CUREing Ocean Plastic Microbes: Positive Experience of Engaging Non‐traditional Undergraduate Students in a Hispanic‐Serving Institution

Abstract

Early participation in research experiences is considered a high‐impact educational practice shown to enhance student engagement in STEM. This, in turn, can result in increased enrollment and retention of majors, as well as increased appreciation of science by nonmajors. However, traditional research opportunities such as summer internships are difficult to expand and are often limited to students already invested in STEM. Course‐based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) broaden the impact of student exposure to research by making it a required part of a course.We report the result of the integration of a CURE addressing microbial colonization of plastic in coastal Pacific waters in both non‐majors and major’s biology courses during a one‐year period. This CURE, a collaboration between a large private non‐profit university serving nontraditional students and a world‐renowned research‐oriented institution, received NSF funding in 2018 (NSF‐HSI #1832545).The CURE incorporates an existing research project, which explores the nature of microbial populations colonizing different types of plastic using metagenomic sequencing and traditional microbiology techniques. Students participate in field and laboratory research, and interact with research scientists and graduate students. Course level assessment involve surveys and focus groups to evaluate student engagement. Institutional assessment is planned to monitor biology degree retention.As of November 2019, students from four non‐majors and 2 majors’ courses (one lower and one upper division) have participated in the CURE. Students were asked fifteen questions related to knowledge of different aspects of the course, laboratory skills, plastic research, and appreciation of scientific research results. The questions were framed in an after/before format which allowed for a two‐tailed t‐test (alpha = 0.05) in the one‐group posttest only design. Results showed statistically significantly differences in all questions indicating improvements across all assessed areas (n=49). Student open‐ended comments about the experience were overwhelmingly positive. Future plans include assessing BS Biology majors’ retention using a longitudinal cohort model, and expanding nonmajors’ participation in the CURE to promote enrollment in the major.Due to the modular nature of the CURE, its framework can easily be adopted and modified to other courses and curricula. We anticipate that this CURE could be a widely applicable model for biology and ocean science education and disseminated to institutions serving nontraditional adults.Support or Funding InformationThis work has been supported by NU internal grants, as well as the NSF HSI’s new to NSF award #1832545