Increasing inquiry and collaboration: a faculty and undergraduate curricular intern partnership to redesign a cell biology laboratory course.

Abstract

Recent trends in undergraduate biology education include incorporating more inquiry/research-focused experiments into laboratory courses as a way to engage students and promote persistence in science. However, many faculty members face constraints in redesigning curricula, including a lack of time for course development. In addition, some undergraduate students find it difficult or intimidating to identify a first independent research position. We describe our experience working with student curricular interns to redesign a cell biology laboratory to be more inquiry-based. Students enrolled in the redesigned course felt that their course research experience was authentic and self-reported improvement in many fundamental scientific skills. Moreover, participating in the redesign project had positive effects on our curricular interns' experiences by exposing them to independent research, pedagogical design, and near-peer teaching. Thus, we believe that developing ways to introduce inquiry-based learning into curricula as a collaborative effort with undergraduate curricular interns has benefits for enrolled students, curricular interns, and faculty. We encourage other undergraduate science faculty to consider this model as they revise their courses.