In this post, Dr. Asmita Kane of Mesa Community College explains how she’s used undergraduate research as an inclusive, student-centered, alternative approach to learning in General Chemistry.
As faculty, we teach and then assess students on course material. However, we don’t always recognize the extremely diverse array of students coming into community college classrooms: the spectrum of high school preparation, ethnic, social and economic backgrounds is vast. Bringing them all into one classroom, retaining them there and mentoring them towards successful completion is a significant challenge. And that’s why I believe in undergraduate research (UGR) as a type of teaching!
Research as teaching…in General Chemistry
For the past few years, I have employed an undergraduate research (UGR) component in my General Chemistry and special project classes as a student-centered, alternative learning style! In lieu of traditional lecture > test > grade modes of learning and assessment, students instead have the option to engage in research projects that are either literature based or laboratory-work based .
“I have employed an undergraduate research (UGR) component in my General Chemistry and special project classes as a student-centered, alternative learning style!”
Dr. Asmita Kane
Arranging and mentoring Undergraduate Research (UGR) experiences for my students has been a catalyst for growth and a source of positive learning experiences for me as a faculty member and for my students learning to be researchers.
“UGR also is for those struggling students …These students can be retained from ‘withdrawing due to bad grade’ by offering them this alternative style of learning.”
Dr. Asmita Kane
How does it work? Laboratory and Literature project options
Students work for the entire semester. I mentor their work and then they either submit the report for assessment or they present their work as oral presentation to all faculty. Occasionally they also participate in poster competitions.
Over the many projects and students I’ve mentored spanning the past 11 years, the majority of laboratory-based projects surrounded the analytical chemistry of soils and plants. Students characterized soils and analyzed plants grown in soils contaminated with heavy metals like Cadmium and Lead. Students were even able to study the effects of colored caustic textile waste from another department on campus …..giving the research an interdisciplinary component as well! While engaged in these UGR experiences, students learned essential skills like how to plan and progress their project, the methodology of analysis, data collection and then processing and presenting their data.
Literature based research consisted of extending curriculum based topics into more applied areas. The students solve a research question by investigating various aspects and parameters related. This requires visits to the library, consulting various books, web based searches, discussions with me as facilitator and mentor. Students collect relevant data or information available to support their conclusions. They critically think about many aspects of the problem and ultimately summarize their observations, findings, and conclusions in a paper. They submit their paper to me for evaluation as a part of their grade. In addition to this paper, they have option to prepare a poster and submit it for some points as a part of this assignment.
Outcomes
“Those who want to explore new ways of learning and are super charged about the ‘out of box’ thinking.”
Dr. Asmita Kane
I have observed this UGR alternative learning style generates exciting outcomes in student engagement:
- Some students want to do something different than traditional (lecture-test-grade) method of learning. Those who want to explore new ways of learning and are super charged about the ‘out of box’ thinking.
- UGR also is for those struggling students who may not be fantastic test takers and hence have challenges at getting good grades; but they are interested in the material and they are enthusiastic to learn and understand the material. These students can be retained from ‘withdrawing due to bad grade’ by offering them this alternative style of learning.
- UGR is also suitable for students that love hands on activities and have inclination towards furthering higher education.
Undergraduate research is truly a high impact method of inclusive instruction for students of varying academic capacity.
Dr. Asmita Kane
I have seen UGR as not only an activity that created interest in students about chemistry, it also improved their grades. It has enormous potential for student retention and and course completion.
UGR is truly a high impact method of inclusive instruction for students of varying academic capacity. All we need to do is plan and orchestrate the UGR experience well to match their class curricular level!
Dr. Asmita Kane is a Residential faculty of Chemistry in the Department of Physical Sciences at Mesa Community College in Mesa, AZ
Undergraduate Research in Chemistry 
Incorporating UGR sounds the best in general and specifically sounds useful to evaluate the learning outcomes.
Superb approach by Dr. Asmita Kane.
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