Resources on Authentic Inquiry in Courses:

Resources from Workshop Participants

This link is to Jeffery Froyd et al. paper on faculty motivation (Acrobat (PDF) 232kB Nov3 14) Diane Rover suggested during the workshop report - out discussion.

Here is the link to the Team-based Learning Collaborative website.

The CURE Survey can be used to measure student experience related to research or research-like courses.

Resources on Undergraduate Research

Undergraduate Research
This high-quality resource from Pedagogy in Action provides information on the What, Why, and How of Undergraduate Research in general including a collection of teaching activities on a wide variety of topics and at various levels.

Undergraduate Research with Two-year College Students
This suite of webpages from Supporting and Advancing Geoscience Education in Two-year Colleges (SAGE 2YC) addresses the particular issues and concerns of implementing student research with students at or from two-year colleges. The site tackles issues of doing research at 2YCs, 2YC/4YC Collaborations, and Solutions to Common Challenges. It also includes a collection of geoscience teaching activities that involve inquiry as well as profiles written by faculty at 2YCs who do geoscience research with their students.

Undergraduate Research in Earth Science Courses: Engaging students in the first two years (On the Cutting Edge program) This workshop was held in July 2014 and was designed to explore the many ways that authentic research experiences can be embedded in introductory science courses. This followed the 2012 recommendations from the President's Council of Advisors on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics that advocated replacing standard laboratory courses with discovery-based research courses. The agenda includes examples of inquiry-based teaching, primarily from geoscience and environmental science disciplines.

Undergraduate Research as Teaching Practice (On the Cutting Edge program) This On the Cutting Edge module represents an aggregation of community knowledge, experience, and resources that can encourage and support undergraduate research across the geoscience curriculum. There is help for integrating Inquiry and Discovery-based Projects into Intro Classes and a set of case studies at the introductory level for conducting research with students. Cutting Edge is also hosting a workshop this fall aimed at incorporating research in the first two years, which will include activities and ideas.


LSAMP June 2014 meeting on research and research-like experiences in science courses was held at Grinnell College. The meeting recognized research experiences are essential to helping students develop an understanding of the scientific method and to engage them in critical thinking and problem solving skills. Involving students in research can: help students learn content and skills, promotes cognitive development, increases self-efficacy, and can increase STEM participation and retention. Participants discussed how research-like experiences could be implemented at their campuses.

Resources related to Craig Oglvie's talk: Engaging all undergraduate science students in course-based research projects.

Carbon Footprint Exercise (Cinzia Cervato, Adam Sanford, and Karly Wortmann, ISU)
This is a three-step assignment for students in introductory geoscience that asks them to calculate their carbon footprint during one specific week. The goal of the assignment is to increase student awareness of the various sources of energy consumption and of the impact that each one of them is having on the atmospheric carbon budget.

• Engage to Excel
• Freshman Research Initiative
• Assessment of Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences: A Meeting Report
• Authentic Research Experiences in Biology Labs
• The Center for Authentic Science Practices in Education
  

Resources related to Jim Swartz's talk: Drinking Water Analysis as an Example of a Research-like Project

Drinking Water Quality: An Interdisciplinary Research Experience of Introductory Geology and Chemistry Classes (Robert Shuster, UNO)
The goals of this project are to introduce the students to the scientific method, get them to actually "do" relevant science, and show how science affects their lives.

Groundwater Wells (Cinzia Cervato, ISU)
At the beginning of the semester, teams of 4 students identify a research project that uses these facilities. The students will collect data, analyze them, and draw conclusions over a 6-week period. Teams present their findings on posters in the lab and at a public event where a team of judges evaluate their work using a rubric.

• An inquiry-based drinking water analysis module called "What's in your water besides H2O?" is used in Chemistry 210 at Grinnell College. The syllabus provides an example for a local, case-based approach to including content, technical and skills-based learning in a inquiry-based approach. This module was designed by Luther Erickson and taught in 2014 by Leslie Lyons and Lee Sharpe Chem 210 Syllabus (Acrobat (PDF) 2.2MB Oct31 14)
  
   
• Drinking water is the focus of an interdisciplinary set of sequenced, interactive activities used in Geology 102 at Carleton College. Here the activity was part of an initiative called 'Hometown Project' that focused on local issues. This syllabus is from 2008, however the structure could be used to build activities on a variety of topics. Geology 120 drinking water syllabus (Acrobat (PDF) 634kB Oct31 14)
  

Resources related to Cailin Huyck Orr's talk: Using Data to Create Research-like Experiences

Teaching with Data, Simulations and Models With the addition of computers in many classrooms and laboratories, faculty have unprecedented opportunity to create innovative learning experiences by bringing real-world data sets and models and simulations into the classroom. This site provides resources to help faculty use these resources effectively and easily, and contains access to teaching materials and tips from the classroom and literature about the supporting pedagogy.

Teaching With Data (Nathan Grawe, Carleton College)This page summarizes strategies for teaching with data, some of the main arguments for teaching this way and considers activity and assessment design.

Teaching with Data Simulation (Danielle Dupuis and Joan Garfield, University of Minnesota) This resource was developed as part of the Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education. Teaching with data simulations means giving students opportunities to simulate data in order to answer a particular research question or solve a statistical problem.Simulations can involve physical materials (drawing items from a bag, tossing coins, sampling candies) or involve generating data on the computer (drawing samples from a population or generating data based on a probability model).

Teaching with Models (Bob MacKay, Clark College) This overview page considers different types of models, including conceptual and physical models in addition to numeric models, and how they can be used in the classroom.