BENEFITS OF SMALL GROUP, AUTHENTIC RESEARCH PROJECTS IN TRADITIONAL COURSES ACROSS THE GEOLOGY CURRICULUM

The literature has promoted authentic undergraduate research as a teaching tool in the STEM disciplines. Student-identified gains cited include increases in interest in STEM disciplines, confidence, and skills in doing science. Most of the student-cited gains in the literature relate to individual student projects, commonly during the summer, in which a student is engaged in a one-on-one apprenticeship with a faculty mentor. However, the literature is relatively sparse on how undergraduate students benefit from partial-semester, authentic research experiences in their traditional coursework. Our initial NSF sponsored work seeks to document perceived gains of students who take part in small group, authentic research projects as part of course. Further, we hope to develop a model for how partial-semester, authentic undergraduate research can be implemented in a sustainable manner given faculty workloads and institutional support.

During the fall of 2011, geomorphology students developed research questions related to the hydraulic geometry of streams in an on-campus, hydrologic research station. Five student groups addressed their research questions with authentic data. The groups, worked independently but regularly shared data with the class over the six weeks of (interrupted) time on the project. Students were queried about the benefits of research by responding to a modified version of URSSA (Undergraduate Research Self Assessment) and in small group discussions. URSSA results indicated that students perceived benefits more highly in areas related to “thinking and working like a scientist” and “research work” than areas related to science skills (writing, presentations, etc.). Further, gains related to student interest in geology graduate school were low to moderate following the research experience. Focus group and small group analysis of the class indicated that students appreciated the hands-on nature of the field work and mostly benefited from group dynamics (ex. group problem solving, peer interactions). Students appreciated the open-ended nature of the work, but found the lack of structure and the short time period of the project challenging. Feedback from this class is being used to improve the structure of future group experience and course project research design.