FIGURE 1.

Likert-scale survey data from a three-year study of a research-based biology lab course. Students were asked a series of questions about (A) their interest in future research (2 questions), (B) their confidence in their ability to do lab-based tasks (6 questions), and (C) their attitudes towards authentic research (4 questions). Student scores on each question on the pre-course survey were subtracted from their scores on the post-course survey and averaged for that block of questions to get the main gain per question. Data shown are from three years that the course was offered to: volunteer students (n = 20 for the cookbook, n = 20 for research-based course), randomized students (n = 33 for cookbook, n = 33 for research-based course), and scaled-up research-based course students (n = 128). *p < 0.05 (Note: Data from Cookbook and Research-based Volunteers (7) and Research-based Randomized students (20) have previously been published.)