UR in Curriculum: DNA Barcoding Research Tool can be Scaled from Traditional to Course‐based Research Project with Ease

Abstract

Most of our students at Queensborough Community College, CUNY are first generation, non‐traditional students with a vast majority working full‐time or part‐time to meet family obligations and sustain themselves outside the classroom. As an educator, one has to constantly be mindful of this reality. While a few of our students can follow a traditional one‐on‐one research model, majority cannot. Therefore, the option to bring research to them in their classrooms was considered as part of the CUR (Council on Undergraduate Research) initiative. This pedagogy was reluctantly implemented in honors courses in the Biotechnology degree program.UR (undergraduate research) has since been institutionalized and used cross curriculum in multiple disciplines. A formal approach has been implemented for faculty development. Authentic research experiences are embedded in the curriculum. I partnered with Cold Spring Harbor DNA Barcoding Lab that runs an Urban Barcoding project. This was originally done to help local high school students with authentic research experience. Later, I requested the Urban Barcoding Project team to allow my Queens borough students to participate in the project. I incorporated a DNA Barcoding experiment in my Genetics course as an honors component. Biotechnology students served as mentors to Genetics students while being closely supervised. This served as a capstone experience for sophomores at a community college. A detailed curriculum and assessment strategy was developed for the DNA Barcoding to be incorporated in the curriculum. The Queens borough honors committee then approved this project and its timeline. Students developed a hypothesis driven project while working in teams of three. They met during free club hours all semester long to complete their lab work and analyze their results. This experience also became part of their resume and helped them tremendously as they applied for senior colleges or competitive summer research programs after graduation. After seeing the significant success of this project, my belief that students learn more when they get to do hands on science was reaffirmed. Students not only retained skills that are transferrable but also gainedvconfidence in their skills and work as a team toward completion of their project.This experience also made me realize that the DNA Barcoding project can be scaled from two to twenty students with great ease! I have offered DNA Barcoding project in three settings: Traditional mentor mentee experience; Course‐based authentic research experience and Peer‐Led authentic research experience. Pros and cons for all three will be discussed.Support or Funding InformationNIH‐BioPREP QCC ‐ Stony Brook CollaborationThis abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.