A Learning Community Involving Collaborative Course-Based Research Experiences for Foundational Chemistry Laboratories
1
Department of Chemistry, Benedictine University, Lisle, IL, 60532, USA
2
Department of Chemistry, Lewis University, Romeoville, IL, 60446, USA
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Educ. Sci. 2020, 10(4), 117; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci10040117
Received: 28 March 2020
/
Revised: 17 April 2020
/
Accepted: 20 April 2020
/
Published: 22 April 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Undergraduate Research as a High Impact Practice in Higher Education)
Numerous American national committees have recommended the replacement of traditional labs with a more engaging curriculum that inspires inquiry and enhances scientific skills (examples include the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST)’s Engage to Excel program and American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Vision and Change, among others), due to a large body of evidence that shows significant enhancements in student learning and affective outcomes. The implementation of Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) is a creative way to scale up the deployment of authentic research experiences to students. Another highly regarded high-impact practice in postsecondary education is the addition of learning communities. The integration of a three-course learning community and authentic research experiences to laboratory courses adds both a community of scholarship and a development of scientific communication and process skills. This study describes a course that blends these two high-impact practices in higher education in order to promote greater post-course gains in essential elements of a CURE curriculum. This collaborative course shows large post-course gains in essential elements, such as scientific communication and working collaboratively.
View Full-Text
Keywords:
CURE; learning community; course-based research experiences; retention; foundational chemistry laboratories; STEM laboratory
▼
Show Figures
Graphical abstract
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Rubush, D.M.; Stone, K.L. A Learning Community Involving Collaborative Course-Based Research Experiences for Foundational Chemistry Laboratories. Educ. Sci. 2020, 10, 117. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci10040117
AMA Style
Rubush DM, Stone KL. A Learning Community Involving Collaborative Course-Based Research Experiences for Foundational Chemistry Laboratories. Education Sciences. 2020; 10(4):117. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci10040117
Chicago/Turabian StyleRubush, David M., and Kari L. Stone. 2020. "A Learning Community Involving Collaborative Course-Based Research Experiences for Foundational Chemistry Laboratories" Education Sciences 10, no. 4: 117. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci10040117
Find Other Styles
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
