AGU Town Hall on Discovery-Based Research Experiences

Members of the Geoscience Division of the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) are leading a Town Hall session at the upcoming American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting in San Francisco titled National Academy of Sciences Convocation Report: Integrating Discovery-Based Research Experiences into the Undergraduate STEM Curriculum.

New possibilities and challenges to providing and scaling up opportunities for large numbers of undergraduates to engage in discovery-based research and related activities reflect the evidence base and current systemic infrastructure of higher education. The National Research Council hosted a Convocation in May 2015 on this very topic, inspired by the 2012 PCAST report “Engage to Excel,” which urged the STEM education community and funding agencies to “advocate and provide support for replacing standard laboratory courses with discovery-based research courses.” Panelists Laura Guertin (member of Convocation organizing committee and GeoCUR Council), Jeffrey Ryan (GeoCUR Council and Convocation participant), and Pranoti Asher (Geo CUR member and Convocation participant, representing AGU) will speak to the Convocation report and explore critical issues on student benefits, required institutional changes, and managing costs/benefits.

Copies of the Convocation report will be available at the Town Hall for attendees. In addition, the report can be ordered online or downloaded for free from: http://www.nap.edu/catalog/21851.

The Town Hall is being held on Wednesday, December 16, 2015, from 12:30PM to 1:30PM, in Moscone West 2009. Questions about the report and session may be directed to Laura Guertin (guertin “at” psu.edu).

For those unable to attend the Town Hall, a poster on the same topic will be presented on Monday morning (8AM to Noon), December 14, in Moscone South Poster Hall, Booth 851. The poster can be viewed online.