Ideas for research-based courses come from many places. Often, faculty already know of a corner of their fields that is accessible and of interest to students. The research may be something needed by the community.  Or the research can arise from a desire to collaborate with another faculty member.

For example,

• Dr. Linda George and her students at Portland State University (Oregon) are engaged, along with middle-school students, in research about the weather and air quality. They are currently operating and reporting near real-time data about air quality and meteorological parameters from around the Portland metro area. This research has been funded by the NSF. http://www.horizons.pdx.edu/
• Dula Amarasiriwardena and his chemistry students investigate stream quality near an abandoned lead mine as part of learning about ions, pH and other fundamentals of chemistry.
• My students in "How People Move" use the electromyograph to measure muscle activity.  They choose their own research projects based on their interests in sports, ergonomics, and dance.
• Carl Wamser's students at Portland State University learn techniques for measuring water quality and then design their own research projects.

Generating and screening ideas:

1. What are some ideas for end projects? Do they sound interesting? Are they "real" question whose answers are not yet known? Are they real-world applications (not a necessity, but a plus to students)?
2. Are the techniques sufficiently accessible to students?
3. Will there be enough equipment so that all students can participate? Or how will they rotate to share use?
4. Will all students work on one class project, with small groups taking on different aspects of the task? Or will different small groups choose quite separate projects?

 

With this model project in mind, it is time to think about how to design the course to build the skills that students need in order to complete the project.

Designing research-based courses means taking a radically different approach to course design-basing the syllabus on the skills and content needed for the end project rather than on a traditional "what's the content, what's the subject?" approach.

These additional questions about your research-based course can help you in planning:

1. How much time do you want to set aside for the research project, and how will that be structured? Do you want to leave half of the semester for the project? If so, what benchmarks will you set up so that you and the students know they are on track? It is often helpful to have some progress reports that are public events (e.g., oral reports to the whole class) so that accountability is enforced. Requiring a "Methods" section due early on can be a big help to students.
2. What skills will students need in order to carry out the final project?
3. How can you build up these skills in a series of smaller activities? One activity, such as a short investigative lab activity, can often serve to build several skills at once, incorporating techniques for measuring as well as data analysis.
4. Will there be more formal classroom activities (e.g. lectures and discussions)? How will these support the goal of student research? What content areas are absolutely vital for students to know so that they can engage in research?
5. What kinds of assessments will you use to gauge students' skills and content knowledge? How will you learn about students' responses to the course?