Engaging undergraduate students in authentic research in the classroom can enhance development of scientific thinking. However, in a teaching laboratory with 20 or more students, a limiting factor in student success with open-ended research problems is instructor availability for real time, individualized scaffolding (guiding students to higher-level thinking and complex problem solving related to the student's research problem). This project is testing the hypothesis that by moderately scaffolding the student research process a carefully designed web interface tool, the "Exploring Genomics in Context Interface" (EGCI), can support classroom instruction and facilitate authentic research in genomics with only a modicum of faculty input. The EGCI provides an iterative way for students to choose strategies for asking and addressing biologically interesting questions using a range of genomics tools. It is designed to help students develop the ability to: 1) define biologically interesting questions that can be addressed with data, 2) relate a gene to biological function, 3) analyze data including the aspect of quality, 4) develop a literature-based understanding of important quantitative approaches, and 5) test thoroughly a viable hypothesis by bringing together the literature, classroom knowledge, and analysis of data. The project's specific research objectives are to: 1. determine how undergraduate students' scientific thinking skills are enhanced by an authentic research experience in the context of a course; 2. analyze the role of scaffolding in supporting student research success; and 3. identify generalizable components for computer-based scaffolding of open-ended research. These are being explored using a mixed-methods research approach to collect data that characterizes: 1) the skill level of individual students prior to the course, developed through the course prior to the specific assignment, and following the assignment, 2) student behavior during the assignment (including structured observations; student reflections; and analysis of EGCI webmetrics), and 3) the scaffolding accomplished by the faculty member (including structured observations and reflection by the faculty members).
Intellectual Merit: Genomics education is an ideal platform on which to initiate this work because genomics, an important frontier in modern science, provides the opportunity for students to work with large datasets; and allows scaffolding of biological questions at multiple levels of organization. Chamaecrista (partridge pea) and Aiptasia (model for symbiotic corals), the organisms selected for this initial work, are ideal test subjects because they are threatened by global climate change and evolution, are scientifically important, and, most important for an undergraduate project, have readily available gene sequences and appropriate supporting analysis tools.
Broader Impacts: Identifying general elements of scaffolding software that support authentic student research at scale increases opportunities for undergraduates at many institutions to develop higher order, scientific thinking skills, meeting a national need. All curricular material, assessment tools, and editable forms of the EGCI are being made freely available for adoption on the Teaching Genomics website. The work is being conducted at two different institutions - one that integrates genomics throughout the curriculum (Carleton) and one with distinct genomics and bioinformatics courses (Vassar), thus broadening the applicability of the efforts to other institutions.
