About This Project

We are developing an apprenticeship based learning system for biology education to enable students to accelerate in their studies faster and begin conducting impactful research at an earlier age. This new system would provide an active learning alternative to current higher education options. As part of this system students would be paired with mentors to learn hands on lab skills and research fundamentals.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

Ask any undergraduate in Biology what they spend the majority of their time doing and the response will likely be “memorizing facts I could easily just google." Though the call for active learning strategies is nothing new, in the age of the internet the need to re-focus on critical thinking and implementation of knowledge becomes more glaring each year. An undergraduate education in biology leaves students woefully under prepared to conduct their own research, and as such a secondary degree is almost always required to prepare students for the workforce. In an era where global problems are on the rise and disruptive scientific research is on the decline we need a new way to train researchers that enables them to begin conducting impactful research earlier in their career.

What is the significance of this project?

The goal of this project is to develop an apprenticeship based learning system that enables students to accelerate their studies faster and begin conducting impactful research at an earlier age. Given that younger researchers are more innovative, by reducing the time required for students to begin their own research this new system has the potential to increase the amount of disruptive and innovative research conducted. As part of this new learning system students would also be connected to peers with diverse backgrounds conducting a variety of research. Since innovation often happens at the intersection this would provide students with exposure to a large number of topics and the opportunity to meet potential collaborators.

What are the goals of the project?

The overall goal of this project is to determine if an apprenticeship based learning system can accelerate student learning and decrease time to impactful research in comparison to conventional higher education programs. Project milestones are: 1- establish a network of researchers who are interested in participating in the program, 2- connect apprentices with experienced mentors, 3- develop resources to assist apprentices with their self directed learning, 4- assess and evaluate program performance every 3 months. Program performance will be measured by a number of metrics to determine knowledge learned, student research skills, and the time required to reach impactful research (commercialized or published).