We have developed and implemented a research methods course for first-year chemistry and biochemistry undergraduate students. The one-credit hour, one-term course meets one hour per week and is the first in a two-part series designed to provide first-year students with a course-based research experience. The research methods course includes lessons in and/or experience with identifying and searching scholarly literature, maintaining orderly records in laboratory notebooks, preparing graphs, presenting posters, laboratory safety, research ethics, and the manuscript submission and review process. The heart of the course is the preparation of a miniature research proposal in which students are instructed to propose a hypothetical research project involving the quantitation and remediation of an assigned soil contaminant. The miniproposal is completed in several steps throughout the term. Each complete miniproposal is between two and three pages and includes an abstract, three specific aims, a background and significance section, and a research plan. At the start of the project, students gather a number of journal articles detailing the health effects of their contaminants, methods for quantitation of their contaminants, and remediation methods for their contaminants. All content in the miniproposal is supported using scholarly literature, and students are instructed to provide citations in the American Chemical Society-specified format. Upon completion of the research methods course, students enroll in the second course in the course-based research experience series. The latter course, a Research Coordination Network (RCN) laboratory experience, was designed and implemented in collaboration with two neighboring institutions. In the RCN course, each student develops an authentic research project involving phytoremediation of a soil contaminant and prepares a similar miniproposal for the project. A summary of the research methods course outline, the outcomes of the course, and assessment will be provided.

First-year, course-based chemistry research experience: Development and implementation of a research methods course for chemistry and biochemistry majors

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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