The value of research experience

A robust body of evidence supports the value of research experiences for improving retention and graduation of undergraduates in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) disciplines.  Unfortunately, most of the students who transfer into CBS do not participate in the rich research enterprise of the University.  In addition, of the non-science majors who take our introductory biology courses, almost none do research of any kind.  As a result, these students do not receive the benefits that come from asking questions, searching for answers, interpreting sometimes puzzling results, and discussing their work. 

Benefits to Students

The HHMI grant will help us close the loop on achieving an ambitious goal: to ensure that each student who graces our classrooms has an encounter with authentic research. Incoming freshmen participate in authentic research through the Foundations course sequence of Biol 2002, 2003 and 2004. 

The new Minnesota Mississippi Metagenomics Project (M3P) will generate research questions and resources that will be used in courses and experiential projects for transfer students and non-science majors. Over the four-year funding period of this grant, ~800 transfer students and ~12,000 non-science majors will participate in research. Transfer students who complete the research course will also be eligible for an M3P Undergraduate Research Internship. 

Benefits to Faculty

Achieving our curriculum goals will provide context for our postdoctoral fellows to learn how to apply the principles of scientific teaching and how to do educational research. 

Over the funding period, eight HHMI Teaching Fellows will select faculty mentors from the HHMI Faculty Fellows, who are chosen based on their interest in M3P or other curriculum projects.
 
Faculty and Teaching Fellows will work together at the Northstar Institute for Science Education, a local version of the Summer Institute for Biology Education. The Northstar Institute will provide the structure and support for participants to design educational materials, revise the materials based on assessments, and to write manuscripts describing the results of their educational research. 

Intensive collaborations among faculty and postdocs that are catalyzed by the Northstar Institute will lay the foundation for sustaining a culture of teaching innovation and scholarship throughout our college.
 
Postdoctoral fellows will gain experience for careers that include educational scholarship.

Leadership

	Robin Wright, Ph.D., Associate Dean for Faculty and Academic Affairs, is program director. Her role is to coordinate programs, schedule meetings with advisory board and steering committee and faculty leads, and organize the Northstar Institute.
	Robert Brooker, Ph.D., Professor of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development, serves as lead faculty member for the HHMI Teaching Fellow Program.
	Michael Sadowsky, Ph.D., Professor and Director of the BioTechnology Institutte, is faculty director of the Minnesota Mississippi Metagenome Project.
	Susan Wick, Ph.D., Professor of Plant Biology, is lead faculty member for incorporation of M3P research experiences into non-majors biology laboratories