Reshaping graduate outcomes of science students – The contribution of undergraduate research experiences

Today’s science graduates require substantially different skills compared to yesterday’s graduates given the changing nature of modern science. As higher education institutions struggle to reform curricula and pedagogy, undergraduate research experiences (UREs) are increasingly being incorporated to enhance undergraduate science curricula. This study is situated within a traditional Bachelor of Science degree that offers students some voluntary opportunities to participate in UREs. This study explores two graduating science cohorts (n=272), comparing those who did and did not participate in UREs. A survey investigated student perceptions (importance, confidence and improvements) of five graduate outcomes in the context of science: writing skills, communication skills, quantitative skills (QS), teamwork skills and content knowledge. Cross-tabs and a linear discriminant analysis were used to investigate perception change between the two groups. The notable differences in perception scores in this study were consistently higher in QS, perhaps indicative of UREs emphasising the need for such skills in science or from students gaining increased confidence as a result of utilising QS within an authentic context. Our results reveal little difference in other student outcome areas, which raises questions around the role of UREs as a broad strategy for enhancing the achievement of graduate outcomes in science. This study is limited to a single institution and is focused on specific graduate outcomes, so only limited conclusions can be drawn. However, further research to determine the graduate outcomes gained from UREs would benefit the sector, particularly science disciplines, in the changing focus of government policy on student learning outcomes

Student outcomes from diverse undergraduate research experiences - findings from a multi-disciplinary study

Undergraduate research experiences (UREs) provide students with opportunities to engage in high impact experiential learning. UREs have been especially prevalent in the sciences, but there are now extensive banks of case studies demonstrating the use of UREs as an educationally enriching activity in nearly all disciplines. This study investigated the diversity of UREs available across a wide range of disciplines at a large Australian research-intensive university and examined the perceived benefits. Through group interviews with 68 academics, we gathered detailed information about 81 URE activities, across 28 Schools within the institution (representing 77.8% of Schools), ranging from archaeology to political science, from biology to social work and from law to journalism. The most common URE model observed was that of activities embedded in courses. Across disciplines the most common feature was the requirement for students to engage with the research literature in their field. A smaller number of models incorporated features which allowed students to engage in other high impact learning activities such as community-based activities and internships. Although we identified a large ‘set’ of perceived student outcomes across the varied URE models the generic graduate attributes attained by students through these UREs appeared to be independent of the discipline itself. In most cases, the UREs were available to all students rather than an elite or specialist cohort. This leads us to believe that across a range of disciplinary contexts, there are many ways to use UREs to achieve high levels of engagement of large cohorts of students

Undergraduate Research and Inquiry Across a Zoology Curriculum: an Evaluation Through the Lens of External Peer Review

It has been established that student learning is greatly enhanced as a result of student engagement through research and inquiry based learning. However little emphasis has been given to how relationships between teaching and research are built within faculties or departments. External review of programs is a key strategy for building shared ownership of teaching programs. This project brought together a head of school and an external peer reviewer to carry out an evaluation of undergraduate research and inquiry across a curriculum, and to examine the student benefits. The first stage of the project, reported here, examined the extent to which undergraduate students are exposed to research and inquiry experiences within a department of Zoology. The approach utilized a mixed methodology including surveys and qualitative interviews with teaching staff. The reviewer identified a broad diversity of undergraduate research opportunities for students from first to third year, and a scaffolded approach to developing the students as researchers. In designing these learning activities, the teaching academics aimed to capture authentic research experiences for their students. This review ‘closes a loop’ between teaching and research within a department through critical evaluation of a program of undergraduate research opportunities. Stage Two of this project will focus on the student voices

Undergraduate research under the microscope – contrasting the focus of academics and students

Undergraduate research, inquiry and problem solving experiences are increasingly used to stimulate student understanding of the practice of science. We propose that such experiences not only play an important role in student acquisition of skills and understanding of scientific processes, but also encourage broader learning outcomes. However academics may not be fully aware of these more generic gains. In this study within a science department at a large metropolitan research intensive university, we interviewed academics and surveyed students to examine the learning gains from undergraduate research opportunities as perceived by the two groups. Interviews with academics highlighted a strong culture of integrating research and inquiry into teaching, with intended gains being research skills and encouraging students to think like scientists. Students reported learning gains to be problem solving skills, data collecting, and working collaboratively. These later “personal gains” reported by students were not identified by academics. We believe the difference between students and academics could reflect an under-valuing by academics of the broader impacts of research and inquiry on student learning. The findings of this study have implications for the ongoing support of undergraduate research and inquiry, and its growth as a valuable learning experience in the tertiary science curriculum

UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH AND INQUIRY ACROSS A ZOOLOGY CURRICULUM: AN EVALUATION THROUGH THE LENS OF EXTERNAL PEER REVIEW

ABSTRACT It has been established that student learning is greatly enhanced as a result of student engagement through research and inquiry based learning. However little emphasis has been given to how relationships between teaching and research are built within faculties or departments. External review of programs is a key strategy for building shared ownership of teaching programs. This project brought together a head of school and an external peer reviewer to carry out an evaluation of undergraduate research and inquiry across a curriculum, and to examine the student benefits. The first stage of the project, reported here, examined the extent to which undergraduate students are exposed to research and inquiry experiences within a department of Zoology. The approach utilised a mixed methodology including surveys and qualitative interviews with teaching staff. The reviewer identified a broad diversity of undergraduate research opportunities for students from first to third year, and a scaffolded approach to developing the students as researchers. In designing these learning activities, the teaching academics aimed to capture authentic research experiences for their students. This review 'closes a loop' between teaching and research within a department through critical evaluation of a program of undergraduate research opportunities. Stage Two of this project will focus on the student voices

Haptoglobin Phenotype, Preeclampsia Risk and the Efficacy of Vitamin C and E Supplementation to Prevent Preeclampsia in a Racially Diverse Population

Haptoglobin's (Hp) antioxidant and pro-angiogenic properties differ between the 1-1, 2-1, and 2-2 phenotypes. Hp phenotype affects cardiovascular disease risk and treatment response to antioxidant vitamins in some non-pregnant populations. We previously demonstrated that preeclampsia risk was doubled in white Hp 2-1 women, compared to Hp 1-1 women. Our objectives were to determine whether we could reproduce this finding in a larger cohort, and to determine whether Hp phenotype influences lack of efficacy of antioxidant vitamins in preventing preeclampsia and serious complications of pregnancy-associated hypertension (PAH). This is a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial in which 10,154 low-risk women received daily vitamin C and E, or placebo, from 9-16 weeks gestation until delivery. Hp phenotype was determined in the study prediction cohort (n = 2,393) and a case-control cohort (703 cases, 1,406 controls). The primary outcome was severe PAH, or mild or severe PAH with elevated liver enzymes, elevated serum creatinine, thrombocytopenia, eclampsia, fetal growth restriction, medically indicated preterm birth or perinatal death. Preeclampsia was a secondary outcome. Odds ratios were estimated by logistic regression. Sampling weights were used to reduce bias from an overrepresentation of women with preeclampsia or the primary outcome. There was no relationship between Hp phenotype and the primary outcome or preeclampsia in Hispanic, white/other or black women. Vitamin supplementation did not reduce the risk of the primary outcome or preeclampsia in women of any phenotype. Supplementation increased preeclampsia risk (odds ratio 3.30; 95% confidence interval 1.61-6.82, p<0.01) in Hispanic Hp 2-2 women. Hp phenotype does not influence preeclampsia risk, or identify a subset of women who may benefit from vitamin C and E supplementation to prevent preeclampsia

Preparation and control of a cavity-field state through atom-driven field interaction: towards long-lived mesoscopic states

The preparation of mesoscopic states of the radiation and matter fields through atom-field interactions has been achieved in recent years and employed for a range of striking applications in quantum optics. Here we present a technique for the preparation and control of a cavity mode which, besides interacting with a two-level atom, is simultaneously submitted to linear and parametric amplification processes. The role of the amplification-controlling fields in the achievement of real mesoscopic states, is to produce highly-squeezed field states and, consequently, to increase both: i) the distance in phase space between the components of the prepared superpositions and ii) the mean photon number of such superpositions. When submitting the squeezed superposition states to the action of similarly squeezed reservoirs, we demonstrate that under specific conditions the decoherence time of the states becomes independent of both the distance in phase space between their components and their mean photon number. An explanation is presented to support this remarkable result, together with a discussion on the experimental implementation of our proposal. We also show how to produce number states with fidelities higher than those derived as circular states

Haptoglobin phenotype and abnormal uterine artery Doppler in a racially diverse cohort

The anti-oxidant and proangiogenic protein haptoglobin (Hp) is believed to be important for implantation and pregnancy, although its specific role is not known. The three phenotypes (1-1, 2-1 and 2-2) differ in structure and function. Hp 2-2 is associated with increased vascular stiffness in other populations. We examined whether Hp phenotype is associated with abnormal uterine artery Doppler (UAD) in pregnancy

Determination of the b quark mass at the M_Z scale with the DELPHI detector at LEP

An experimental study of the normalized three-jet rate of b quark events with respect to light quarks events (light= \ell \equiv u,d,s) has been performed using the CAMBRIDGE and DURHAM jet algorithms. The data used were collected by the DELPHI experiment at LEP on the Z peak from 1994 to 2000. The results are found to agree with theoretical predictions treating mass corrections at next-to-leading order. Measurements of the b quark mass have also been performed for both the b pole mass: M_b and the b running mass: m_b(M_Z). Data are found to be better described when using the running mass. The measurement yields: m_b(M_Z) = 2.85 +/- 0.18 (stat) +/- 0.13 (exp) +/- 0.19 (had) +/- 0.12 (theo) GeV/c^2 for the CAMBRIDGE algorithm. This result is the most precise measurement of the b mass derived from a high energy process. When compared to other b mass determinations by experiments at lower energy scales, this value agrees with the prediction of Quantum Chromodynamics for the energy evolution of the running mass. The mass measurement is equivalent to a test of the flavour independence of the strong coupling constant with an accuracy of 7 permil.Comment: 24 pages, 10 figures, Accepted by Eur. Phys. J.