Entering Research: A Course That Creates Community and Structure for Beginning Undergraduate Researchers in the STEM Disciplines

Abstract

Undergraduate research experiences have been shown to enhance the educational experience and retention of college students, especially those from underrepresented populations. However, many challenges still exist relative to building community among students navigating large institutions. We developed a novel course called Entering Research that creates a learning community to support beginning undergraduate researchers and is designed to parallel the Entering Mentoring course for graduate students, postdocs, and faculty serving as mentors of undergraduate researchers. The course serves as a model that can be easily adapted for use across the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines using a readily available facilitator's manual. Course evaluations and rigorous assessment show that the Entering Research course helps students in many ways, including finding a mentor, understanding their place in a research community, and connecting their research to their course work in the biological and physical sciences. Students in the course reported statistically significant gains in their skills, knowledge, and confidence as researchers compared with a control group of students, who also were engaged in undergraduate research but not enrolled in this course. In addition, the faculty and staff members who served as facilitators of the Entering Research course described their experience as rewarding and one they would recommend to their colleagues.

The Gatsby Plant Science Summer School: Inspiring the Next Generation of Plant Science Researchers

“…Furthermore, 81% of all bursary-funded students stated that the experience had influenced their career aspirations. These data suggest that a positive undergraduate research experience has a significant impact on students choosing to pursue a research career in plant science and supports other studies documenting undergraduate research placement programs (Balster et al, 2010;BBSRC, 2010).…”

“…Recent educational studies provide experimental evidence in support of programs that increase student interest in plants (Strgar, 2007) and promote undergraduate interest and confidence in research (Balster et al, 2010). These reports and our findings highlight the importance of exposing students, at all levels, to knowledgeable and enthusiastic teachers.…”

Researching undergraduate social science research

“…Student involvement in discovery at university is considered to be transformative (Balster et al 2010); published accounts of this, however, privilege STEM contexts in contrast to social, behavioural or economic sciences (SBES). It is understood that interaction between university staff ('faculty' in American institutions) and students can transform academic achievement and can also positively influence students' decisions to pursue post-graduate education (Hathaway, Nagda and Gregerman 2002, 1-2).…”

“…Much is written about undergraduate research students' experience(s) in the natural sciences or science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects (see, e.g., Linn et al [2015]; Thiry and Laursen [2011]; Balster et al [2010]; Lopatto [2010Lopatto [ , 2007Lopatto [ , 2004; Shellito et al [2001] and Sabatini [1997]). However there are fewer discussions around undergraduate research where contexts and datasets span, or compare, the natural and social sciences (see, e.g., Jenkins [2009a, 2009b]; Taylor and Wilding [2009]; Russell, Hancock and McCullough [2007]; Kinkead [2003]; Hathaway, Nagda and Gregerman [2002]) and far fewer examples that focus solely on the social sciences (see, e.g., Kilburn, Nind and Wiles [2014]; Todd, Bannister and Clegg [2004]; Ishiyama [2002]).…”

Aerospace engineering training: universities experience

“…2. to provide flexibility, interdisciplinarity and logistics of training modules; 3. to implement network forms for organization of the educational process; 4. to develop strategic cooperation with schools and businesses; 5. to improve the quality of training in fundamental disciplines; 6. to create a career guidance system (starting with primary school); 7. to ensure implementation of space-related research; 8. tointroducepracticalcoursepapersandcreativeprojectsonspacesubjects (offering a wide range of problems and tasks); 9. to solve specific problems of the space industry within the training modules; 10. to introduce modules of technology entrepreneurship; 11. to establish interactive exhibitions and museums with real exhibits, to use prototyping and 3-D modeling equipment in the classroom. In addition, some changes must be carried out in terms of Human resources: management of educational programs by experts with practical experience, representatives of companies involved in assessment of competencies of the graduates completing these educational programs, transition from the curatorial support to tutors for project activities [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19].…”