Nancy H. HenselThe New American Colleges and Universities

Kalyn Shea Owens & Ann MurkowskiNorth Seattle Community College

Tapping the Potential of All Students: Integrating Undergraduate Research into the Community College Curriculum

TRANSFORMING STEM EDUCATION Inquiry, Innovation, Inclusion, and Evidence

San Diego, CA October 31-November 2, 2013

National ConversationsUndergraduate Research at Community

CollegesQuestions:

• What is currently happening regarding undergraduate research at community colleges?

• In what kind of research activities would community colleges like to involve undergraduates?

• How could the Council on Undergraduate Research and the National Council of Instructional Administrators help community colleges realize their goals for students’ participation in undergraduate research?

What We LearnedCategories of Undergraduate Research at Community Colleges:• Incorporating research into the curriculum

• Utilizing research activities in place of “cookbook” laboratories or assignments

• Conducting applied research at community colleges

• Conducting basic research at community colleges

• Collaborating with four-year colleges

What We Did Next

• Twelve workshops

• 95 campuses

• 380 campus participants

• Greater gains in learning – science/math/logic, problem solving, literature/language/context mastery, and personal initiative and communication skills

• Increased connection to and retention within the major • Improved understanding of professional work within an

academic discipline• Stronger enrollment in graduate education• Increased employment in major-related fields• Greater participation in other intellectual opportunities on

campus• Overcoming traditional boundaries for women, students of

color, and first-generation students

Undergraduate Research as an Effective Pedagogical Tool

Benefiting Students• Analytical Skills• Understanding of Ethics• Time Management• Communication• Self-Confidence• Leadership• Writing Skills• Troubleshooting• Teamwork

Why Undergraduate Research

• Analytical Skills• Teamwork• Time Management• Leadership• Writing Skills• Troubleshooting• Understanding of Ethics• Communication• Self-Confidence

Guiding Question

How can we create opportunities for first and second year science students to develop the thinking dispositions necessary to be successful in a global economy that demands innovation, collaboration, flexibility and high level cognitive abilities?

Visible Thinking Project

Project Zero (Harvard Graduate School of Education): Goal: create communities of reflective,

independent learners; to enhance deep understanding within disciplines; and to promote critical and creative thinking

Thinking is valued, there is time for thinking, rich opportunities for thinking, thinking is regularly modeled, process and products of thinking are present at all times

A key premise of this student-centered approach is to seek ways to uncover and document learner's thinking so it can be recognized, reflected upon, and pushed further

David Perkins

Interdisciplinary Learning Project

The Mansilla Framwork includes three core dimensions:  Disciplinary Grounding: the degree students are grounded in carefully selected and adequately employed disciplinary insights Advancement through Integration: the degree to which the leaners’ insights are clearly integrated so as to advance understanding Critical Awareness: The degree to which the leaner exhibits a clear sense of purpose, reflectiveness, and self-critique(Adapted from Mansilla’s and Duraising’s article “Targeted Assessment

of Students Interdisciplinary Work: An Empirical Grounded Framework Proposed”)

Veronica Boix Mansilla

Year-long interdisciplinary program for science majors

that coordinates General Chemistry & College Biology

Community-based program that creates a cohort of students and instructors

Undergraduate Research as

central part of program design

Model 1: Atoms to Ecosystems

Free-standing, research course for science majors

1 year commitment

Assignments throughout that are designed to build

skills

1 instructor, numerous mentors

Model 2 Undergraduate Research in the Sciences (UGR 294)

One quarter, interdisciplinary program for

non-majors/AA studentsthat coordinates Intro Chemistry& Biology

Community-based program

that creates a cohort of students and instructors

Research-based curriculum

as central part of course

Model 3 Earth, Sea, Sky: Science for a Sustainable Planet

Year-long interdisciplinary program for science majors

that coordinates General Chemistry & College Biology

Community-based program that creates a cohort of students and instructors

Undergraduate Research as

central part of program design

Model 1: Atoms to Ecosystems

1. Solid Grounding in the Disciplines

Chemistry Models of Chemical Bonding Structure & Shape of

Molecules Intermolecular forces

Biology Cell Membrane Structure Cell structure and function Protein structure and

function

2. Interdisciplinary Questions or Problems

Making learning interdisciplinary by creating opportunities for chemistry and biology students to think and problem solve in an interdisciplinary context

Essential Design Elements: Co-construction of understanding Representing to Learn Documentation and the link to

Metacognition Developing cognitive/thinking skills as

a foundation for research projects

3. Community

Connection to Faculty & Peers

Making contributions and feeling valued

Motivated Lasting relationship Confidence Increased Retention

Research-based activities and UGR embedded throughout program.

All students must be viewed as capable of engaging with research early in college experience

Project centered around one key piece of instrumentation and/or collaboration

Student generated questions on a scientific issue or question that engages students in a locally relevant environmental issue

Instructors are not the experts Second and third year students function as peer

mentors Course Credit: UGR 194 & 294

4. Embedded Undergraduate Research

Experiences

Investigating the Global Carbon Cycle in our Campus wetlands

Dome: IRGA Guided Research

experience Early Whole process

Research-based Example

Microplastics Microplastics: Investigating

microplastic load in freshwater runoff by sampling Lake Washington and surrounding watershed.

Manta Net

Undergraduate Research Example

Public & VisibleUniversity of Washington Undergraduate Research

Symposium2006 - 2013

Posters on the Hill, Washington D.C.

Spring 2007 & 2010

AAAS, Vancouver BC2012

National ACS Conference2011 & 2012

Making Learning Visible, NSCC2006-2013

Student Perceptions: Kat Perreira

How did the research project you completed in A2E change you as a learner and thinker?

Be prepared to expect unexpected results, trouble shoot, handle problems as they c0me up, think clearly about questions we have and how to solve them, endurance, perseverance when results did not come out as expected, creative thinker, creative question asker, how to utilize the tools, how to work in a team and delegate.

Completed A2E in 20093rd year student3 Research projectsUW (x3) and Posters on the Hill

2010

Student Perceptions: Kat Perreira

What was it like to enter other science classes after completing your first year of A2E?

 Wonderful, I was very well prepared for organic chemistry. Having seen the big picture of Bio and Chem together I could see how everything connects. I also found myself constantly wondering how scientists figure the things out that we were learning.

Confident, more so than other students, we were so far ahead, learned to work really well together, how to ask questions, how to work together as a group, helping each other, at the end we could help each other with life, because we knew each other and how each other thinks. It was okay that not everything had an answer and we knew how to tackle new material confidently

High Impact Practice

What skills are important for 1st and 2nd year science students?

How can we scaffold a research-based curriculum to set students up for success?

Are traditional UGR models the only way to go?

In groups of 4, take a few minutes to discuss the following:

What skills, attitudes or thinking dispositions can be taught through research-based curriculum in the first 2 years of introductory science courses?

Discussion

n

Borough of Manhattan Community College

Workshop, April 2013

Designing for Success – An Example from A2E

Designing Across the Program

Moving Towards an Intentional UGR Program Design for First 2

Years Identify research skills at multiple academic levels Articulate how UGR can help students achieve

course, program and institutional outcomes Create assignments that help to scaffold student

learning as a means to master research skills Seamlessly embed UGR and Research-based

assignments into traditional curriculum Combination of Research-based and UGR Expand: Design across entire science program

In groups of 4, take a few minutes to discuss the following:

What ideas do you have for embedding research-based curriculum into your science program? Is it essential that it be traditional Undergraduate Research, or can you imagine a research-based curriculum?

Discussion

Conclusion Embedded research-based curriculum as a model for

creating the thinking dispositions necessary to be successful in a global economy that demands innovation, collaboration, flexibility and high level cognitive abilities?

Intentional design as a means to maximize the effects of research as a high impact practice

Traditional models for undergraduate research are not the entire story when working with students in the first 2 years of a college experience.

Must view all students as capable!

Acknowledgements

National Science Foundation

Council on Undergraduate Research

Brent Cejda, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Sonya Remington, Bellevue Community College

One way to Define UGR…

Undergraduate research is an inquiry or investigation conducted

by an undergraduate in collaboration with a faculty mentor

that makes an original intellectual or creative contribution to the

discipline.(from http://www.cur.org/factsheet.html)

Research-Like Course

List of provisional features of Research-like course It has a lab or project where no one, including

the course instructor, knows the answer It has a lab or project in which students have

some input into the research process It has a project entirely of student design Students become responsible for part of the

project Students critique the work of other students

**Many other elements that make a course research-like

Undergraduate Research Example

Growth of the Green Microalga, Botryococcus braunii in a Vertical Photobioreactor What are the optimal conditions to grow

Botryococcus braunii to maximize lipid production in a model system that could be upscaled?

What is the relationship between light, CO2(g) nutrient modification on Botryococcus braunii?

What is the capability of this alga to be produced in larger scale photobioreactor system?

Fall Quarter Research Day/Brainstorm Library tour & Literature Review Guest Speakers/ off campus

seminars In-class seminars of journal

articles Poster Project that serves as

initial project Proposal and Background

Peer Review Activities Small scale research

experience/experimental design

Winter Quarter Research Question/Written

Proposal Guest Speakers Journal Club/Research

Updates Data Collection and Timelines Progress Report in the form

of a PPT presentation to campus community

Submit abstract to University of Washington Undergraduate Research Symposium (if appropriate)

Spring Quarter Data Collection Formal research updates to other

groups/instructors Data interpretation and

representation Guest speakers/off camps seminars Prepare scientific poster and

participate in campus-wide Making Learning Visible Symposium and/or other UGR Conference

Second Year Peer Mentors Leaders, Coordinators Grant writing Continued projects Travel/National

Conferences