The Power of Place: A Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience Studying Urban Ecology, Local Apple Trees and Disease Susceptibility

Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) offered early in an undergraduate student’s career have the potential to include a greater number and diversity of students than one-on-one mentored research. CUREs that use a place-based model to do research relevant to the local community may have even more engagement capacity. However, there are few place-based CURE curricula published and even fewer that include assessments of cognitive and psychosocial outcomes for students. Here, we present a one-semester CURE curriculum where students explore urban ecology concepts and conduct authentic research to investigate apple tree (Malus domestica) resistance to the widespread fire blight bacterial disease (Erwinia amylovora). We hypothesize that a place-based, community-relevant curriculum would increase students’ ecological knowledge, research self-efficacy, and intrinsic motivation. Student responses (N = 11) to pre-post surveys and reflection questions demonstrated that the CURE elements of discovery and relevance contributed to a positive experience, and participation in the course was advantageous to the students’ career goals. Pre and post survey results demonstrated significant increases in ecology knowledge, scientific practices, research self-efficacy, and scientific civic knowledge (knowing how to use science skills to help one’s community). College instructors desiring to engage a whole class in community-relevant urban ecology research may wish to draw units, lessons, activities, and assessments from our semester-long CURE curricula. Preliminary data from this study indicates that modules from this urban ecology CURE could be implemented within existing biology or ecology classes, and assessments could be used for student populations enrolled at multiple types of institutions.

Primary Image: Place-based, course-based undergraduate field research experience. Students assessing apple trees for evidence of fire blight bacterial infection (Erwinia amylovora) in a local apple orchard in Boulder, Colorado. 

在大学本科生生涯早期提供的基于课程的本科研究经验（CUREs）具有包含更多数量和多样性学生的潜力，相较于一对一的指导研究。采用地域模型进行与当地社区相关研究的项目式CUREs可能具有更大的参与能力。然而，已发布的基于地域的CURE课程寥寥无几，而其中包含对学生认知和心社会影响评估的课程更是凤毛麟角。在此，我们展示了一学期的CURE课程，学生在此课程中探索城市生态学概念，并开展真实研究，以调查苹果树（Malus domestica）对广泛流行的火疫病菌（Erwinia amylovora）的抗性。我们假设，以地域为基础、与社区相关的课程将提高学生的生态知识、研究自信和内在动机。学生（N=11）对前后调查和反思问题的回应表明，CURE的发现与相关性元素有助于正面的学习体验，并且参与课程对学生的职业目标具有裨益。前后调查结果显示，生态知识、科学实践、研究自信和科学公民知识（了解如何运用科学技能帮助自己的社区）均显著提升。希望让整个班级参与与社区相关的城市生态学研究的高校教师，或许会从我们的为期一学期的CURE课程中提取单元、课程、活动和评估内容。本研究的初步数据显示，这些城市生态学CURE模块可以整合到现有的生物学或生态学课程中，评估也可以用于在多种类型机构注册的学生群体。主图：基于地域、基于课程的本科田野研究经验。学生们在科罗拉多州博尔德的一个当地苹果园中评估苹果树是否存在火疫病菌（Erwinia amylovora）感染的证据。