Print PageUndergraduate biology curricula often lack thematic cohesion and a meaningful research component, which can dilute pedagogical aims. In addition, faculty research progress in comprehensive institutions can be limited by time required to train students in research labs. To address these problems we developed two (of four total) coursework pathways through our degree program, one largely organismal and the other largely molecular in focus. All students participate in the same introductory coursework, which emphasizes exercises based on faculty research programs in areas such as evolutionary ecology, plant-animal interactions, speciation, life history evolution, molecular genetics, cell biology, and bioinformatics. Some exercises have been developed around the ecological genomics model genus Mimulus, which is easily cultivated, widespread in our region, variable in interesting ecological traits, and the subject of a recent genome project. Other exercises have been structured around classical model species such as Arabidopsis thaliana, with its well-developed bioinformatic resources. Pathway-specific upper-division labs have been redesigned to include faculty-guided research projects, and these are often extensions of experiments introduced in lower-division courses.
Results/Conclusions
Since implementing the curriculum changes in 2007, student enrollment within these two pathways has increased four-fold in both options, and continues to climb steadily. Students completing either pathway were engaged in experiential learning with thematic cohesion, and report satisfaction with their learning experience. Students in the program are appropriately skilled, share intimate knowledge of faculty research, and are therefore uniquely qualified to contribute to faculty research, either as upper-division undergraduates or as M.S. students. Faculty have successfully increased recruitment into their research programs from this pool of trained and motivated students.
