The University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) has been selected as one of ten recipients of the National Science Foundation's Recognition Awards for the Integration of Research and Education. UCLA is using a systemic approach to integrating research and education in an urban university system with enormous and diverse student enrollments. UCLA has introduced discovery-based courses developed by an Office of Instructional Development. New computer-based interactive multimedia courseware are used in several departments for general education and lower division courses that reach large numbers of both science and non-science majors, and for upper division courses for science majors. The university facilitates one-on-one collaborative research between faculty and first- or second-year students from underrepresented groups as well as students from two-year colleges in the area. UCLA's efforts to integrate research and education were designed with specific outcomes in mind: increasing the numbers of undergraduate students participating in collaborative research with faculty; increasing retention and graduation rates for minority students engaged in research; increasing transfer and persistence rates of two-year college students engaged in research; and modernizing upper division lab courses in science departments. The university has documented noteworthy success in achieving these goals. The university is being awarded $500,000 with the goal of expanding, documenting, and disseminating its exemplary practices over the coming three years. Plans for use of the award funds include: creation of a Center for Student Research in Science, Engineering and Math as an administrative support system for ongoing initiatives; developing new methods of assessment and evaluation for discovery-based courses; conducting performance-based evaluation of students engaged in research-based learning; re-establishing the student research journal; and supporting dissemination of curriculum innovations by faculty members.
