A Combination Course and Lab-Based Approach To Teaching Research Skills to Undergraduates

Undergraduate research is an important capstone experience that provides students with the conceptual and technical aptitude for graduate or industrial research. However, this experience is often compressed into a single term in a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) or run by individual faculty members for select students on an ad hoc basis as an undergraduate research experience (URE). One alternative to these two possibilities is to use a team-taught course during students' third year to help them develop fundamental skills that they use to prepare and present a research proposal. This proposal serves as a vehicle for improving students' ability to assimilate information from the primary research literature and for them to practice evaluating the safety and research ethics aspects of projects. Students also use their proposals as research plans for their remaining year and a half of college. Data gathered indicate that this course was effective and that it could be a useful addition to other departments' curricula, particularly at teaching-focused institutions.