Students in STEM majors often have a desire to participate in research. Research opportunities are often scarce. At the University of Texas at Arlington, the Department of Biology instituted a pilot program to determine if we could take interested sophomore and junior students and in one semester, make them into functional scientists. We put out a call for applications and received forty seven applicants. The top twenty students were chosen. Students read and discussed primary literature, then designed an experiment, conducted fieldwork, analyzed the data, wrote a manuscript, and submitted it for publication in a peer reviewed journal.
Results/Conclusions
One student dropped, but the remaining nineteen finished the course. Students gained specific skills during this course including 1) learning to critically read primary literature, 2) writing IACUC protocols for work with live animals, 3) designing experiments and studies, 4) conducting fieldwork on live animals and under various weather conditions, 5) adapting their experimental design to deal with challenges, 5) writing a manuscript and making figures with coauthors, and 5) working through the publication process. As a class, we accomplished all of our goals and several students gained valuable experience to prepare them for careers in research. We intend to use this course as a model for other instructors in our department to engage more students in research in other fields and improve the education of our students.