Assessing Higher-order Scientific Process Skills in a Research-oriented Laboratory Course

We developed a laboratory course in which students explore microbial diversity within environmental samples. We hypothesized that the curriculum would develop skills critical to a student’s competence as a research scientist. We compared the effectiveness of a guided-inquiry format (lab A) to that of a traditional ‘cookbook’ class (lab B). Students in lab B, the control group, perform techniques one time, while students in lab A perform the same techniques multiple times. We expected repetition would enable lab A students to achieve greater perceived technical competence. To test this hypothesis, repeated measures one-way ANOVA tests (alpha = 0.05) were conducted on several variables from preand post-surveys administered to both courses. Results from the ANOVA tests revealed that there was a significant difference with variables related to a subset of laboratory skills over the duration of the course. We report the difference between mean scores of the postand pre-surveys for lab A (mdA) and lab B (mdB). For example, students in both labs had perceived changes in competence over time with skills such as PCR (mdA = 1.24; mdB = 1.27; p = 0.000), DNA purification (mdA = 1.04; mdB = 1.18; p = 0.000), hypothesis development (mdA = 0.51; mdB = 0.36; p = 0.000), and ability to critically read journal articles (mdA = 0.41; mdB = 0.15; p = 0.002). Even in cases where students reported similar gains in both labs, the average proficiency in lab tasks shows students progress from novice to intermediate skill level in lab B and from intermediate to very proficient in lab A. To expand this initial study and evaluate gains in conceptual knowledge and researchoriented cognitive skills, we conducted a rubric-guided evaluation of written assignments. Learning outcomes were categorized according to Bloom’s Taxonomy, and student efforts were scored for accuracy and completeness. Together with the survey data, results indicate the research-based course experience promotes the development of higher-order research skills including procedural competence, creating and testing hypotheses, and analyzing results. Introduction This project involves development and evaluation of an inquiry-based undergraduate laboratory curriculum. We hypothesized that applying this pedagogy to a laboratory curriculum would encourage student interest and participation in scientific research, generate feelings of selfconfidence with respect to laboratory methodologies, promote the development of researchoriented cognitive skills critical to a student’s competence as a scientist, and enable students to learn concepts integral to microbial ecology. Following creation of the education tools needed to establish the inquiry-based curriculum, which included a course database and a textbook/laboratory manual, the curriculum was evaluated using assessment tools designed to measure the impact of the inquiry-based pedagogical approach on student learning. Assessment efforts were divided into two phases. The first phase took place during fall quarter 2007, spring quarter 2008, and spring quarter 2009. The second phase was implemented during