Chemical Education Today
Association Report: CUR
Showcasing Successful Practices That Enhance a Research-Supportive Undergraduate Curriculum by Kerry Karukstis
Proposed Content
“How To” Publications The programming, services, and publications of the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) are designed to share successful models and strategies for establishing and institutionalizing undergraduate research programs. One of the publications of CUR is its successful series of “How To” books aimed at a variety of faculty development issues involving undergraduate research (1). The books focus on such topics as strategies for obtaining a faculty position at a primarily undergraduate institution, advice for initiating an undergraduate research program, suggestions for successful mentoring of undergraduates in collaborative research projects, and recommendations for implementing an institution-wide undergraduate research program. Need for Successful Practices To add to this collection, CUR is now developing a new “How To” book and accompanying Web page to showcase successful practices that enable faculty and institutions to design, implement, and sustain a research-supportive undergraduate curriculum. The guidelines of the ACS Committee on Professional Training clearly embrace research as a valued part of an undergraduate chemistry curriculum: “Undergraduate research can integrate the components of the core curriculum into a unified picture and help undergraduates acquire a spirit of inquiry, independence, sound judgment, and persistence.”(2) In particular, “the Committee strongly endorses undergraduate research as one of the potentially most rewarding aspects of the undergraduate experience” (2). Yet, a viewpoint shared by many in the undergraduate research community calls for experiences that develop critical research skills early in the chemistry curriculum in order to best prepare undergraduates for a capstone research experience (3). The final report for the recent NSF-sponsored Undergraduate Research Summit in Chemistry (4, 5) supported this position. The report defined a research-supportive curriculum as one that “integrates research and research-like experiences throughout, and culminates with a capstone research experience” (4). The summit recommendations further state that “A research-supportive curriculum develops in students the skills needed for successful participation in a research project and provides ample time and opportunities for students to undertake research.” The report noted, however, that examples of research-supportive chemistry curricula (rather than individual research-supportive courses or experiments) are rarely described in the published literature (6). The new “How To” book will strive to catalog such a collection of research-supportive curricular practices for a range of disciplines in the sciences, social sciences, and the humanities. 1440
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The new volume will focus on three broad areas: • Curricular elements and teaching and learning strategies that develop critical research skills • Curricular infrastructure that enhances a researchsupportive curriculum • Administrative contributions that initiate and sustain a research-supportive curriculum
Authors with expertise in particular topics pertaining to these three themes will provide recommended curricular practices to enhance the research culture of an institution and the research experience of undergraduates. Topics will include curricular approaches to build research skills such as inquiry-based laboratories and interdisciplinary courses and programs, institutional infrastructure and assessment practices that promote a researchsupportive curriculum, and the role of the faculty and the administration in nurturing a curriculum to support a research culture. Specific examples of known practices at particular institutions will be included in each chapter. Contribute Successful Practices To augment the compendium, faculty and administrative members of the undergraduate research community are invited to contribute short summaries highlighting particular methods, techniques, etc. that have been developed at their institutions. These “highlights” will be featured in the appropriate chapters of the booklet in separate text boxes. A companion Web site on the CUR Web page will be developed by the CUR National Office to include links to the resources cited in the “How To” booklet and other printed and electronic references identified by the editor and contributors. CUR believes that that this compendium of successful curricular practices that enable faculty and institutions to design, implement, and sustain a research-supportive undergraduate curriculum will be a significant contribution to the undergraduate research community. The participation of the undergraduate research community in this project will be vital to the volume’s success. If you are interested in writing a “highlight” for the book or would like to recommend someone to write such a contribution, please contact Kerry Karukstis, one of the editors for the project, via email or U.S. mail at the address at the end of this article. Contributions are requested by December 1, 2005 in order to begin the editing process. We welcome synopses of successful practices from all disciplines and types of institutions.
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www.JCE.DivCHED.org
Chemical Education Today edited by
Kerry Karukstis Harvey Mudd College Claremont, CA 91711
Literature Cited
…faculty and administrative members of
1. Council on Undergraduate Research Publications How To Series, http://www.cur.org/Publications/Howtoseries.html (accessed Aug 2005). 2. Undergraduate Professional Education in Chemistry: Guidelines and Evaluation Procedures; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2003; http://www.chemistry.org/portal/resources/ ACS/ACSContent/education/cpt/guidelines_spring2003.pdf (accessed Aug 2005). 3. Husic, D. W.; Elgren, T. Curricular Structures To Support Undergraduate Research. In Undergraduate Research Summit White Papers; http://abacus.bates.edu/acad/depts/chemistry/ twenzel/curriculum.pdf (accessed Aug 2005). 4. Enhancing Research in the Chemical Sciences at Predominantly Undergraduate Institutions: A Report from the Undergraduate Research Summit; Bates College: Lewiston, ME, August 2–4, 2003; http://abacus.bates.edu/acad/depts/chemistry/twenzel/ summit.html (accessed Aug 2005). 5. Karukstis, K. K.; Wenzel, T. J. Chem. Educ. 2004, 81, 468– 469.
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the undergraduate research community are invited to contribute short summaries highlighting particular methods, techniques, etc., that have been developed at their institutions.
6. See, for example, Hanks, T. W.; Wright, L. L. Techniques in Chemistry: The Centerpiece of a Research-Oriented Curriculum. J. Chem. Educ. 2002, 79, 1127–1130.
Kerry K. Karukstis is a member of the Department of Chemistry, Harvey Mudd College, 301 East Twelfth Street, Claremont, CA 91711;
[email protected] Vol. 82 No. 10 October 2005
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