The goal of this administrative supplement is to prepare STEM students to engage in meaningful research during their undergraduate matriculation at Morehouse College. This will be accomplished by (1) developing Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) modules for the introductory biology and chemistry courses, (2) integrating a What is Research? workshop into the fall introductory biology and chemistry courses, (3) training faculty to effectively mentor undergraduate research students. The proposed activities will support the work currently being done in the two existing TWD programs at Morehouse College, the MARC U-STAR Leaders in Science (T34 GM096954) and RISE to Excellence (5 R25 GM070514), specifically by enhancing the STEM curriculum. Approximately 490 students will be impacted by this project, which represents 22% of the Morehouse student body and 76% of the STEM majors. The expectation is that these activities will result in a deeper pool of potential applicants for the undergraduate research training programs and better prepare our students to be more competitive for summer research experiences and graduate programs in the biomedical sciences. Many of the proposed activities were previously planned as pre-MARC activities. However, due to funding cuts, the pre-MARC activities were not implemented. Furthermore, the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in Morehouse College increasing its teaching load from three courses per semester to four courses per semester, leaving little room for unfunded research training.
This administrative supplement to the MARC U-STAR and RISE programs at Morehouse College seeks to increase the number of students who are engaged in meaningful research experiences. This will be accomplished through the development and implementation of Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) in the introductory Biology and Chemistry courses, the integration of the ?What is Research? workshop into the fall introductory course, and training faculty how to be effective research mentors. Students who engage in these activities will be more competitive for summer research programs and apply to training programs, such as MARC, RISE and McNair at a higher rate than those who do not. 1
