Frontiers in the Nutrition Sciences Proceedings of a Symposium (1989) / Chapter Skim
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The Role of Undergraduate Research Colleges in the Education of Future Nutrition Scientists
The Role of Undergraduate Research Colleges in the Education of Future Nutrition Scientists
Pages 209-220
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From page 209... ...
An early definition of nutrition and its role in the basis of food selection was offered in 1927 by a prominent nutrition scientist, Ruth Wheeler, then a member of the Vassar College faculty: "The only wise basis for food selection is a thorough knowledge of nutrition: the value of various foods in terms of the nutrients they supply; the importance of each nutrient in nutrition of the body; the nutritive requirements of people of different ages and different conditions of health and activity" (American Red Cross 1927~. This definition differs little from many that have been offered over the more than 60 years since then, and indeed, it could be found with little alteration on the pages of most currently used nutrition textbooks.
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From page 210... ...
THE DEFINITION OF "RESEARCH COLLEGE" Research colleges include the finest of our undergraduate colleges, which have traditionally produced large numbers of the nation's subsequent science scholars and leading clinical investigators. In research colleges, faculty members in the biological sciences and their colleagues in related science and mathematics departments are training nearly one-half of the next generation of biological science scholars and physicians.
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From page 211... ...
TABLE 1 Doctoral Degree Origins of the 1985-1986 Science Faculty Harvard Wisconsin University of California, Berkeley Yale Illinois Michigan Massachusetts Princeton Institute of Technology Stanford Purdue University of California, Los Angeles Cal Tech Penn Colorado Iowa State Lehigh Case Western Rochester Cornell Ohio State Chicago Massachusetts Johns Hopkins Brown Columbia Oregon Rutgers State Dartmouth Indiana University of Washington Penn State Michigan State Minnesota Duke Kansas Washington Iowa North Carolina Pittsburgh Virginia Arizona Northwestern Syracuse Texas NOTE: There were a total of 1,385 doctoral degrees conferred by the indicated institutions. Each institution contributed at least eight doctoral degrees.
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From page 212... ...
Debate and study about the relationship of nutrients to disease and health figures prominently in the literature being written. The knowledge, tools, and technologies that now reside in the collective consciousness of biological scholars as we move into the next century hold serious implications for human society.
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From page 213... ...
To accomplish these ends, the infrastructure of the curriculum and departmental and collegial interactions must be such that, for example, students experience not only the individual pleasures and rigors of subdisciplinary study but also gain an appreciation of the overall intellectual network of ideas and the need for the constant communication among scholars that informs and shapes developing minds to be able to make creative leaps and connections. One of the great challenges of undergraduate science education, especially in the liberal arts setting, is to provide opportunity for detailed hands on state-of-the-art instrumental work, which is, by design, particular and subdisciplinarily specific, while at the same time encouraging students to keep minds open to ever-increasing opportunities for scholarship in emergent inter- and multidisciplinary fields.
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From page 214... ...
THE PAST RECORD OF RESEARCH COLLEGES Over the past several decades the research colleges, including Vassar College, have consistently contributed to maintenance of the scientific pipeline by proportionately outproducing the research universities in training science undergraduates. A 1951 Carnegie Foundation report examining the productivity of institutions whose graduates went on to obtain doctoral degrees in the sciences noted that small liberal arts colleges were prominently and disproportionately represented among the top 50 most productive institutions (Knapp and Goodrich, 1951~.
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From page 215... ...
Even more impressive is the evidence that while the number of baccalaureate degrees in basic sciences produced by the research universities fell by IS% over the past decade, the number produced by these colleges has remained constant over the same period. Furthermore, the percentage of science graduates is greater in the research colleges that it is In the universities, and this percentage has remained constant for over a decade (Figure 1~.
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From page 216... ...
addition, these graduates of the research colleges are prominently represented in measures of recognized scholarly contributions. For example, when the baccalaureate origins of members of the National Academy of Sciences were examined, 15 of the research colleges were represented in the top 25 institutions from which members obtained baccalaureate degrees.
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From page 217... ...
Furthermore, the representation of groups currently underpresented in science may be growing at these schools, and thus, the potential expansion of the overall pool may be possible in this setting. This current enrollment trend is in significant contrast to national trends at the highly selective top 20 research universities, where the percentage of freshmen intending to major in science is approximately IS% and is in stark contrast to overall national trends, for which the estimate is 5% (Figure 3~.
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From page 218... ...
In many of these colleges, upper-division courses feature project-oriented laboratories in which students first learn new basic methodologies, which they apply in the design, conduct, data analyses, and reporting of experimental projects. In addition to course-related laboratory learning, the biological sciences curriculum frequently offers students the opportunity to earn credit in independent study with faculty members.
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From page 219... ...
The increasing need for scientists in many disciplines will be competing for an ever-shrinking traditional pool of potential scientists for all fields of science in the future (National Science Board Task Force, 1986~. Thus, new mechanisms to expose students in these colleges to the excitement and opportunities in nutritionally related sciences must be found if we are to expect students to select careers in nutrition science.
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