Undergraduate Project Research Articles

Problem Solving Skills based on IDEAL Model in Implementing Undergraduate Final Year Project

Problem solving skills is the formal framework for undergraduate program in science and technical knowledge. This work aims to define the problem skills of the final year project (FYP) students. Most educators believe that problem solving is among the most important and practical kinds of learning and thought. One of the approach of problem solving skills introduced by Brandsford in IDEAL Model. This model consists five stages of problem solving; identify problem as opportunities, define the problems, develop and understanding goals, explore possible strategies, anticipate potential effects before apply and look back and learn. This research objectives are to develop research instrument based on IDEAL Model and identifying problem solving skills among students in conducting FYP. There are 324 students involved in this research from eight faculties in Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia. The findings indicate that the reliability of the research instrument is sufficient to use and that the mean of identifying problem as opportunities in the IDEAL model showed higher score than other approaches. To sum up, problem-solving receives considerable attention in the undergraduate and helps students to improve their academic and problem-solving skills. Research on the development of problem-solving skills by students, the transfer of problem-solving skills to new contexts, and the effectiveness of particular pedagogical approaches to problem[1]solving teaching has provided a basis for academically accomplishments by students.

Establishing a Multi-Institutional Quality and Patient Safety Consortium: Collaboration Across Affiliates in a Community-Based Medical School.

The landscape of health care delivery and medical education is evolving. Institutions must continually reassess priorities, strategies, and partnerships to align the knowledge and skills of the health care workforce with the delivery of quality, socially accountable, collaborative health care that meets the needs of diverse populations in communities. This article describes the development, implementation, and early outcomes of the University of Missouri-Kansas City's Health Care Quality and Patient Safety Consortium. Inspired by an actual patient safety event, the consortium aimed to improve patient outcomes by establishing quality improvement and patient safety (QIPS) education and scholarship as foundational within its unique, horizontal-matrix academic health center, which comprises 6 affiliated hospitals and 4 university-based health sciences schools. The consortium established a governance structure with leaders who, collectively, represent the diverse members and stakeholders of the consortium. The members share a common agenda and mutual goals. The consortium measures success by applying published conceptual frameworks for evaluating the outcomes of educational programs on learners (Kirkpatrick) and patients (Bzowyckyj and colleagues). Consortium learner and patient outcomes span all levels of these frameworks. Undergraduate and graduate QIPS-based projects with meaningful health system or improved individual health outcomes signify a Level 4 outcome (the highest level) for learners and patients alike. Factors critical to success include a financial gift, leadership buy-in and support, a clear champion, shared goals and a united vision, a willingness to collaborate across health systems with varied strengths and priorities, and a stable communication platform. Aspirational goals of the consortium include increasing involvement across health professional schools, incorporating simulation into QIPS activities, and aligning the consortium's projects with broader community needs.

Incorporating BIM in the Final Semester Undergraduate Project of Construction Management — A Case Study in Fuzhou University

This pedagogical study presents building information modeling (BIM) education in the final semester construction management (CM) program. The case study conducted in Fuzhou University extends BIM education from a single BIM course in earlier undergraduate years to the senior year's final semester project, which was designed to enable BIM utilization in multiple construction tasks (e.g., 3D site planning). This study consists of two major parts. The first part starts with the newly designed course of the final semester project of CM students. Students' final semester project work is demonstrated depending on their selected deliverable type, which includes full BIM application group work, two partial BIM application types (i.e., construction planning/scheduling, and take-off estimate), and a research dissertation. The second part starts from the research hypothesis of whether the different deliverable type selected by students would affect their perceptions towards the final project and their professional career. Based on a follow-up questionnaire survey to the whole CM student sample aiming to test the hypotheses with statistical analyses (e.g., analysis of variance and the post-hoc analysis), it was indicated that all the four different deliverable types (i.e., subgroups) could lead to consistent perceptions of the final semester project towards their career development. However, subgroup differences were found. For example, students from the subgroup of full BIM application perceived that they had the highest level of hands-on skill enhancement throughout the project, possibly due to the fact that they linked BIM software tools to virtual reality (VR) hardware. Suggestions were provided to update the future BIM pedagogy in the final semester project, such as proper guide of CM students to opt their project deliverable type depending on their career interests, motivations in BIM utilization, and skill development needs. This current study provides insights in BIM education in terms that: 1) BIM education could be enhanced from a single course level to the senior year project in the CM program level; 2) different options offered in the final stage project within the CM curriculum might affect students' perceptions towards BIM or their career development; and 3) the experience learned from this case study could be shared in the global community of construction education to update the curriculum incorporating information and communication technologies (e.g., BIM and VR). Future educational work in BIM could continue adopting existing educational theories (e.g., Bloom's Taxonomy) by addressing the various levels of student learning, and viewing BIM in the bigger picture of digital construction.

Catalyzing learning with green chemistry undergraduate research

AbstractGreen chemistry and sustainability are important concepts to incorporate into the undergraduate chemistry curriculum. Through the development of innovative undergraduate chemistry research projects in these areas, retention of students in the physical sciences can be improved. This paper describes two projects in undergraduate catalysis research: hydrogenation of furfural and the esterification of biooil from pyrolyzed wood. Catalytic transfer hydrogenation (CTH) of furfural with Pd/C led to the production of furfuryl alcohol, furfuryl isopropyl ether, 2-methylfuran, and tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol. The metal chloride additives improved selectivity for furfuryl alcohol and furfuryl isopropyl ether. Catalytic conversion of pyrolyzed wood biooil in ethanol with a solid acid catalyst yielded ethyl esters, including ethyl acetate and ethyl propionate, as characterized by GC/MS These projects are described in the context of engaging undergraduate students in hands-on research for the purpose of improving retention and persistence, as well as preparing young scientists to enter graduate programs and the STEM workforce.

4172 Introduction to R Programming and GitHub: Developing Automated Analysis of Complete Blood Count Data as a Translational Science Undergraduate Project

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: Introduce students to programming and software development practices in the life sciences by analyzing standard clinical diagnostic bloodwork for differential immune responses. Including lectures and a semester project with the goal of enhancing undergraduate students’ education to prepare them for careers in translational science. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: The educational content was taught for the first time as a component of the newly developed course BTEC 330 “Software Applications in the Life Sciences” in UMBC’s Translational Life Science Technology (TLST) Bachelor’s degree program at the Universities at Shady Grove campus. Eleven students took the course. All were beginners with no programming background. Lectures provided background on the diagnostic components of the CBC, criteria for differential diagnosis in the clinical setting, and introduction to hematology and flow cytometry, forming underpinnings for interpretation of the CBC results. Weekly computer lab practical sessions provided training fundamentals of R programming language, the R-studio integrated development environment (IDE), and the GitHub.com open-source software development platform. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: The graded assignment consisted of a coding project in which students were each assigned an individual parameter from the CBC results. These include, for example, relative lymphocyte count or hemoglobin readouts. Students each created their own R-language script using R-studio, with functional code which: 1) Read in data from a file provided, 2) Performed statistical testing, 3) Read out statistical results as text, and charts as image files, 4) “Diagnosed” individuals in the dataset as being inside or outside the clinical normal range for that parameter. Each student also registered their own GitHub account and published their open-source code. Grading was performed on code functionality by downloading each student repository and running the code with the instructor as an outside developer using the resource. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: In this curriculum, students with no background in programming learned to code a basic R-language script and use GitHub to automate interpretation of CBC results. With advanced automation now becoming commonplace in translational science, such course content can provide introductory level of literacy in development of clinical informatics software.

The benefits of regional collection-based undergraduate projects: an example from Nottingham

Hands-on access to natural history museum collections is often limited for undergraduates. An ongoing collaboration between staff at the Nottingham Natural History Museum, Wollaton Hall, and staff and students at the School of Science and Technology, Nottingham Trent University, was established in 2013 to allow final year undergraduate students to undertake collections-based research projects. A successful pilot project conducted on dinosaur fossils in 2013-14 led to subsequent projects based on the geological collections. The projects provide mutual benefits to students, university staff, and museum curators and their collections. In particular, students benefit from hands-on practical learning engagement with collections, university staff benefit from using the collection as a teaching resource, and the museum collections benefit from increased usage and identification or reidentification of specimens. Overall, the only notable cost is the time commitment required to develop and facilitate projects, however, this investment is richly rewarded by numerous positive outcomes.

Application of a rolled cookie laboratory exercise as a method for students to gain undergraduate research experience in food science

AbstractHands‐on learning is a proven method of improving students’ critical thinking skills. Undergraduate research projects are encouraged to help students develop research and laboratory skills. If properly designed and implemented, research opportunities can be embedded in existing student coursework, which increases the number of students who can participate in these research opportunities. Objectives of this study were twofold: (a) to determine students’ perceptions of an undergraduate research laboratory exercise and (b) provide an innovative laboratory exercise for instructors to implement in their own classrooms. Rolled cookies were prepared by a food science class according to American Association of Cereal Chemists Method 10–50.05, using sucrose and alternative sweeteners and evaluated for physicochemical and organoleptic attributes. After completing the exercise, students evaluated cookie physical/organoleptic properties using a hedonic scale, were asked about personal demographics, and were surveyed about research/writing skills and food processing knowledge using a Likert scale. Approximately 50% of the class responded to the 2018 survey and nearly 85% responded to the 2019 survey. On average, 81.6% of students responded with “Strongly Agree” or “Somewhat Agree” to all survey questions, including data collection and analysis, critical thinking skills, experimental design, and replications. Students responded that detailed instructions provided by instructors were beneficial to their ability to understand experimental design, scientific communication, and the importance of using scientific resources.

Making:Archives – a case study of creative collaboration

ABSTRACT This paper reports on an undergraduate project, Making:Archives — Narrative Artefact, as an exemplar of collaborative good practice, expanding on its case study in the National Archives and History UK’s Guide to Collaboration for Archive and Higher Education. The paper examines the expected and unexpected impacts of the Making:Archives collaborative project for the stakeholders involved: the Institution, the Archive Service, its depositors, and in particular the students. Students have both struggled and excelled in the project, with the most engaged developing a range of creative and transferrable skills that have been repurposed in the creation of work beyond Making:Archives. The paper also reflects on the challenges faced, and numerous opportunities presented, during the co-creation, delivery and evaluation of the project, drawing extensive data gathered from student participants. The project is presented in the context of relevant literature from both the textile education, industry, and archive sectors.

Undergraduate immunology lab project including opportunities for experimental design, a poster presentation, and the opportunity to partially purify antibodies from hybridoma cells to utilize in a Western blot

Abstract Undergraduate students benefit from lab activities that more closely mirror research conditions. In this 7 week lab project, students maintain the hybridoma cell line MARC 2B7 (ATCC CRL-2509), and design a mini-research project to examine antibody production under a modified growth condition of their choice. Lab groups are responsible for making their own solutions, designing controls, and monitoring and maintaining the cell line over a two week period of time. Antibody levels are measured using a dot blot. For each phase, students are presented with a standard lab protocol accompanied by a list of suggestions and/or modifications so that the students are responsible for writing their own final protocol. For example, the dot blot protocol provided is based on chemiluminescent detection; however, the commercial secondary antibody is HRP conjugated so students are also provided the manufacturer’s information on the secondary antibody and the HRP substrate available in lab. This mirrors more real-world lab experiences, and requires students to think more deeply about the experimental design. Each lab group presents a poster on their mini-project to the class. Subsequently, lab groups use ammonium sulfate precipitation followed by a desalting column to concentrate and partially purify the antibodies from hybridoma supernatants that demonstrated positive results on the dot blots. This product is used as the primary antibody for a Western blot at the end of the experiment arc. In addition to providing a platform to discuss both monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies, and enabling students to practice experimental design, this project requires students to utilize their work from early in the semester in a productive final lab experience.

Investigating the Mechanism of Alkyne Hydrogenation through an Open-Ended, Inquiry-Based Undergraduate Research Project Exploring Heterogeneous Catalysis

The catalytic hydrogenation of alkenes and alkynes is an important part of the undergraduate chemistry curriculum and is a fundamental process in chemical industry. Inquiry-based laboratory activities are presented that investigate the hydrogenation of alkynes on a nanoparticle palladium surface to form alkenes, which go on to form alkanes. Alkyne hydrogenation using H2 and/or D2 proceeds via a vinyl–palladium intermediate to form a π-bonded alkene–Pd species that can desorb or remain on the palladium surface and undergo further hydrogenation via the Horiuti–Polanyi mechanism, associated with extensive deuterium–hydrogen exchange. Central to the experiments is an inexpensive, easy-to-build glass tube containing palladium nanoparticles on alumina beads that can be used indefinitely. A total of seven inquiry-based questions are discussed regarding hydrogenation of alkynes. A similar number of open questions are discussed for further investigations by interested persons. These activities are suitable as guided research projects for science majors. Each experiment is performed by groups of two or three students in about an hour including analysis by mass spectrometry. An additional hour is allowed for student analysis and discussion of the mass spectral results, writeup, and future planning followed by about 30 min with the mentor for group presentation and discussion of the results. Results often lead to additional questions, either for clarification or for new exploration and form the basis for inquiry-based learning and problem-solving.

Using Dermestid Beetles to Enhance Forensic Science Curriculum

KIERSTEN LOWDERMILK Dept of Natural Sciences, Forensic Science Program, Fairmont State University, Fairmont, WV 26554 and KRISTY HENSON Dept of Natural Sciences, Forensic Science Program, Fairmont State University, Fairmont, WV 26554 Using dermestid beetles to enhance a forensic science curriculum In order to conduct accurate, expedient skeletal analysis, scientists rely upon dermestid beetles (Dermestidae). These flesh-eating beetles speed up the decomposition processing leaving behind only skeletal remains and ligamental connections. Dermestid beetles are common in museums and scientific research. These beetles perfectly clean the bones minimizing biohazard waste and damage caused by flensing or carrion-eating animals. For this project, I assisted in the colony creation, maintenance, and the incorporation of a dermestid beetle colony in the Fairmont State Forensic Science Program. Courses that regularly utilize dermestid beetle work include forensic anthropology, forensic biology, and forensic taphonomy. Beetles also aid students and faculty in conducting taphonomic research. To prepare specimens for use in forensic science courses I thaw, flense, and place the specimen in the beetle tank. When bones are finished removed from the specimen from the tank and degreased in a warm water and ammonia bath. After degreasing, I prepare the skeletons for the needs of the specific forensic science course. Skeletal prep has included inflicting trauma, whitening and articulating skeletons for morphological comparisons, cleaning up taphonomic projects, and prepping skeletal material for various undergraduate research projects. Dermestid beetles have advanced laboratory and individual research activities in the forensic science program.

Minecraft as a Platform for Project-Based Learning in AI

Undergraduate courses that focus on open-ended, project-based learning teach students how to define concrete goals, transfer conceptual understanding of algorithms to code, and evaluate/analyze/present their solution. However, AI, along with machine learning, is getting increasingly varied in terms of both the approaches and applications, making it challenging to design project courses that span a sufficiently wide spectrum of AI. For these reasons, existing AI project courses are restricted to a narrow set of approaches (e.g. only reinforcement learning) or applications (e.g. only computer vision).In this paper, we propose to use Minecraft as the platform for teaching AI via project-based learning. Minecraft is an open-world sandbox game with elements of exploration, resource gathering, crafting, construction, and combat, and is supported by the Malmo library that provides a programmatic interface to the player observations and actions at various levels of granularity. In Minecraft, students can design projects to use approaches like search-based AI, reinforcement learning, supervised learning, and constraint satisfaction, on data types like text, audio, images, and tabular data. We describe our experience with an open-ended, undergraduate AI projects course using Minecraft that includes 82 different projects, covering themes that ranged from navigation, instruction following, object detection, combat, and music/image generation.

Rewriting a Woman’s Life (Online)

This article explores the pedagogical efficacy and learning outcomes of an archive-based undergraduate research project in which students digitally transcribed a nineteenth-century woman’s diary and then reflected on their transcription work.

Using ENCODE Project Data As Part Of A Course‐Based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE): Student Perspectives And Feedback

At Lake Forest College, molecular biology is taught as a third‐year upper‐level course. A central learning objective of this course is for students to independently formulate and test hypotheses by evaluating genome‐wide epigenetic data. In this course‐based undergraduate research project, students (1) select high confidence differentially methylated regions (DMRs) present in colorectal cancer samples (2) justify their selection based on literature review (3) predict the effect of DMR methylation on gene expression based on ENCODE project data, (4) predict if the DMR is methylated in HCT‐116 colorectal cancer cells, and (5) test if the DMR is methylated in HCT‐116s and demethylated following decitabine treatment. I will present anonymous survey data of students’ perceptions of the scientific method and their perceptions of themselves as researchers as they engage in research based on big data projects.Support or Funding InformationResearch equipment funded by the Sherman Fairchild Foundation Scientific Equipment Grant. Other funding provided by Lake Forest College Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Program.

Educação Matemática e Formação Inicial: uso de novas tecnologias em sala de aula

Este artigo é produto decorrente do projeto de ensino de graduação intitulado “O uso do Software SuperLogo no Desenvolvimento de Conceitos Geométricos” vinculado ao Programa de Consolidação das Licenciaturas (Prodocência). O projeto de ensino teve como principais objetivos: aumentar a qualidade das ações voltadas à formação de professores, bem como, explorar as formas de contribuições do programa SuperLogo para o ensino de geometria com prioridade para a formação inicial. O projeto contempla diretamente a formação e o aprendizado profissional dos futuros docentes. Baseado em reflexão sobre diversos autores que abordam a discussão sobre a formação continuada, assim como a utilização das novas tecnologias nesse processo, somado a análise de todo o material do Programa de Ensino aqui relatado, pudemos constatar resultados relevantes que serviram para dinamizar o curso de matemática do Campus do Pantanal (CPAN/UFMS), contribuindo para uma melhor formação acadêmica, científica e técnica dos futuros docentes.

Mobile Mapping and its Potential for Faculty Collaboration and Undergraduate Student Learning

Undergraduate research is a high impact practice for student learning, but the key is often to match projects with tools that build students’ skills as they learn about a topic. Digital tools now profligate to the point that they are almost overwhelming to the student and teacher alike. These tools, coupled with computing have forged an entirely new field: digital humanities. Our manuscript discusses how one easy to use, student friendly digital tool—ARCGIS’s mobile app, Collector—is used in collaborative undergraduate research. The tool’s usefulness stems from its potential to contribute to the relationship between the discourse on digital humanities with its actual practice in the classroom. The Collector App encourages undergraduate researchers to go beyond the confines of the classroom and into the field to conduct research with one of their favorite tools, their smartphone. The Collector App allows past-present-and future classes of students to intermingle in a digital space that is devoted to creating knowledge for public use. The easy-to-use digital tool facilitates undergraduates in the Humanities and other disciplines to become cognizant of the world immediately around them in a new way while also equipping them with a technical skill that may be applied in other courses as well as in future employment scenarios. In short, the Collector App serves as a place where applied research and the scholarship of discovery intersect. As such, the Collector App contributes to the expansion of the digital humanities into undergraduate education. We present as evidence several different collaborative digital undergraduate projects that span classes and semesters and all involve primary field research through Collector. The Collector-based research projects have encouraged students to build skills while contributing to knowledge in new ways.

Priming the Project Talent Pipeline: Examining Work Readiness in Undergraduate Project Management Degree Programs

Undergraduate education is emerging as a direct pathway into the previously deemed ‘accidental profession’ of project management. We introduce the concept of graduate work readiness and explore whether undergraduate project management degrees are imparting industry-required work-readiness attributes. Documentary analysis of 12 Australian bachelor’s degree programs identified that many (but not all) of the work-ready attributes taught are consistent with those sought by industry. The results revealed that graduates’ work-readiness profiles vary according to university employer reputation. The findings suggest the need for a more industry-consultative approach to the way universities prepare their graduates for the project-based workplace.

Water in your neighbourhood: a model for implementing a semester-long course-based undergraduate research project in introductory biology

ABSTRACT Undergraduate biology education has changed over the past decade, incorporating an iterative and evidence-based approach. Many educational assessments have confirmed the effectiveness of integrating authentic research and open-ended inquiry into introductory biology courses, demonstrating a significant positive impact on students’ learning and attitude towards STEM majors. Despite these findings, only a handful of Biology instructors in 2-year colleges adopt this approach, and when adopted, most activities constitute a small fraction of these courses. Finding a feasible, sustainable, semester-long, and cost-effective strategy to incorporate authentic research in the curriculum which promotes integrated understanding of science and addresses socio-scientific issues, is a big challenge for both instructors and administrators at 2-year colleges. Here we present a unique model incorporating a semester-long authentic research-based set of laboratories in introductory Biology through which students investigate the water quality in areas close to their communities. Our approach is fully aligned with all five core components of an effective Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience according to CUREnet. The laboratories were developed to be fully incorporated into the teaching curriculum. Each laboratory was designed to ensure students acquire the knowledge and skills set out in the course syllabus through a process of discovery designed to promote students’ engagement.

Investigation of Sea Urchin Sperm Motility: an Undergraduate Project

Cells that display self-motility are a very interesting case of active matter. In particular, sperm cells move in order to encounter and fertilize the egg. Individual and collective movements are crucial for fertilization, especially in species where this process is external, like in sea urchins. These organisms release sperm and eggs into sea water. Sperm cells propel themselves by rotating their flagella (1.5 cycles per second). In this work we experimentally study the collective and individual movement of sea urchin sperm (Echinometra vanbrunti).

A 5-year retrospective evaluation of undergraduate dental research projects in a Nigerian University: Graduates' perceptions of their learning experiences.

Undergraduate research projects have never been evaluated despite six decades of dental training in Nigeria. This study evaluated dental graduates' perceptions of the research project from 2013 to 2017. A cohort of 93 graduates from a Nigerian University was investigated through the use of self-administered questionnaires on a Google form platform. Analysis was done using descriptive and analytical statistics on SPSS version 16. Statistical significant level was set at P<.05. The cohort showed a very good understanding of research project objectives during their undergraduate training with more male and older students independently choosing their research topics (P>.05). Students' research topics were changed by supervisors in about one-quarter and one-tenth of the male and female students, respectively. About one-third of the students met set deadlines with no significant differences amongst gender and age groups (P>.05). However, only two-thirds of the students submitted their projects before the deadline due to other contending academic works. More males and older age group sought assistance from other academic staff for information on their projects. About one-half of the students reportedly acquired additional knowledge as a direct benefit from the project. Of all the variables associated with the research project, only the level of preparedness to undertake the project was highly statistically significant (P<.05) and this varied significantly amongst gender and age group (P<.05). The students demonstrated a good understanding of research project. The perceived level of preparedness to undertake the project was low but significantly higher in male and older age groups.