A writing‐intensive, methods‐based laboratory course for undergraduates

Colabroy, Keri L.

doi:10.1002/bmb.20496

Cited by 32 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Some authors have noted that teaching students to write effectively is a major cause for concern in education[1415] and that intentional instruction in critical analysis and writing of scientific literature should accompany the training in the designing and execution of original research. [16] Such training must be incorporated as part of university education in Cameroon if there is any need to encourage budding scientist to publish their research findings. When compared with theses written by students in medical schools, PG theses had a higher publication rate (0.21) than MD theses (0.15).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do students eventually get to publish their research findings? The case of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome research in Cameroon

Munung¹,

Vidal²,

Ouwe-Missi-Oukem-Boyer³

2014

Ann Med Health Sci Res

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Background:Scientific publication is commonly used to communicate research findings and in most academic/research settings, to evaluate the potential of a researcher and for recruitment and promotion. It has also been said that researchers have the duty to make public, the findings of their research. As a result, researchers are encouraged to share their research findings with the scientific world through peer review publications. In this study, we looked at the characteristics and publication rate of theses that documented studies on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome in Cameroon.Materials and Methods:To check if a thesis resulted in a publication, we searched: A database of publications on HIV in Cameroon, African Journals Online, PubMed and Google scholar. For each publication we recorded if the student was an author, the position of the student in the author listing, the journal and where the journal was indexed. We also looked at the impact factor of the journals.Results:One hundred and thirty theses/dissertations were included in the study, 74.6% (97/130) were written as part of a medical degree (MD), 23.8% (31/130) a postgraduate (PG) degree and 1.5% (2/130) for a Doctorate/PhD. On a whole, 13.9% (18/130) of the theses resulted in at least one publication in a scientific journal with a total of 22 journal articles, giving a mean publication rate of 0.17 article/thesis, 86.4% (11/22) were indexed on PubMed, 9.1% (2/22) on African Journals Online and 4.6% (1/22) on Google scholar. One PG thesis led to two book chapters. The student was the first author in 22.7% (5/22) of the articles and not an author in 9.1% (2/22) of the articles. Student supervisor was an author in all the articles.Conclusion:This study reveals that most students in Cameroon failed to transform their theses/dissertations to scientific publications. This indicates an urgent need to sensitize students on the importance of presenting their research findings in scientific meetings and peer reviewed journals. There is also a great necessity to build capacity in scientific writing among university students in Cameroon.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do students eventually get to publish their research findings? The case of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome research in Cameroon

Munung¹,

Vidal²,

Ouwe-Missi-Oukem-Boyer³

2014

Ann Med Health Sci Res

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“…In order to better achieve our desired student outcomes, we altered the curriculum so that students developed the needed skills, and we intertwined them logically to better reflect how scientific research occurs. The introductory series of labs was transformed into a combination of skills workshops and several multiweek research modules in each course, a successful trend in inquiry experiences (Colabroy 2011;Gliddon and Rosengren 2012). Skills workshops introduce methodology or concepts (microscopy, spectroscopy, information literacy, etc.…”

Section: Introducing Research Into Introductory Coursesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating Research Across Biology to Strengthen Senior Capstone Research

Resendes¹,

Balczon²,

Corrette-Bennett³

et al. 2016

CUR Quarterly

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Westminster College is a small liberal arts institution graduating about 35 biology and molecular biology majors annually. Ten years ago our department began requiring all seniors to complete individual capstone research experiences. During the initial years of this new research intensive requirement, preliminary assessment of student research proposals revealed that most capstone students were unprepared for utilizing scientific literature in an effective manner; were inexperienced at reading, interpreting and applying information from the literature; had difficulty identifying their own questions within their areas of interest; and failed to see the relevance of their work in real-world situations. Their lack of preparation in these areas diminished their enthusiasm and motivation for the capstone experience, which resulted in an unwillingness to take ownership of their capstone projects, leading to unsatisfactory student performance. Therefore, in 2011 we revised our introductory and intermediate biology courses in order to better prepare our students for the goals and objectives of our capstone course as well to provide students with the skills needed for a broad range of careers in the biological sciences. This article highlights the revisions made throughout our curriculum so that students could: (1) gain more experience with scientific literature; (2) develop better questions and testable hypotheses based on current knowledge; (3) improve experimental design as well as understanding of how to collect, analyze, and interpret data; and (4) report findings and conclusions in a more effective and professional manner. Following implementation of our curricular revisions, qualitative and quantitative assessment indicated that a number of our goals and objectives are being achieved. Student understanding and application of the scientific process has shown noticeable improvement, which has ultimately led to improvements in the quality of our students' research experience.

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“…While many studies indicate that scientific literacy is a necessary part of the undergraduate curriculum, literacy and writing are proposed to be the most effectively mastered when embedded within the context of original research . Therefore, step‐wise incorporation of scientific writing into this module was used to facilitate the development of this skill in concert with the research, which is becoming growing trend in inquiry laboratories .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using HeLa cell stress response to introduce first year students to the scientific method, laboratory techniques, primary literature, and scientific writing

Resendes

2015

Biochem Molecular Bio Educ

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Incorporating scientific literacy into inquiry driven research is one of the most effective mechanisms for developing an undergraduate student's strength in writing. Additionally, discovery-based laboratories help develop students who approach science as critical thinkers. Thus, a three-week laboratory module for an introductory cell and molecular biology course that couples inquiry-based experimental design with extensive scientific writing was designed at Westminster College to expose first year students to these concepts early in their undergraduate career. In the module students used scientific literature to design and then implement an experiment on the effect of cellular stress on protein expression in HeLa cells. In parallel the students developed a research paper in the style of the undergraduate journal BIOS to report their results. HeLa cells were used to integrate the research experience with the Westminster College "Next Chapter" first year program, in which the students explored the historical relevance of HeLa cells from a sociological perspective through reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. In this report I detail the design, delivery, student learning outcomes, and assessment of this module, and while this exercise was designed for an introductory course at a small primarily undergraduate institution, suggestions for modifications at larger universities or for upper division courses are included. Finally, based on student outcomes suggestions are provided for improving the module to enhance the link between teaching students skills in experimental design and execution with developing student skills in information literacy and writing. V C 2015 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 43(2):110-120, 2015.

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A writing‐intensive, methods‐based laboratory course for undergraduates

Cited by 32 publications

References 18 publications

Do students eventually get to publish their research findings? The case of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome research in Cameroon

Do students eventually get to publish their research findings? The case of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome research in Cameroon

Integrating Research Across Biology to Strengthen Senior Capstone Research

Using HeLa cell stress response to introduce first year students to the scientific method, laboratory techniques, primary literature, and scientific writing

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