Community colleges are increasingly the entry point for future STEM professionals. Almost half of all college students in Washington State attend community or technical colleges. While more students each year transfer from community colleges to four-year university STEM programs, most community colleges are unable to give students a "hands-on" undergraduate research experience. This puts students at a disadvantage when they transfer to universities.
Green River Community College (GRCC) and the University of Washington (UW) have responded by integrating "Inquiry Lab Modules" (ILMs) into upper-level community college science courses. ILMs focus on cutting-edge interdisciplinary fields such as organic photovoltaics and organic electronics. Students work in research teams to propose research questions, conduct experiments, analyze their results, and share their findings with peers. GRCC faculty members are implementing two ILMs in physics and plan to subsequently develop others in fields such as chemistry.
GRCC faculty members work with UW faculty and graduate students to ensure that ILMs provide authentic, transferable experiences that increase student retention in STEM fields - especially within underrepresented groups. Through visits to advanced research labs at the UW, students can build on research experiences that began in ILMs at GRCC. This will improve their success in transferring to STEM programs at UW or other universities. Students also acquire vital knowledge and skills for future STEM careers.
ILMs are relatively low-cost and are designed for easy adaptation to a variety of scientific fields. The Washington State Center of Excellence for Careers in Education is facilitating a dissemination workshop for non-GRCC community college faculty members to implement ILMs on their own campuses. ILM documentation is being made freely available on professional websites frequented by two-year college physics faculty and is being presented at national meetings of the American Association of Physics Teachers.
