Creating a research-infused botanical curriculum at a public liberal arts university

Background/Question/Methods

Under the auspices of a three year National Science Foundation Course Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement grant, we began to incorporate more inquiry-based research into our university’s botany curriculum. Undergraduate research students collaborated with instructors supervising, and students enrolled in, a course related to their research topics, with student researchers leading classroom student teams in data collection. We hypothesized that assisting in undergraduate research projects would improve classroom students’ appreciation of plant science, expose them to research culture, and help them develop better written communication and data analysis skills. In fall 2010, we implemented this model as part of an ongoing student-driven investigation testing the effectiveness of chemical, mechanical and combination treatments for removing invasive exotic plant species from campus forests. Sophomore-level botany students were given background information on the project, helped collect vegetation data that was incorporated into a larger dataset, developed hypotheses to test with the dataset, conducted statistical analyses, and wrote journal-style lab reports. Classroom students took pre- and post-tests to assess skill gains and attitudinal shifts.

Results/Conclusions

From an ecological perspective, we determined that all three methods reduced invasive herb cover after a single treatment; this reduction was significant in the mechanical (P = 0.021) and combination (P = 0.009) treatments but not the chemical treatment (P = 0.085). Invasive shrub density was reduced in all treatments, but none of these reductions were significant (P > 0.05). Recovery of native plant species varied among treatments and between forest types.  From a pedagogical perspective, overall scores on journal-style papers rose after use of our curricular module (P = 0.0001). Students also improved their abilities to state hypotheses (P = 0.0001), identify types of variables (P = 0.0001), and choose appropriate statistical analyses (P = 0.0173). Comparing pre- and post-test results demonstrated that students perceived significant gains in field experience, experimental design and analysis ability, writing experience, comfort with citing primary scientific literature papers appropriately, and recognizing the importance of plant science to their everyday lives (P < 0.05 for all). Currently, we are implementing similar curricular modules in additional university courses, and are also expanding this model of research-driven laboratory experiences with students at a local high school. Our future goals include evaluating progress towards improving attitudinal and learning outcomes in students that have completed a vertically integrated (from sophomore to senior) research-infused curriculum.