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Course‐embedded Undergraduate Research in an Animal Physiology Laboratory Course
Author(s) -
Liu Sumei
Publication year - 2017
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.31.1_supplement.576.33
Subject(s) - gut flora , broad spectrum , intestinal motility , medical education , test (biology) , physiology , medicine , psychology , motility , biology , chemistry , immunology , ecology , combinatorial chemistry , genetics
It is widely accepted that undergraduate research experience enhances scientific education. A well‐established approach to provide undergraduate research opportunities is to have students work in a faculty's laboratory. The large number of Biology Majors at most comprehensive universities makes this approach highly challenging. Course‐embedded undergraduate research experience (CURE) has been proven to be as beneficial to students as the traditional faculty‐mentored research. Different types of research projects have been used in CURE. This course differed in that students worked as co‐investigators with the faculty on a small subtask of a large research project. The overall aim of this particular large research project is to investigate the role of gut microbiota on gut motor functions in irritable bowel syndrome. One approach to study the impact of gut microbiota on health and diseases is to deplete the gut microbiota by using a broad‐spectrum antibiotic cocktail. The antibiotics may influence gut motility directly by activating receptors on the smooth muscle cells or indirectly via depletion of gut microbiota. The student experiment was designed to test the direct effects of the antibiotics on gut smooth muscles. During the first twelve weeks, students performed six pre‐designed experiments, among which one lab was to study gut smooth muscle motility. The last three weeks were reserved for independent research. Students were responsible for searching relevant primary literature, designing the experiments, determining the materials and equipment needed, performing the experiments, and analyzing the data. Students reported their findings in the format of an original research journal article. Pre‐ and post‐tests were administered to assess student learning gain of physiological concepts and research skills. A post‐course survey was conducted to assess student attitudes toward scientific research. The results suggested that although this CURE approach didn't significantly enhance student learning gain in physiological concepts, it helped to build student research skills . The post‐course survey results suggested that performing independent research increased students' understanding of research, increased their confidence in doing research, and made them proud of their contribution to faculty research. This co‐investigator approach could be easily adapted to a CURE in other biology courses. Support or Funding Information This work was supported by a grant from Center for Advanced Teaching and Learning, University of Wisconsin‐La Cross.