Inclusive and longitudinal educational research tools for promoting engaged student learning: Bridging the undergraduate experience with biodiversity and DNA barcoding

Background/Question/Methods

It is well established that providing undergraduate students with research experiences through all four years of their matriculation increases retention and improves student engagement and interest in STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics).  Georgia Gwinnett College has initiated a comprehensive 4-year undergraduate research experience for all majors in the School of Science & Technology.  Faculty have been charged to develop active-learning, course-embedded, project-based activities designed to maximize student engagement and develop critical thinking skills while conducting “real-world” investigations.  In Fall 2011 we initiated a comprehensive research program that bridges multiple sections of three biology classes in an effort to engage undergraduate students in a long-term analysis of biodiversity.  Our approach is inclusive:  lower- and upper-division undergraduates coordinate class research projects for a common goal, and the longitudinal research data collected is maintained and supplemented each semester and year in an online biodiversity database (DNA Barcoding Project).  The biodiversity research bridge we have initiated brings students from different classes and levels of instruction together with faculty in a research project aimed at chronicling the changing face of the local environment in biological terms.

Results/Conclusions

A description of the biodiversity project will be presented, in which the scientific and pedagogical details will be explained, along with the first year’s data for arthropod biodiversity and assessment data for student outcomes (attitudes; content knowledge; research skills) for Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 semesters.