Meeting Abstract
Traditional upper-level lab courses focus on concepts and techniques. Undergraduate research experience typically comes through individual student participation in faculty research labs. To improve student learning in lab courses and to increase student engagement in authentic scientific research, we are implementing a novel pedagogy called Application-Based Service Learning that incorporates several high impact educational practices, including novel research related to community problems in multiple contexts, disciplines and instititutions. Physiology students studied organismal responses to water quality, reporting gains in understanding and communication. Molecular biology students identified organisms from healthy and polluted waters, reporting increased motivation to work and improved technical skills. Geochemistry students studied the performance of water treatment systems, and reported that the public service component was an additional motivation to participate in the course. In the chemistry courses, students researched methods to detect pollution related to brownfield redevelopment, reporting high satisfaction with the courses and increased understanding of chemistry in their everyday lives. Through a discipline-independent research course, students studied feral cat microbiota, resulting in more students engaged in novel research and research-related activities. Together, results indicate that novel research in a variety of different classroom settings can substantially increase the number of students engaged in authentic research and can produce gains in student learning and attitudes.
