1. Evaluation of Research Training in Biochemistry
Alice Robson
4th June 2018

2. How do you teach research skills?
Research projects in research labs
Problems of capacity and inconsistency of experience
Course-based undergraduate research experiences
Scalable, consistent training
Give students more ownership of projects

3. Research Training unit in Biochemistry (20 cp, Year 3)
Students work in teams of 4, studying a gene they have chosen themselves – authentic research 4 weeks lab work in teaching labs Assessments: Lab books (10%) Group poster (20%) Individual report (70%)

4. Design of the evaluation
Evaluation focused on:
Researcher identity
Teamwork
Career aspirations
Methods included online surveys before and after taking the unit, interviews and focus groups with students and staff
Ethical approval for this study was obtained from the Biomedical Sciences ethics committee on 14th August 2017

5. Overall impressions of the unit
Staff members involved in marking the poster session: Of the twelve students [I talked to in the session] there’s not a single one I wouldn’t be happy to have in my lab next year. Overall I was impressed…especially with their ability to be reflective and think things through.
Students:
I would 110% say this has been the best experience of my degree. I have learnt more on this research training programme than any other part of my course.
I have gained confidence and enjoyment of problem solving, and understanding the data

6. Researcher identity
If getting to be a research scientist is a continuum, how far along the line do you feel you are at this point? In November, before the lab work: I think for me all I’ve got so far is appreciation of the line rather than actually moving down it at all. …I wouldn’t say as a student I could qualify myself as a research scientist at the same time. we’re still in a BSc basically, and we’ve been spoon-fed, and I don’t feel like until we get to next year when we’re actually properly doing a project are we doing to feel that like we can spread our wings a bit more we’re kind of exploring the line and …seeing what we would need to do to move down it, and I don’t feel like we’ve actually stepped onto the path. I think we’re just kind of looking at a map.

7. Researcher identity
If getting to be a research scientist is a continuum, how far along the line do you feel you are at this point? In March, after the lab work and poster session: I think way better because of the poster … it sort of makes me realise that actually I have done research on a protein that people don’t have to do again, they can see my data – probably not very good data – but they can see my data and say ah they’ve already done this, I don’t need to do this.

8. Researcher identity
What have you learnt about doing research? even if something goes wrong in your eyes, it might tell you something different about what you’re testing, so it’s not really the same as doing an experiment where you know you’re going to get something. I learnt that I’m more resilient than I thought I was. I thought that if something went wrong, I wouldn’t be able to pick myself up very quickly, …but rather than sort of dwelling on what has gone wrong, I found that I was thinking more, “Okay. Well, that has gone wrong. What do I do? How do I fix this?”

9. I think I understand how research works
Research training unit
N = 20 (before unit)
N = 17 (after unit)
Traditional research projects
N = 51 (before unit)
N = 30 (after unit)

10. I feel I can call myself a research scientist
Research training unit
N = 20 (before unit)
N = 17 (after unit)
Traditional research projects
N = 51 (before unit)
N = 30 (after unit)

11. Conclusions and perspectives
Overall the unit was very successful according to students and staff Students gained a sense of identity as researchers after taking the unit – more than students doing traditional research projects Students would have liked more time in the lab and more support with writing the report Would be very interesting to follow up with these students next year as they complete extended research projects

12. Thanks to
Pat Triggs Dr Kara van Aelst Prof Mark Dillingham BILT

13. Were the intended learning outcomes achieved?
Yes No
Not sure
Undertake advanced practical work in a supervised environment to solve research problems
88.2
11.8
Maintain accurate and detailed records of their experimental work and results
100
Work both independently and as part of a team
94.1
5.9
Collect, analyse and interpret data
76.5
17.6
Write up experimental findings as a research report
41.2
52.9
Undertake self-directed background reading of the primary scientific literature to inform the laboratory write-up
Present findings in the form of a scientific poster