ERIC Number: EJ1113973
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2016-Sep
Pages: 6
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0021-9584
EISSN: N/A
Lowering Barriers to Undergraduate Research through Collaboration with Local Craft Breweries
McDermott, M. Luke
Journal of Chemical Education, v93 n9 p1543-1548 Sep 2016
Laboratory research experiences are highly impactful learning environments for undergraduate students. However, a surprising number of chemistry students do not research. These students often do not research because they lack the time, interest, opportunity, or awareness. Course-based undergraduate research experiences can reach out to these nonresearching students by lowering the barriers to research. Classroom research opportunities typically harness undergraduate efforts to benefit faculty research. Here we introduce a research course that harnesses undergraduate efforts to benefit an outside company: a local brewery. The benefits of the course design were 3-fold. First, the course attracted students not engaged with existing research opportunities. Second, the students produced data that helped the brewery make significant business decisions. Third, the students developed personally and professionally: learning to design an experiment, to work in teams, and to enjoy science. Similar research courses with local breweries are feasible and could improve student engagement in research at other educational institutions.
Descriptors: Science Instruction, College Science, Undergraduate Study, Chemistry, Science Laboratories, Student Research, School Business Relationship, Industry, Scientific Concepts, Science Experiments, Laboratory Experiments
Division of Chemical Education, Inc and ACS Publications Division of the American Chemical Society. 1155 Sixteenth Street NW, Washington, DC 20036. Tel: 800-227-5558; Tel: 202-872-4600; e-mail: eic@jce.acs.org; Web site: http://pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: New York
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A