Expanding a research-infused botanical curriculum from a public liberal arts university to a regional sustainability consortium

Background/Question/Methods

In 2009, with funding from a National Science Foundation Course Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement grant, we made inquiry-based research experiences central to our university’s botany curriculum.  Undergraduate research students collaborated with instructors supervising, and students enrolled in, inquiry-driven course-based research projects related to their own research topics.  During the semester, these research students led classroom student teams in data collection.  We hypothesized that participating 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.  We also expected that undergraduate research students would demonstrate improved attitudes towards their research and towards teaching.  Classroom and research students took pre- and post-course surveys to test attitudinal shifts, and classroom students’ written work was assessed with rubrics to determine skill gains.

Results/Conclusions

More than 300 classroom students have now participated in our research-rich curriculum, with 12 research students serving as mentors.  Student scores on journal-style papers rose after use of our curricular modules (P = 0.001), and sophomores improved their abilities to state hypotheses (P = 0.001), identify types of variables (P = 0.001), and choose appropriate statistical analyses (P = 0.017).   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, and recognizing the importance of plant science (P < 0.05 for all).  Research students also showed positive shifts in attitudes towards teaching and their own research. 

In late 2012, we created a coordinated undergraduate research network to investigate Southern Appalachian ecosystems’ resilience to environmental change.  This research focus will serve as a platform for imparting botanical knowledge while advancing quantitative literacy, improving student attitudes towards STEM and NOS (Nature of Science), teaching creative STEM thinking, and encouraging higher-order cognitive processes.  Our regional educational consortium will identify and mitigate barriers to successful implementation of research-based curricular changes, and has already created strategies to address faculty time and training.  The place-based curricular modules that we are creating will be partially developed and administered by undergraduate and graduate research students (3 graduate T.A.s per year) and will have a direct impact on the learning of over 1000 undergraduates per year, including B.S.Ed. students.  Consortium members will begin implementing curricular modules, and testing their effects, in Fall 2013.