YES, 1ST AND 2ND YEAR STUDENTS CAN DO RESEARCH!

Undergraduate research has been shown to be a successful high impact practice that promotes student engagement. However, it is often reserved for upper-level major courses or individual-mentored research opportunities. Over the last 4 years, we have incorporated a research experience into several introductory earth science courses. These courses are taken by only 1^st and 2^nd year students, the majority of which are not science majors. Throughout the semester, lab activities are focused on how to make observations, cultivate hypotheses and testable predictions, develop methodologies, collect, analyze, and interpret data, and make evidence-based conclusions. Students build on these skills to ask an original research question. In some courses, students collect their own data in the field to answer their question. For example, students in an environmental science course collected water quality data upstream and downstream of a farm to determine the impact of farm practices. In other courses, students use large, publicly available datasets. For example, students in a meteorology course used EPA air quality data to analyze ozone and particulate matter concentrations before and during COVID-19.

The research projects are scaffolded into manageable steps to ensure student success. First, a project proposal is submitted that includes a research question, hypothesis, and testable prediction. Second, an annotated bibliography is completed, followed by a detailed methodology. Next, a project check-in is completed. The experience culminates in a conference style poster symposium where students present their findings. At the end of the semester students complete a reflection assignment to help them think about the skills they have developed or need to improve upon, and to make deeper meaning of their experience. These reflection assignments suggest that developing an independent research project results in the development of several important transferable skills, such as resiliency, time management, communication, and problem solving, as well as a greater understanding of how science is actually done in the real world. Additionally, students commented on being more confident in their abilities to do science and think scientifically. As one student said, “After finishing our poster, I felt like a real scientist!”