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

SUBMITTER: Darling LEO 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12369356 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature