Designing Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) Labs with Citizen Science and Service-learning

 

Tested Studies in Laboratory Teaching, 2018, Volume 39

Chrissy C. Spencer & Colin D. Harrison

Abstract

Education research finds support for the value of authentic research experiences to students' educational gains in biology laboratory courses. Here we outline a methodology to incorporate authentic course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) into the lab using the community approaches of citizen science and service-learning. We provide a concrete example of a sophomore-level genetics service-learning lab course that uses biological samples provided by citizen scientists. We then frame steps to assist instructors to develop their own citizen science or service-learning lab curriculum. Depending upon the resources available at different institutions, these steps may vary but we hope they, in addition to examples from the detailed case study, provide a solid foundation for a potential community driven course-based undergraduate research experience.

Keywords:  service learning, citizen science, course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE), project-based laboratory learning, community partner

University of Wisconsin, Madison (2017)