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One institution's approach: how the University of Texas at Austin merges research and teaching through the Freshman Research Initiative (93.1)
Author(s) -
Simmons Sarah
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.28.1_supplement.93.1
Subject(s) - transformative learning , curriculum , diversity (politics) , undergraduate research , institution , work (physics) , sociology , higher education , engineering ethics , scale (ratio) , pedagogy , political science , mathematics education , medical education , psychology , engineering , medicine , social science , mechanical engineering , physics , quantum mechanics , anthropology , law
The integration of research with education both engages scientists and improves courses, and is critical to improving American competitiveness in science. However, comprehensive curriculum reform must overcome organizational barriers and extreme inertia. Therefore, high‐impact models for improving curriculum and pedagogy must: 1) work within current educational structures and efforts, and 2) be flexible and adaptive enough to be implemented within different disciplines. The Freshman Research Initiative (FRI) at UT‐Austin is a faculty‐initiated reinvention of our undergraduate research paradigm recruiting over 800 freshmen each year into an integrated 3‐semester research‐based course sequence that aligns our research and teaching missions, increases the number and diversity of students engaged in research and significantly impacts student success and engagement in science. The FRI model is scalable, exportable, discipline‐independent and includes all aspects of research. One of the goals of FRI is to extend the opportunities for research experiences to students who have traditionally not chosen or not had access to such experiences, and by providing transformative educational experiences at scale to a large, diverse student body, we are contributing to a diverse pipeline of future scientists. Our program, its goals, impact data and potential for future expansion will be presented.