the scientific literacy of all undergraduates. The project is also producing teaching and learning materials adaptable by other institutions.<br/><br/>This project is being jointly funded by the Directorate for Biological Sciences and the Directorate for Education and Human Resources, Division of Undergraduate Education as part of their efforts toward support of Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education.
