Research Problem In one sentence, describe the problem that is the focus of your classroom research project about student learning: There is a growing literature that undergraduate research experiences enhance student confidence, retention in science, and sustained interest in graduate education (reviewed in Shaffer et al, 2010). At our institution we have qualitative evidence that students are very interested in doing research, particularly research that benefits society, but we would like to quantify how such research enhances their education. Shaffer, C.D,. Et al The Genomics Education Partnership: successful integration of research into laboratory classes at a diverse group of undergraduate institutions. CBE-Life Sciences 9:

Research Question What is your research question? What is the effect of incorporating original research into the curriculum on student attitudes about science, environmental engagement, and content mastery? What is the context (e.g. class setting, student audience) in which you will conduct your research? We have incorporated a DNA barcoding project into our curriculum. Students generate novel data which they upload to a public research database. Participants are enrolled in lab courses in either ecology or molecular biology, and students in each course collaborate by contributing different data for the same specimen. Approximately 600 students per year participate, a majority of our Biology majors.

Research Methods My primary research methods include: Experimental design #2, “One group pretest/posttest” Multiple choice surveys: Likert scale for attitudinal & environmental engagement questions Standard multiple choice for content questions I will collect these data: Parts of the following surveys: 1. TOSRA (assess science attitudes) 2.Network of Conservation Educators and Practitioners (NCEP) (assess environmental engagement) 3.Content questions generated by faculty (assess content mastery) I will analyze the data by: Chi-square goodness of fit (CURE, NCEP) or paired t-test (TOSRA)

Alignment of Research Question and Methods This is why I think it aligns: GOALSURVEYDATAANALYSIS Attitudes TOSRA Likert scalepaired t-test about science Environmental NCEPLikert scalepaired t-test engagement Content knowledgefaculty-multiple choicechi-square generated

Alignment of Research Question and Methods The data will help me answer my question by: We aim to quantify how original research in the classroom enhances student education. Measuring content knowledge is an obvious way to monitor gains in education, but attitudes about science and civic engagement ( and are also important aspects of a biology students’ training. The effect of research on civic engagement in particular, and the interaction between content, attitudes about science, and civic engagement have not been well-addressed.