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The Genomics Education Partnership (GEP) engages students in a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE). To better understand the student attributes that support success in this CURE, we asked students about their attitudes using previously published scales that measure epistemic beliefs about work and science, interest in science, and grit. We found, in general, that the attitudes students bring with them into the classroom contribute to two outcome measures, namely, learning as assessed by a pre- and postquiz and perceived self-reported benefits. While the GEP CURE produces positive outcomes overall, the students with more positive attitudes toward science, particularly with respect to epistemic beliefs, showed greater gains. The findings indicate the importance of a student's epistemic beliefs to achieving positive learning outcomes.

There is widespread agreement that science, technology, engineering, and mathematics programs should provide undergraduates with research experience. Practical issues and limited resources, however, make this a challenge. We have developed a bioinformatics project that provides a course-based research experience for students at a diverse group of schools and offers the opportunity to tailor this experience to local curriculum and institution-specific student needs. We assessed both attitude and knowledge gains, looking for insights into how students respond given this wide range of curricular and institutional variables. While different approaches all appear to result in learning gains, we find that a significant investment of course time is required to enable students to show gains commensurate to a summer research experience. An alumni survey revealed that time spent on a research project is also a significant factor in the value former students assign to the experience one or more years later. We conclude: 1) implementation of a bioinformatics project within the biology curriculum provides a mechanism for successfully engaging large numbers of students in undergraduate research; 2) benefits to students are achievable at a wide variety of academic institutions; and 3) successful implementation of course-based research experiences requires significant investment of instructional time for students to gain full benefit. [Contains 82 pages of Supplemental Material, which can be found at: http://www.lifescied.org/content/suppl/2014/02/12/13.1.111.DC1.html.]

Background: Few studies have focused on the genetic competencies of undergraduate nursing students. The aims of this study include measuring undergraduate nursing students' knowledge, perceived comfort, and attitude toward genetics, and gauging the effectiveness of a brief genetics education session. Method: Undergraduate nursing students (N = 32) were recruited to participate in a survey. A subset (n = 6) then participated in a 1-hour review of basic genetic concepts and activities, with applications to clinical scenarios. Both groups repeated the survey and their results were compared. Results: Students attending the education session had higher knowledge scores than the control group and reported higher levels of comfort with genetics-related tasks. No differences in student attitudes exist. Conclusion: This pilot study suggests that a brief but focused education session can increase the level of genetics knowledge and comfort in undergraduate nursing students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]