Writing Assignments to Support the Learning Goals of a CURE

Abstract

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) are purported to support a range of learning objectives and outcomes for students. Pedagogical approaches are needed to promote these learning objectives as students engage in classroom research activities. The goal of this article is to describe a series of five writing assignments designed to contribute to the learning objectives of a CURE by introducing students to a wider variety of scientific practices, specifically analyzing data, constructing explanations, and communicating findings. Two writing assignments are data-based explanations requiring students to describe and reason about the results of laboratory experiments. Three writing assignments require students to respond within particular rhetorical contexts—a blog post, a scientific news article, and a grant preproposal. The assignments were implemented in a single semester during an introductory organic chemistry CURE focused on polymer chemistry. In this article, we describe the assignments, how they were implemented, and provide an overview of students’ responses. Additionally, we present results from specific questions on a student assessment of learning gains survey that indicate that students found the writing assignments to promote the specific learning goals of the CURE. While the described assignments were implemented in a CURE, we envision the possibility for future adaptation and application in other instructional laboratory settings to support students’ engagement with the aforementioned scientific practices.