Curriculum DOI: https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.v22i1.2253C
CREARE: A Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience to Study the Responses of the Endangered Coral Acropora Cervicornis to a Changing Environment†
There is mounting evidence to support that students who participate in scientific research experiences are more likely to continue on to advanced degrees and careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). To introduce more students to the benefits of research, we have drawn on an ongoing project aimed at understanding how the Caribbean staghorn coral Acropora cervicornis responds to environmental fluctuations to develop a semester-long course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE), entitled CREARE (Coral Response to Environment Authentic Research Experience). The main mode of instruction in CREARE is through topic modules, and course evaluation is achieved through writing assignments. Students in CREARE perform experiments in the laboratory to measure the abundance of photo-protective proteins in coral tissue from samples collected at different depths and at different times of the year and analyze environmental data using the R programming language. CREARE participants have contributed to the progress of the research project by generating novel data and making improvements to experimental protocols. Furthermore, pre- and post-course assessment of content knowledge revealed that students perform significantly better on a written exam after participating in CREARE, while also displaying appreciable shifts in attitudes toward science in student perception surveys. In addition, through qualitative analysis of focus group interviews, we gathered evidence to suggest that mediating variables that predict students’ persistence in science are bolstered through our application of the CURE modality. Overall, CREARE can serve as a model for developing more research-based courses that successfully engage students in scientific research.
INTRODUCTION Undergraduate research experiences (UREs) have been prescribed by many as the means to improve student performance and increase the likelihood of a student pursuing advanced degrees and a career in STEM (1–3). The reported impacts attributed to UREs disproportionately benefit students from historically underrepresented groups in science, a segment of the population whose enrollment in STEM programs has been steadily increasing over the past decade
Address correspondence to Department of Biology, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, San Juan, Puerto Rico, USA 00925. Phone: 787-764-0000, ext. 88068. E-mail: juan.ramirez3@upr.edu. Received: 17 August 2020, Accepted: 20 February 2021, Published: 31 March 2021
but who also abandon STEM degrees at a higher rate than any other group (4, 5). Traditionally, the engagement of undergraduate students in research has been through oneon-one apprenticeships, which are limited in their offering due to a finite amount of research faculty. More recently, higher inclusion of students into research has been achieved through the integration of research into courses through the practice of course-based UREs, or CUREs. This modality provides opportunities to a larger number of students enrolled in a course who subsequently report many of the same benefits associated with research internships, such as increased self-efficacy, enhanced scientific identity, and career clarification (6–9). CUREs offer ample opportunities for learning and skill development, thereby fostering beliefs in students that they can do well and obtain a positive outcome for engaging in research and therefore continue a career in science (10–11). These benefits are partly explained by self-efficacy theory, which posits that an individual’s beliefs in their capabilities to execute a
Copyright © 2021 Ramírez-Lugo et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license.
Volume 22, Number 1
Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education
1
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Juan S. Ramírez-Lugo,a Carlos Toledo-Hernández,b Ivonne Vélez-González,c and Claudia P. Ruiz-Diazb,d a Department of Biology, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, San Juan, Puerto Rico, USA 00925 b Sociedad Ambiente Marino, San Juan, Puerto Rico, USA c Department of Graduate Studies, School of Education, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, San Juan, Puerto Rico, USA d Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, San Juan, Puerto Rico, USA