The Development and Delivery of a Multidisciplinary Research Course for First-Year International Science Students

Abstract

Students who engage in undergraduate research experiences acquire many benefits, including an understanding of how scientific knowledge is constructed, recognition that knowledge can be complex and uncertain, and the habit of viewing knowledge critically. This paper describes a first-year two-course sequence that provides multidisciplinary opportunities for international science students to engage in the research process and present at a student-led research conference. We describe course goals and structure, and discuss whether the goals were attained using instructor reflections, student performance, and student survey data. We also evaluate the impact of changes to the curriculum between Year 1 and Year 2. In both years, we found that students engaged meaningfully with the research process and began to understand how scientific knowledge is created. We also found that a modular model with front-end support worked better for instructors as compared to a continuous individualized project mentorship model. This modular approach involved structured pre- and post-class assignments within discipline-specific themes containing examples of the research process embedded into the discipline. These discipline-specific modules were followed by modules covering broader research process themes. We encourage instructors who are thinking of delivering a similar research-based course for first-year students to provide support via example research questions and other example templates for student submissions.

Keywords

• first-year science research-based course
• first-year student-led conference
• sophisticated epistemology
• curriculum development and evaluation