The Genomics Education Partnership As A Model of Course‐Based Undergraduate Experience (CURE) that Promotes Growth Mindset

Abstract

The Genomics Education Partnership (GEP) is a community of practice aiming to integrate genomics research into undergraduate curriculum while providing support to faculty in the process. It consists of more than 200 members in over 180 undergraduate institutions across the United States. Following training, faculty can claim annotations from one or more distinct projects (F element, Pathways, Parasitoid Wasps, Puerto Rican parrot) to integrate in their classes. Students participating in these projects annotate previously unstudied genomes, which are then used in analyses to answer specific scientific questions by the project lead faculty. Each of these projects is facilitated by curated curricula and customized online Bioinformatics tools. This approach has several advantages, including enabling faculty to scale research experiences to whole classrooms (unlike the wet lab apprentice model), the lack of safety issues, and the ease of transition to online delivery. Importantly, mistakes in annotations are not costly, and students can revisit their annotations to correct them. This makes the research amenable to peer instruction. While students may initially experience some frustration, they can consult with their faculty, their peers, and/or virtual teaching assistants to amend their errors. Thus, the GEP model allows for learning gains through a growth mindset, where abilities are developed through the research process. Faculty report that struggles are beneficial to the students, and that they are more likely to allow students to fail in a GEP research project than in wet lab/field work. Student outcomes are routinely assessed by a pre/post quiz and survey. While positive outcomes are observed overall, our current research indicates that these can be enhanced by early interventions that reinforce the nature of science and the agency of individual student researchers. The GEP always looks to grow its network of faculty and increase the diversity of the community.