Teamwork and Collaboration
in MCC CUREs

 Teamwork and Collaboration in MCC CUREs

In the Malate Dehydrogenase CUREs Community, we have developed different definitions for “teamwork” and “collaboration”. In our definition of teamwork, students worked in teams within their course but do not collaborate with other courses or other institutions. Recognizing that much current scientific research involves collaboration between scientists at different institutions, we have clearly defined “collaboration” as distinct from teamwork.  For collaboration, students worked in teams in their courses but also “collaborated” with students and/or faculty from another institution. Importantly, students in collaborative-CURE sections formally met at least twice with a faculty from an outside institution who had significant expertise working on MDH.  Meetings typically took place virtually and were facilitated by the home institution of the students during their scheduled lab sections. Prior to the first meeting, students read background literature, developed their own hypothesis and prepared slides to share with their collaborator. In the meeting, the external collaborator gave feedback on the hypothesis and sometimes a second meeting was scheduled to discuss a revised hypothesis. Towards the end of the semester, a final meeting was arranged. The students presented their data and discussed whether it supported/refuted their respective hypothesis. The students and the external collaborator talked about how the results connected to other research in the field, discussed any pitfalls and suggested new models and ways to test them.

Arranging Collaborative Activities in your MCC CURE

Since collaborations are dependent on the research area focused on, existing and potential collaborations are listed in the project area section of this web site. Collaborations can be at both regional or national levels and if you are interested in incorporating collaboration into your CURE please contact your regional director.