COMPARISON OF BENEFITS AND APPROACHES OF COURSE-BASED UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH EXPERIENCES IN GENERAL EDUCATION AND UPPER-LEVEL MAJOR COURSES IN GEOSCIENCE

Course-based undergraduate research experiences, CUREs, are being used more to provide increased and equitable access to this high-impact practice. Quality CUREs have similar patterns of benefits to individually mentored research plus strengthen teamwork. National leadership calls for growth in CUREs to improve recruitment and retention in STEM disciplines, and to improve science literacy in general. At Western Carolina University, with NSF TUES support, we’ve developed a CURE model for all levels of the curriculum with a research focus linked to the on-campus, Western Carolina Hydrological Research Station (wchrs.wcu.edu).

In this study, we compared the approach and assessment results of CUREs in two general education courses to two upper-level majors courses (hydrogeology). All students completed a modified Undergraduate Research Student Self-Assessment (URSSA) survey. Research projects were authentic (Auchincloss et al. 2014), completed in student groups of 3 to 5, lasted 4 to 5 weeks, and related to course content/goals. Students completed all key aspects of research, including defining the research question, though the approach was scaled to the level. In hydrogeology, students had to develop a question to advance the understanding of groundwater-stream water interaction in a headwaters stream. In an introductory course, students had to develop a question they could test with a combination of 4 water quality parameters on a campus stream.

Course learning gains were similar over all course and experience levels as the response patterns on URSSA were highly correlated (r=>0.7), though students in the upper-level courses showed higher average gains. We interpret the latter to reflect a higher level of interest and research experience of majors. General education students, however, had higher gains in some general skills (ex. teamwork, time management, and explaining scientific concepts). Upper level students had greater gains related to professional socialization (ex. excitement for research, oral presentations, and scientific community). Another key outcome was that differences in student responses between classes can be related to what professors emphasized in class and put into the study design, indicating the power of the project design in student learning outcomes.