Meeting Abstract
The 2012 report, “Engage to Excel,” from the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) urges the STEM education community and funding agencies to “Advocate and provide support for replacing standard laboratory courses with discovery-based research courses.” Emerging evidence suggests that engaging undergraduates in discovery research as early as possible during their undergraduate years is one of the best strategies for supporting and retaining STEM students and improving aspects of scientific literacy. But providing all students with individualized mentored research experiences, one of the traditional routes to a career in science, is not possible given the large numbers of beginning STEM students and limitations in lab space, supply budgets, and available research mentors. Acting on the PCAST recommendation, many undergraduate STEM educators are now experimenting with various strategies for engaging more students in research, and a variety of tested models are emerging. These successes are catalyzing interest in replacing standard “cook-book” laboratories with discovery-based research and related activities in labs associated with lecture courses or in stand-alone laboratory courses, utilizing on-campus, off-campus, and on-the-web resources. This presentation will report on a convocation around these issues that was organized by a committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. It will summarize successes and challenges that were discussed during the convocation and are presented in the report.
