Coupling discovery-based learning and apprenticeship research experiences: a novel undergraduate laboratory course model.

Abstract

Apprenticeship research experiences (AREs) provide undergraduate students with real-world opportunities to engage in authentic experiment-based research as integral members of the supervisor's laboratory team. While AREs have been proposed to support students' confidence and competencies in the laboratory, they can also present practical barriers for effective pedagogical and fair implementation in undergraduate programs. For example, as AREs are conducted in authentic research environments independent of a course context, they are often not equipped with the pedagogical structure and guided instruction to best support student learning. Moreover, students frequently compete to secure a limited number of ARE placements such as summer research positions, honors thesis students, or scholarship recipients. As a result, many students who aim to complete an ARE within their undergraduate degree may never receive the opportunity, raising questions of factors that may impact fair and impartial student eligibility for these research experiences. To address these barriers, our faculty developed an innovative undergraduate course that integrates a discovery-based training laboratory component and an ARE placement component directly within its structure. Here, we present the details of this unique course structure and provide practical resources and suggestions for implementation in similar laboratory courses in science-related undergraduate programs.