From Student to Researcher (in one Term!) Post 3: What learners told us about their CURE experiences

(This blog series is authored by USask denizens Harold Bull, Dawn Giesbrecht and Sheryl Mills) Harold is Assistant Professor Biochemistry, Microbiology & Immunology. Dawn is Laboratory Instructor Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology; Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology. Sheryl is Associate Director, Academic Programs & Interprofessional Education)

As you read these comments you may want to reflect on how needs-fulfilling the CURE experience is for learners.^[1],[2] (Note: these excerpts are unedited and representative of the tone of all reflections we have received):

• The amount I have learned in this class far surpasses any other classes I have taken, this includes both general knowledge of the subject and project as well as a deeper understanding of how to do research and work effectively in a group. In my opinion I have developed more from taking this class then I have in any previous classes or experiences linked to my education. 

• This class has literally transformed my appreciation for education. I have learned more in this class than any of my laboratory classes combined. Many things that seemed easy turned out to be hard and just the planning and set up of the whole process was a learning experience. Prior to this class, I did not feel like I could be autonomous in my decision making in laboratory settings and therefore didn't even consider any possible personal research interests. Now that I can mechanize and visualize in a sense a process of some sorts with the experience I have, I feel like in the future I can tackle my own research projects in any area that I was interested in. This class has definitely supplied me with numerous tools that I can use and will use to help support my research endeavours in the future. 

• This class literally changed my perspective of laboratory experience at the university level. I believe I have learned both theoretically and practically more than any other class I have had taken at past, or would have taken if I had not taken this class. I have learned more in this class than any of my laboratory classes combined practically. Many things look easy in paper or book while reading but in reality, this is not the case. It usually takes more time and effort than u think it will take. This lab teaches me how to actually work in team-based research experiment, plan, communicate and set up the whole process to perform research. 

• In this class, we had to hunt for not only background information about a question, but methods and approaches we could take to get an answer to our question. Within that came an enormous amount of problem solving. A seemingly simple procedure that I’d done numerous times in my student labs suddenly became an obstacle when we couldn’t get it to work. When the internet wouldn’t prove helpful, I had to ask not only other teams for their input, but multiple professors, TAs, and technicians if they had had the same problem. 

• I had been able to cement the fact that my group could depend on me, which gave the confidence to not only perform better with techniques but also interpret data and effectively communicate it to my group.

• I have learned to work freely, facing the failures and coming up with hypothesis about the whys of everything: did it failed? why? Did it worked? Why? Could I had made a mistake? In which step? All kind of questions came up and me and my team spoke them freely and eventually we presented our opinions to the supervisors and take their suggestions as guidance but not as the absolute truth. We always discussed the pros and cons of each suggestion and compare them with previous knowledge. I think this freedom in the lab is necessary for the students because in the real life there are no guidance, there is no absolute truth and if we cannot came up with new ideas, face failures and propose solutions to problems then we will not survive in the real world. 

• I had to actively troubleshoot problems which arose together with my teammates in ways I never had to before in my lab classes leading up to this. What I found especially notable was how my dedication to the project drove me more into a leadership position than I have ever really had to before in my academic career so far. This shift in and of itself allowed me to see more into all the smaller necessities which must be looked into, considered, and arranged to perform what seemed like a simple laboratory protocol at first. Overall, this experience was unforgettable and one I would highly recommend. 

• You bond with your teammates and the other teams over shared failures, and together try to solve the problems standing in your way. This project essentially became my life: instead of scrolling through Pinterest on my phone at night, I was looking up purification protocols. 

• … this was a research course and so actually doing lab work without step-by-step instructions helped me understand all aspects of what goes into a research project[3].

Stay tuned! In Post 4 we look at the RSD7 Framework and intentionally integrating active learner reflection into the CURE course.

Find ALL BLOG POSTS IN THIS SERIES HERE. Find our previsous post here. Find our next post here. 

Podcast with one of the student projects: MightyChondria: 

Podcast with the professors who taught the course:

[1] We asked learners to reflect on the development of their research skills in this course using the RSD Framework and to write a final reflective paragraph. These paragraphs were received after grades were assigned and therefore were not graded or given any academic weight i.e. no reasons to butter us up or pull punches!

[2] In post 7 we will reference Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

[3] It was humbling as instructors to read these comments because it is not often (think never) that we have seen this many strong positive testimonials. Note: the tone is consistent across all learners. We have chosen excerpts that are focused on our theme of transitioning to a researcher.