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.
14.00 Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE The Competency-based Research Laboratory Curriculum (CRLC) is an interdepartmental program implemented in 2010 at the University of California-Los Angeles with support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (Award No. 52006944) and the National Science Foundation (Award No. 1022918). Enrollment targets third year students, including juniors who entered UCLA as freshmen and transfer students. Research Immersion Labs provide students a hands-on, discovery-based laboratory experience in team projects. Scientific Analysis & Communication seminar courses emphasize rigorous investigations of the scientific literature and presentation of research findings. Throughout, bioinformatics and other computational work are integrated into the curriculum to give students the quantitative skills required of modern biology research scientists. Notably, the CRLC directly impacts all students in the two majors in which it is offered, with the goal of expanding to all Life Sciences majors at UCLA. Since its implementation three years ago, almost 800 students have participated in the CRLC, making research a core element of their Life Science major at UCLA. Assessments indicate CRLC students are realizing learning gains in all areas related to core competencies described in the Scientific Foundations for Future Physicians (AAMC-HHMI 2009) and Vision & Change (AAAS 2011) reports. CRLC faculty continue to make scholarly contributions to the STEM education community, including DBER (discipline-based education research; NRC 2012), having published four basic laboratory protocols (Lee et al. 2012, Lorenz et al. 2012, Sanders 2012a, 2012b) and a description of a peer-assisted learning strategy used in a CRLC bioinformatics courses (Shapiro et al. 2013). By combining institutional resources with grant funds, UCLA has augmented teaching facilities, allowing students to fully participate in research and resulting in 16 Genbank submissions of complete bacteriophage genomes with more than 100 students as authors. In addition to sharing award winning research discoveries at a campus-wide science poster symposium, CRLC student accomplishments have led to co-authorships on 15 published research articles, with an entire CRLC course acknowledged as a co-author with other phage hunting programs on an ASM Genome Announcements paper accepted for publication this year (Hatfull et al., accepted). These combined successes have positioned the CRLC to become a sustainable model by which large public research universities can remove barriers to interdisciplinary teaching and engage large numbers of undergraduates in authentic research. Full descriptions of CRLC courses and research projects are available on the program website (www.crlc.ucla.edu). Information about other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education programs at UCLA, currently funded by government and private agencies, can be found at www.stemprograms.ucla.edu. References: AAAS (2011) Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education – A Call to Action. American Association for the Advancement of Science, Conference Report. www.visionandchange.org AAMC-HHMI (2009) Scientific Foundations for Future Physicians – Report of the AAMC-HHMI Committee. www.hhmi.org/grants/sffp.html Graham F. Hatfull, Science Education Alliance Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science (SEA-PHAGES) program, KwaZulu-Natal Research Institute for Tuberculosis and HIV (K-RITH) Mycobacterial Genetics Course, University of California Los Angeles Research Immersion Laboratory in Virology, Phage Hunters Integrating Research and Education (PHIRE) program. The Complete Genome Sequences of 63 Mycobacteriophages. [accepted for publication in Genome Announcements]. Lee PY, Costumbrado J, Hsu CY, Kim YH (2012) Agarose Gel Electrophoresis for the Separation of DNA Fragments. J. Vis. Exp. 62: e3923. Lorenz TC (2012) Polymerase Chain Reaction: Basic Protocol Plus Troubleshooting and Optimization Strategies. J. Vis. Exp. 63: e3998. NRC (2012) Discipline-Based Education Research: Understanding and Improving Learning in Undergraduate Science and Engineering, Washington, DC: National Academies Press. Sanders ER (2012a) Aseptic Laboratory Techniques: Volume Transfers with Serological Pipettes and Micropipettors. J. Vis. Exp. 63: e2754. Sanders ER (2012b) Aseptic Laboratory Techniques: Plating Methods. J. Vis. Exp. 63: e3064. Shapiro C, Ayon C, Moberg-Parker J, Levis-Fitzgerald M, and Sanders ER (2013) Strategies for Using Peer-Assisted Learning Effectively in an Undergraduate Bioinformatics Course. Biochem. Mol. Biol. Educ. 41(1): 24-33.
