Table 2 Escalating Series of BUILD Group Research Experiences
From: Think 500, not 50! A scalable approach to student success in STEM
Item | Description |
|---|---|
Level 1: Establishing a strong foundation of basic skills and academic enrichment | |
BUILD a Bridge to Success - trainees learn from analyzing and interpreting a published large data set. | A group research experience, where students formulate their own research questions on a large metagenomics data set and analyze and interpret the data (Microbiome Project). Students present findings in an oral presentation presented to all BTP Trainees. Students also engage in a journal club to read, interpret, and understand a journal article. |
Level 2: Foundational skills needed for a research career, especially in regards to data, its collection and interpretation | |
Bioanalytical Instrument Training - trainees are trained in instrumental methods of analysis, interact with research mentors, and develop projects that supplement numerous funded research projects | Through affinity research group-like projects, students will learn to select the proper tools, collect measurements, and reduce them to statistically meaningful results. This experience is an extension of the Quantitative Reasoning Laboratory; in contrast, it uses projects garnered from faculty laboratories that require the development and/or application of bioanalytical methods and instrumentation. |
Level 3: Confidence in performing independent research | |
PHAGES - trainees experience authentic discovery – a natural driver of learning | The well-documented HHMI-Science Education Alliance (SEA) Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science (PHAGES) is used as an applied research experience. According to the HHMI-SEA literature, PHAGES offers students: • ownership of a project • an opportunity to present, publish, and contribute to the scientific community • regular milestones to measure progress • authentic scientific discovery |
Level 4: Capstone implementation of skills and competencies | |
BUILD Group Research (BGR) - trainees, in groups, will work with assigned faculty mentors on funded research projects | Student groups with similar interests work with an approved mentor on a project associated with the research of that faculty mentor. The work is intended to be presented at local/national meetings and published. In lieu of the BGR, students may substitute an extended independent research project in an approved faculty mentor laboratory. |