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Abstract
Undergraduate students are increasingly aware of complex global challenges and have a strong desire to take action and create change. Course-based undergraduate research experiences can offer a wide range of students the opportunity to gain skills needed to address these challenges. At a small liberal arts college in New England, we developed the Integrated Sciences First-Year Program (ISFP) to engage our students and support them in developing these important skills in their first year while building a community of learners. We designedISFP-I (fall semester) for both science concentrators and nonconcentrators to conduct collaborative research in teams across three linked courses in hydrology, mathematical modeling, and microbiology. Students explored sustainable building practices using a new building on campus. We used pre-/postcourse surveys, student self-evaluations, and faculty evaluations of student work to assess student progress on the goals of learning inquiry and building community. During the three-year pilot program (2015-2018), we found students showed growth in science content and skills as well as changes in attitudes and understanding of the nature and process of science. Further, the collaborative nature of the courses helped socialize students on campus and cultivate an intellectual community within the sciences.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Christina Cianfrani
Christina Cianfrani ([email protected]) is associate professor of hydrology, School of Natural Science at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Sarah Hews
Sarah Hews is associate professor of mathematics, School of Natural Science at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts.