Hands-On, Hands-Off: The Community College Genomics (ComGen) Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience

Abstract

Science is a process of discovery where failure is inherent and iteration is necessary, yet instructors often teach the scientific process as if it is a controlled, highly supervised, confirmatory practice of following directions to get a known answer. We believe this mismatch occurs because instructors often struggle to feel comfortable in facilitating open-ended inquiry and giving students the trust and autonomy to experience an authentic scientific process. In this quarter-long lab curriculum, we bring the scientific process into the classroom in the form of an authentic course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE). We present a pedagogy, which is hands-on for students and hands-off for instructors, that incorporates and celebrates the learning that occurs from failing safely and often. The research project presented in this article is a genomics-based CURE where students sequence and analyze DNA genome segments. Throughout the lesson, we present core instructional structures and techniques that are transferable to any project and help scaffold and support the learning impact of the CURE. In the following curriculum, we outline this pedagogy, applied to a model CURE focused on sequencing a bacterium, and suggest ways that both the pedagogy and the core components of our CURE (<em>i.e.,</em> journal club, posters, lab notebook, and self-assessments) transfer to other courses, and other research projects. <em>Primary Image:</em> Gita Bangera guiding Bellevue College students through the ComGen research process in a cellular biology course.