ComGen Authentic Research Experiences (C-ARE): Dissemination, Enrichment and Expansion Project

The core of this project is a one quarter long, six quarter credits undergraduate laboratory course centered on sequencing the genome of an agriculturally significant bacterium, Pseudomonas fluorescens. In addition to lectures covering traditional curriculum, students will perform original research (sequence the segments of DNA, trouble shoot, assure the validity of their data, analyze and infer the significance of their results and communicate their data to peers and faculty). The synergistic activity of critiquing current original research articles in the topics covered in lecture connects the research experience to the students' theoretical learning and informs student analysis of their own data. Community college partners include Olympic, Clark, Tacoma and Everett Community Colleges. Other partners include the USDA ARS Root Disease Biological Control Research Unit and Washington State University. The aim of this project is to enable community colleges throughout the broad Seattle Tacoma region of Washington state to incorporate an authentic research experience within their traditional laboratory curricula. It is based on a highly successful model designed and implemented by the PI at Bellevue Community College and involves a considerable amount of professional development for the faculty involved. The results will be a set of faculty with new disciplinary related skills in genomics, students who have been part of a scholarly project, community colleges with an enhanced curriculum, and important information gathered about an agriculturally important Pseudomonas species. This project is being jointly funded by the Directorate for Biological Sciences and the Directorate for Education and Human Resources, Division of Undergraduate Education as part of their efforts toward Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education.