Scaling Up: Adapting a Phage-Hunting Course to Increase Participation of First-Year Students in Research

Abstract

Authentic research experiences are valuable components of effective undergraduate education. Research experiences during the first years of college are especially critical to increase persistence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. The Science Education Alliance Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science (SEA-PHAGES) model provides a high-impact research experience to first-year students but is usually available to a limited number of students, and its implementation is costly in faculty time and laboratory space. To offer a research experience to all students taking introductory biology at Gonzaga University (n = 350/yr), we modified the traditional two-semester SEA-PHAGES course by streamlining the first-semester Phage Discovery lab and integrating the second SEA-PHAGES semester into other courses in the biology curriculum. Because most students in the introductory course are not biology majors, the Phage Discovery semester may be their only encounter with research. To discover whether students benefit from the first semester alone, we assessed the effects of the one-semester Phage Discovery course on students' understanding of course content. Specifically, students showed improvement in knowledge of bacteriophages, lab math skills, and understanding experimental design and interpretation. They also reported learning gains and benefits comparable with other course-based research experiences. Responses to open-ended questions suggest that students experienced this course as a true undergraduate research experience.

Figure 1.

Conversion of a powerful SEA-PHAGES model to a scaled-up model that reaches more students. In the Gonzaga University model, the thrill of discovery is available for all introductory biology students in the Phage Discovery lab. A fraction of those students, biology and biochemistry majors, experience a computational approach to research in the Phage Genomics module embedded in the required Genetics lab. Students who wish to extend their research experience participate in independent work with molecular methods or bioinformatic analysis in the Advanced Phage Research lab.

Figure 2.

Results of knowledge test given before and after the course. A 10-question multiple-choice test was given at the start and finish of four semesters. Precourse and postcourse answers from 528 students were compared. (A) Distribution of precourse and postcourse scores. Score represents the number of correct answers. The mean scores were 4.5 (pre) and 6.9 (post) (p = 10⁻¹⁰⁵, two-tailed, paired t test). (B) Percentage of students who answered each question correctly. McNemar’s chi-squared test shows that student success on each question improved significantly (question 1 (Q1): p = 10⁻⁷; Q2: p = 10⁻¹²; Q3: p = 10⁻²³; Q4: p = 10⁻³; Q5: p = 10⁻⁹; Q6: p = 10⁻⁵; Q7: p = 10⁻²⁷; Q8: p = 10⁻³⁶; Q9: p = 10⁻¹²; Q10: p = 10⁻⁷⁰).

Figure 3.

Learning gains in 21 areas in the SEA-CURE survey, self-reported by students. The learning gain items shown are the same as gains in the CURE survey and the SURE III survey. Students were asked to rate their self-perceived gains in each area on a scale of 1 through 5 (1: no or very small gain; 2: small gain; 3: moderate gain; 4: large gain; 5: very large gain). Mean ratings are shown for students in the one-semester Gonzaga Phage Discovery course (red triangles, n≤ 906, 2012–2015), all students in the SEA-PHAGES program excluding Gonzaga students (green squares, n≤ 3037, 2011–2015), students in other CRE courses (yellow circles, n≤ 8960, 2015), and summer research students who took the SURE III survey (blue diamonds, n≤ 3041, 2014). Vertical lines indicate two SEs above and below the mean for the SURE survey. SEs are too small to display for the other categories.