There is an urgent need to influence educational change to the common modalities by which science is taught. In 2012, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) made five key recommendations to address the shortfall of 1 million college graduates in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields over the next decade. These recommendations aim to increase the persistence of postsecondary students in STEM fields and motivate faculty to engage in evidence-based instructional practices. Two of the PCAST recommendations stand out: “(1) catalyze widespread adoption of empirically validated teaching practices and (2) advocate and provide support for replacing standard laboratory courses with discovery-based research courses.” These two recommendations could be met by replacing the widespread traditional approach to foundational laboratory courses with Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs). CUREs are a creative alternative to one-on-one research mentorships that scale up the research experience to reach a greater number of students, many of whom would not be able to otherwise participate in research. Increasing the adoption of CUREs in foundational chemistry laboratory courses exposes a larger, more diverse population of STEM students to research experiences. This has the potential to address the projected shortfall of students entering the workforce with STEM degrees by increasing the retention of STEM majors earlier in their educational careers as well as enhancing the diversity of the STEM workforce. We are establishing a community of practice comprised of faculty from PUI’s, community colleges, and high schools to provide a supportive framework that lowers barriers to CURE development and implementation in foundational chemistry laboratories. Research results of this project will be presented.

Building a community of practice to support the development and implementation of CUREs

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.