Lane College is a historically black college with a commitment to educating underserved minority students. Our overall goal for this project is to improve student retention in Biology and Chemistry through student-centered activities within our first and second year foundational courses. These approaches include both course-based undergraduate research experiences (CURE) and inquiry-based laboratory activities within the General Biology and General Chemistry laboratory courses. A key element for the success of the program is our peer-mentors, who serve as leaders for our General Biology and Chemistry courses. These students receive training in leadership, through a collaboration with the office of first year experience, as well as research techniques through mentored projects. Biology projects include isolation and characterization of antibiotic resistant bacteria from the soil and comparative genomics in collaboration with the Genomics Education Partnership (GEP). Chemistry projects include experiments aimed at teaching instrumentation such as Gas Chromatography, High Performance Liquid Chromatography, UV/Vis spectroscopy, and IR spectroscopy. We are implementing these CURE projects within our laboratory sections during the 2017/2018 academic year. In addition, we are assessing student learning outcomes related to understanding the scientific method using the Experimental Design Ability Test and the CURE learning survey developed by the GEP. We are currently developing assessment strategies and rubrics to evaluate student learning outcomes of the process of science, such as development and testing of hypotheses, recording observations within a laboratory notebook, and communication of results through oral presentations and written reports.

Implementation of a peer-led team learning and course-based undergraduate research in general biology and general chemistry

256th National Meeting (2018)

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