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Interactive Notebooks Improve Students' Understanding of Developmental Neurobiology, Attitudes Toward Research, and Experimental Design Competency in a Lecture-Based Neuroscience Course
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Interactive Notebooks Improve Students' Understanding of Developmental Neurobiology, Attitudes Toward Research, and Experimental Design Competency in a Lecture-Based Neuroscience Course

Nayeli G Reyes-Nava, David Esparza, Victor Suarez, Anita Quintana, Jeffrey T Olimpo and The University of Texas at El Paso
Journal of undergraduate neuroscience education, v 22(3), pp A265-A272
31 Aug 2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.59390/NQCA2038
PMID: 39355666
url
https://doi.org/10.59390/NQCA2038View
Published, Version of Record (VoR) Open

Abstract

Laboratory Notebook Project-based Learning Science Process Skills Undergraduate Research Experience Developmental Neurobiology Experimental Design
Recent efforts to engage postsecondary science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students in the rigors of discovery-driven inquiry have centered on the integration of course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) within the biology curricula. While this method of laboratory education is demonstrated to improve students' content knowledge, motivations, affect, and persistence in STEM, CUREs may present as cost- and/or resource-prohibitive. Likewise, not all lecture courses have a concomitant laboratory requirement. With these caveats in mind, we developed the intervention, which provided students enrolled in a standalone Developmental Neurobiology course with an immersive, semester-long "dry-lab" experience incorporating many of the same elements as a CURE (e.g., collaboration, use of experimental design skills, troubleshooting, and science communication). Quantitative and qualitative assessment of this intervention revealed positive pre-/post-semester gains in students' content knowledge, attitudes toward the research process, and development of science process skills. Collectively, these data suggest that interventions such as the can be an effective alternative to a "wet-lab" experience.

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