Peer teaching as a means to increase undergraduate student participation in research

Abstract

To bolster the number of students who pursue careers in science, it is imperative that we recognize the undergraduate years as a time to begin engaging students in research. Whether these undergraduates eventually enter graduate/medical school, go into K‐12 education, or pursue another career path altogether, a research experience is highly beneficial. Peer teaching has been used in different forms in higher education, commonly to allow higher enrollment in a course. However, it has been noted that utilizing students as teachers also affords them the opportunity to learn the material more deeply. In our laboratory, we have 7 to 12 undergraduate researchers at any given time. After becoming proficient with the technical aspects of their work, they each, in turn have assisted with training newer students. This has included undergraduates from our university, as well as those from other schools participating in a summer research program. Our experience indicates that this approach not only increases the number of undergraduates who can participate, but may also increase the number of students ultimately interested in scientific careers. The quality of the endeavor is reportedly high for both the peer teachers, as well as the new undergraduates, and we believe this improves participant satisfaction with their research experience. This study was funded in part by ND EPSCoR, NSF CAREER 0347259 and NSF REU Site 0639227.