Abstract
The undergraduate public health student body in the United States is increasingly diverse. The University of Washington Public Health-Global Health Major students are typically 80% Black, Indigenous, or people of color and 40% first-generation college students. Many students lack finances to accept unpaid research internships to further their careers following graduation. To address this equity issue, we embedded experiential learning into a required research course, ensuring all students gain practical, transferable public health research skills. In our large (>100 upper-level students) active-learning course, students design and conduct a complete cross-sectional study in one 10-week term. Using a flipped classroom approach, each instructor and teaching assistant coaches four groups of students to apply pre-recorded didactic lessons on each step of the research process to their study. Student groups complete highly structured deliverables during class and receive feedback twice weekly. Multiple, low-stakes assignments encourage individual learning. Daily group work culminates in two large assignments: a research protocol and report. As a result of this course, every graduate of our program-regardless of socioeconomic position-has at least one in-depth research experience on their resume. We have applied this teaching format 17 times over 7 years, reaching over 2,000 students. Graduates state that this class helped them obtain employment and prepared them for public health graduate studies. This course's highly structured active-learning methods, including dedicated coaching and incremental, cumulative assignments, supports the undergraduate classroom as a space for promoting equity and preparing students for future employment and graduate education.