2022 Teaching & Assessment Symposium
The Serengeti CURE: an Authentic Research Experience in an Online Biology Laboratory
Location
University Center
Description
With the pandemic, there was an immediate need to create virtual laboratory courses for students in the introductory biology course. However, creating an online laboratory experience that meets all of the student learning objectives can be quite difficult, especially because the course we offer at UNC is much different than a traditional biology lab experience. In our course, students participate in a Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) and perform authentic research during the semester. However, the current CURE utilizes a live marine organism and therefore would not be feasible in the virtual environment. Therefore, I created an online CURE for BIO 110 students. The primary data source for the students to analyze was camera trap images from the Serengeti that were posted on a citizen science website. Students could use the images to create research questions and answer them based on the data in the images. I also located a variety of virtual lab exercises that would teach them some of the basic biological skills that they would need in the future. Thus, students were able to conduct authentic research in a virtual environment and therefore still meet most of the learning objectives of the course. While I was pleased with the course I was able to put together in such a short period of time, it needed improvement including a new database of images, more scaffolded assignments, and virtual lab exercises that were more effective. In addition, I wanted to assess how the online CURE impacted student’s attitudes toward research. At the end of this project, I have been able to make the needed change to the online CURE and it was successfully implemented in the fall 2021 semester. While data analysis is still ongoing, we have found that students attitudes toward research are the same in the online and the on-campus CURE, indicating that students view both research experiences as authentic and that the online CURE may be an effective mechanism to meet the laboratory course objectives.
The Serengeti CURE: an Authentic Research Experience in an Online Biology Laboratory
University Center
With the pandemic, there was an immediate need to create virtual laboratory courses for students in the introductory biology course. However, creating an online laboratory experience that meets all of the student learning objectives can be quite difficult, especially because the course we offer at UNC is much different than a traditional biology lab experience. In our course, students participate in a Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) and perform authentic research during the semester. However, the current CURE utilizes a live marine organism and therefore would not be feasible in the virtual environment. Therefore, I created an online CURE for BIO 110 students. The primary data source for the students to analyze was camera trap images from the Serengeti that were posted on a citizen science website. Students could use the images to create research questions and answer them based on the data in the images. I also located a variety of virtual lab exercises that would teach them some of the basic biological skills that they would need in the future. Thus, students were able to conduct authentic research in a virtual environment and therefore still meet most of the learning objectives of the course. While I was pleased with the course I was able to put together in such a short period of time, it needed improvement including a new database of images, more scaffolded assignments, and virtual lab exercises that were more effective. In addition, I wanted to assess how the online CURE impacted student’s attitudes toward research. At the end of this project, I have been able to make the needed change to the online CURE and it was successfully implemented in the fall 2021 semester. While data analysis is still ongoing, we have found that students attitudes toward research are the same in the online and the on-campus CURE, indicating that students view both research experiences as authentic and that the online CURE may be an effective mechanism to meet the laboratory course objectives.
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