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Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) are tools used to introduce students to authentic participation in science. Several specific CUREs have been shown to benefit students' interest and retention in the biological sciences. Nevertheless, CUREs vary greatly in terms of their context, methodology, and degree of research authenticity, so different types of CUREs may differently influence student outcomes. This programmatic diversity poses a challenge to educators who want to better understand which course components and features are reliably present in a CURE curriculum. To address these issues, we identified, catalogued, and classified 112 potential features of CUREs across the biosciences. To develop the list, we interviewed instructors experienced with teaching individual and large networked CUREs across a diversity of the biological disciplines, including: Squirrel-Net (field-based animal behavior), SEA-PHAGES (wet lab microbiology and computational microbiology), Tiny Earth (environmental and wet lab microbiology), PARE (environmental microbiology), and the Genomics Education Partnership (eukaryotic computational biology). Twenty-five interviewees contributed expert content in terms of CURE features and classification of those items into an organized list. The resulting list's categories encompasses student experiences with the following: (i) the scientific process; (ii) technical aspects of science; (iii) the professional development associated with research; and (iv) building scientific identity. The most striking insight was that CUREs vary widely in terms of which features they contain, since different CUREs will by necessity have different approaches to science and student involvement. We also identified several features commonly thought to be crucial to CUREs yet have ambiguous definitions. This ambiguity can potentially confound efforts to make CUREs research-authentic and aligned with the central goals of science. We disambiguate these terms and represent their varied meanings throughout the classification. We also provide instructor-friendly supplementary worksheets along with considerations for instructors interested in expanding their CURE course design, instruction, and equity.

Arts education can be an important part of the elementary child's experience. However, keeping the arts in schools is often a challenge because of funding concerns and competing academic priorities. An important strategy in arts education advocacy and policy is arts integration. Arts integration creates a rationale for the arts based on the enhancement of the educational experience for all students and the potential to engage underserved or less engaged students with academic disciplines through the arts. This article examines teacher experiences within a statewide program that funds arts specialists in elementary schools with the requirement that they integrate the arts with other subjects. The researchers describe how the program works with particular focus on collaboration between arts specialists and classroom teachers. This is a multifaceted study across four school districts with 640 participants including classroom teachers and arts specialists. An understanding of both arts integration and how collaboration happens between elementary teachers and arts specialists was gained through interviews, classroom visits, and surveys. The data suggest that effective integration and collaboration can enhance teachers' professional growth but require structural and policy support as well as the creativity and energy of individual teachers. The professional life of arts specialists, teacher knowledge, and professional development emerged as important issues for teachers, school leaders, and arts advocates.

This article presents an overview and continuation of a study investigating how artist awareness and critical response might provide a better understanding of mindfulness and its practice within art education. While there are distinct advantages to mindfulness practices in education, these practices might also have problematic aspects, such as helping people conform to oppressive structures in education rather than questioning them. The pandemic of 2020-2021 accentuated student concerns with social, emotional, and mental health and illuminated possible benefits of mindfulness practice. Results show that preservice art education students used mindfulness and data visualization to connect art and self-inquiry. Important findings included the positive impact mindfulness practices had on students' social-emotional learning and a refined distinction between mindfulness as a therapeutic educational intervention versus mindfulness an art educational experience.

A growing body of evidence had demonstrated that increased student exposure and commitment to evidence-based teaching (EBT) leads to improved academic performance, greater persistence, and higher buy-in to instructional methods. Despite the increasing number of teaching development opportunities available to STEM instructors, which often encourage the use of EBT, implementation is still highly variable across instructors. The frequency with which students are exposed to EBT across multiple courses in a department or university has not been studied in relation to students' success in a given course or their ultimate persistence in STEM. This study shows that there is a cumulative benefit of exposure to EBT across multiple courses. Students who are frequently exposed to EBT also find these practices to be more valuable and report a higher intention to persist in STEM. If students demonstrate higher commitment after multiple EBT exposures, this may increase the likelihood that faculty will incorporate these teaching practices into their courses. The findings are useful for instructors, faculty, department chairs, and administrators who are attempting to support a more unified, evidence-based approach to teaching in their department or institution.

Remote mountain lakes in protected areas are sentinels of the ecological impacts of extreme and novel environmental changes occurring at broad regional scales. Ecosystem responses to such stressors are often first detected as shifts in community composition. We surveyed phytoplankton communities across 82 mountain lakes to test the hypothesis that taxonomic composition is indicative of more environmental changes than are aggregate properties, such as total biomass. Phosphorus was the only significant predictor of chlorophyll-inferred algal biomass, a correlative finding supported by evidence from our nutrient amendment bioassays. Interlake variances in taxonomically diagnostic algal pigments and 78 genera were indicative of changes in total phosphorus, glacial coverage, underwater light availability, and dissolved organic carbon. Lack of concordance was observed between ordinations of pigment- and genus-based data as environmental variables captured more variance in the pigment data. Our findings provide a baseline for future lake monitoring programs in the Canadian Rockies as they increasingly experience interactive effects involving climate change and landscape features, such as variation in turbid glacial meltwaters and aeolian phosphorus deposition from wildfires. Key words: algae, climate change, environmental gradient analysis, glaciers, nutrient limitation, phosphorus, Introduction Aquatic scientists are increasingly challenged to advance our predictive understanding of the cumulative impacts of global warming on lake ecosystems (Carpenter et al. 1992; Williamson et al. 2009; Jenny [...]

Broadening access to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professions through the provision of early-career research experiences for a wide range of demographic groups is important for the diversification of the STEM workforce. The size and diversity of the community college system make it a prime educational site for achieving this aim. However, some evidence shows that women and Black, Latinx, and Native American student groups have been hindered in STEM at the community college level. One option for enhancing persistence in STEM is to incorporate the course-based research experiences (CREs) into the curriculum as a replacement for the prevalent traditional laboratory. This can be achieved through the integration of community colleges within extant, multi-institutional CREs such as the SEA-PHAGES program. Using a propensity score-matching technique, students in a CRE and traditional laboratory were compared on a range of psychosocial variables (project ownership, self-efficacy, science identity, scientific community values, and networking). Results revealed higher ratings for women and persons excluded because of their ethnicity or race (PEERs) in the SEA-PHAGES program on important predictors of persistence such as project ownership and science identity. This suggests that the usage of CREs at community colleges could have positive effects in addressing the gender gap for women and enhance inclusiveness for PEER students in STEM.

The course-based research experience (CRE) with its documented educational benefits is increasingly being implemented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. This article reports on a study that was done over a period of 3 years to explicate the instructional processes involved in teaching an undergraduate CRE. One hundred and two instructors from the established and large multi-institutional SEA-PHAGES program were surveyed for their understanding of the aims and practices of CRE teaching. This was followed by large-scale feedback sessions with the cohort of instructors at the annual SEA Faculty Meeting and subsequently with a small focus group of expert CRE instructors. Using a qualitative content analysis approach, the survey data were analyzed for the aims of inquiry instruction and pedagogical practices used to achieve these goals. The results characterize CRE inquiry teaching as involving three instructional models: (1) being a scientist and generating data; (2) teaching procedural knowledge; and (3) fostering project ownership. Each of these models is explicated and visualized in terms of the specific pedagogical practices and their relationships. The models present a complex picture of the ways in which CRE instruction is conducted on a daily basis and can inform instructors and institutions new to CRE teaching.

Disruptive student behavior, a common concern for teachers, presents particular challenges for those who teach art. Class-Wide Function-Related Intervention Teams (CW-FIT) is a multitiered intervention for implementing effective classroom management strategies aligned with schoolwide positive behavior interventions and supports. CW-FIT has proven effective in general education classrooms, with its emphasis on social skills instruction, teacher praise, group contingency, and positive reinforcement. This first study of CW-FIT implementation in elementary art classrooms examined its effects on student on-task behavior. The researchers used a single-subject (AB) design in one classroom and reversal designs (ABAB) in two classrooms. Results indicated student on-task behavior significantly improved, and the teacher was able to implement CW-FIT with fidelity as well as increase her praise-to-reprimand ratios. Both teacher and students found the intervention to be socially valid. Study implications and limitations are discussed.