(Biological Sciences 61) Through this collaborative effort, students in student laboratories at a state college (California State University, Chico) and a neighboring community college (Butte College) are engaged in investigations using state-of-the-art techniques to identify the functions of unknown genes in a model organism, Arabidopsis thaliana. In a first tier effort, using software developed at CSU, Chico and implemented at both institutions, students create testable hypotheses on a gene's function as defined by its expression pattern (predicted from examination of micro array data in the public domain) and create fluorescent protein-gene-fusion-reporters. In a second tier effort students use their constructs to create transgenic organisms and test their original hypotheses using confocal imaging to observe and report on the sub-cellular protein dynamics for these genes. Students from Butte College who transfer to CSU, Chico continue the work on the constructs they created while at Butte, providing continuity from their community college to their four year experience. Students become: part of a community of young biologists with significant research experiences, intimately linked to their major, and deeply immersed in the discovery process.
Intellectual merit: The project tests updated curriculum design for its potential to improve student learning and to lead to greater retention of students in university science, technology, engineering, and mathematics programs. In addition to research on the educational value of this approach, the project advances basic research on protein function in Arabidopsis thaliana. Students ask and address such questions as: Where does a specific protein reside within a cell?; Within which organelle?; What movements does the protein display?; and How stable is the protein?
Broader impacts: The first tier laboratories at CSU, Chico and Butte College are engaging over 300 students per year in the initial genetic engineering exercise described above, construction of reporter genes. Second tier laboratories at CSU, Chico serve an additional 50 students per year and complete the genetic engineering with creation of transgenic organisms. If successful this pilot program will be expanded to include three additional Community Colleges in northeastern California (Shasta College, Feather River College, and Yuba College) whose students typically transfer to CSU, Chico. These institutions serve over 9 counties in northeastern California.
