The primary goal of this project is to increase in-class research using data that have local/global relevance, utilize modern technologies and computational approaches, and integrate molecular and organismal biology. Data on the soil bacterial communities present in corn and soy (industrial and organic) agroecosystems are collected using next generation sequencing technology. These data are then used to develop full courses and modules for courses ranging from introductory/core courses (that also serve non-majors) to upper-level electives. In each course, while the hypotheses addressed and the tools used to address them differ in content, they are complementary to each other and illustrate the power of using an interdisciplinary approach to science. For example, students in one course examine community differences in species composition while in another they look at how the communities differ in terms of metabolic pathways. Knowledge surveys are used at the beginning and end of each course. Comparisons within and between courses evaluate changes in student perceptions and learning over the short and long-term. Each module also includes a summative assessment in the form of an analysis of students formal papers or presentations and an evaluation of the students' abilities to use the tools involved and to interpret the results they generate.
Intellectual merit: Students exposed to this project have a fresh appreciation of the complexity of the soil biome, especially as they pass through the midwestern landscape dominated by corn and soy. They gain first-hand knowledge of bacterial prevalence, diversity, and importance. They use real DNA sequences to identify organisms, to find out what biological processes are occurring in the soil, and throughout use computer programs to organize, query, and analyze the data. Faculty and students collaborate to write results for publication in peer-reviewed scientific journals. The data are helping to answer such questions as: How do different crops and different agricultural practices influence soil bacterial communities? Are some potentially harmful bacteria facilitated or are important nutrient pathways absent depending on the agroecosystem?
Broader Impacts: The team includes a broad array of faculty, institutions and students so the project acts as a test site for the strength of such breadth. The faculty team for this project includes evolutionary ecologists, molecular biologists, a biochemist, and a computer scientist spread across two institutions, only four miles apart, that have different missions and serve different populations of students. One institution is a residential liberal arts college (Earlham College) and the other a branch of a state university (Indiana University East). The students and faculty at both institutions interact in course preparation, research, and the sharing of results. These interactions expose students to a greater range of faculty and faculty to a greater range of students, as both institutions work together to transform their curricula. The project also increases the ways by which underrepresented groups can participate in research; IU East enrolls a high proportion (~40%) of first-generation college students and the McNair program at Earlham College promotes the involvement of underrepresented groups in research. In addition, most of the course materials are organized as modules that can easily be adopted without a major change in the structure of established courses. The data and modules developed are being made freely available and actively disseminated, via new and already established repositories for teaching resources, and also through presentations at research and teaching workshops and national meetings.
This project is being jointly funded by the Directorate for Biological Sciences, Division of Biological Infrastructure and the Directorate for Education and Human Resources, Division of Undergraduate Education as part of their efforts toward Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education.
