(1637.pdf) INTEGRATING TEACHING, LEARNING AND RESEARCH IN AN UNDERGRADUATE BIOLOGY MINOR

摘要

Undergraduate research allows faculty mentors to collaborate with students in order to make anoriginal or creative contribution to a particular discipline. Traditional undergraduate research is oftendriven by a research question related to the mentor's research program or developed by the student.Students perform a background search on the subject, develop a hypothesis, collect experimentaldata, and then submit a manuscript for publication or an abstract describing a completed project.Advancing cognitive and intellectual growth of the students and increasing job satisfaction andprofessional development of the faculty mentors are some of the benefits of undergraduate research.Implementation of traditional undergraduate research programs at primarily teaching colleges presentsseveral challenges. These include the requirement to carry a full teaching load that limits the timedevoted to research for students' mentors, the lack of funds allocated to research, the limited grantwriting assistance, and the deficient laboratory technical assistance and facilities. In addition to thesechallenges, undergraduate research is difficult to assess or to integrate within an establishedcurriculum.