Undergraduate research (UGR) has grown in prominence and stature over the past 25 years as it has been embraced at institutions of all types. The enormous changes that have been made to support these endeavors have led to many success stories but also have created many challenges for faculty operationalizing these activities. In this article, the successes and challenges of institutionalizing UGR at primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs) are described, and the concerns that still need attention are addressed. .'assisting faculty in remaining student-oriented rather than becoming research-oriented, the primary reason to do research at PTAs and valuing the process of doing UGR along with the products of the work are probed. The creation of scaffolded, backward-designed, research-rich curricula is discussed, and some of the remaining challenges to institutionalizing UGR are considered.
The national prominence of undergraduate research arises from both the myriad benefits offered for a wide range of stakeholders and the variety of modes in which this scholarly endeavor may be pursued. The evolution of undergraduate research in the United States parallels that of a social movement, with an array of participant entities that aspire to incorporate the research process into undergraduate curricula. Throughout its history, the Council on Undergraduate Research has contributed significantly to the extraordinary development of this form of engaged learning. Although it is thriving, the undergraduate research movement must address emerging as well as potential challenges facing higher education today to continue to flourish and serve greater numbers of students.
Communication is a diverse discipline that includes many social scientific, humanistic, and critical modes of inquiry. After elucidating several challenges to teaching a communication research methods course, this article describes a four-credit, one-semester "research incubator" that was piloted by two faculty members and seven students at a midsize, private, New England college in spring 2017. The incubator built upon the methods class, involving students in one of three projects: content analysis of race/ethnicity and character deaths in The Walking Dead, textual analysis of mortality and morality in The Walking Dead, and focus group analysis of podcast listener motivations. Assessment of students' research and soft skills revealed that the course involved valuable experiences with methodological rigor as well as critical thinking, analysis, and group communication skills.
Student research clubs provide a forum to help students not only be successful researchers but successful graduates as well.This model provides leadership experience, student institutional involvement, social enrichment, collaboration, and peer accountability in addition to research training.Benefits of a discipline-specific research club include training tailored to the particular field (for example, ethical animal use for those disciplines that have research involving animals), increased collective interest in peer projects, exposure
Two decades ago, when the author evaluated the impacts of Summer Research Opportunity Programs focused on minority undergraduates in STEM at 15 universities, blacks, Latinx/Ilispanics, and Native Americans were dramatically underrepresented among PhD recipients in STEM fields. In the 20 years that followed, there have been significant increases in the representation of blacks and Latinx among STEM PhD recipients. The author discusses changes in research programs focused on underrepresented minorities over the last two decades, as well as the best practices that have not only enabled underrepresented minority participants to succeed in graduate school but also may improve the outcomes of any research program attempting to recruit and retain more undergraduates in STEM.
For 60 years, the National Science Foundation's commitment to undergraduate research experiences has shaped the course of undergraduate research opportunities, from apprenticeship model-based experiences to team-based and classroom-based collaborations for a diverse group of students. Scaling the opportunity so that students may participate in an equitable and inclusive way has been a priority since the inception of the program. Applying the growing research base in undergraduate science, engineering, and mathematics education to development of optimal research experiences for undergraduates is the next frontier.
Quantifying undergraduate participation in institutional research activities is challenging. This article describes an approach for estimating student participation in scholarly activities using a parametric model to follow the inflows and outflows of students in terms of classes (first-, second-, third-, and fourth-year students) and to control for duplications. The goal is to obtain a participation rate (among a graduating class) of students who have at any time participated in a scholarly activity. An example is presented for East Tennessee State University (ETSU). Model outcomes are compared and generally found to agree with averages from multiyear responses by ETSU with the National Survey of Student Engagement. The model is flexible to allow for application to diverse program designs.
In the past decade, the assessment of undergraduate research experience (URE) and course-based undergraduate research (CURE) has evolved and significantly expanded, with hundreds of studies published in books, white papers, technical reports, and academic journals. Much of the work has focused on the impact of URE and CURE on students, leading to new insights about the importance of mentoring and student self-efficacy and the identification of essential features of URE and CURE. Studies focusing on the impact of URE on faculty members and institutions have remained limited. The advent of a variety of assessment instruments and the spread of this high-impact practice across all academic fields suggest that the timing is ripe for new areas of study.
The MERCURY consortium, established in 2000, has contributed greatly to the scientific development of faculty and undergraduates. The MERCURY faculty peer review publication rate from 2001-2019 of 1.7 papers/faculty/year is 3.4 times the rate of physical science faculty at primarily undergraduate institutions. We have worked with over 1000 students on research projects since 2001, and 75% of our undergraduate research students have been underrepresented in chemistry, either female or students of color. Approximately half of our alumni attend graduate school for the purpose of obtaining advanced degrees in STEM fields and 2/3 are female and/or students of color. We have had more than 1600 attendees at the 18 MERCURY conferences, including 111 invited speakers, 61 of whom have been female and/or faculty of color. In this paper the research accomplishments, transformational outcomes, and scientific productivity of the MERCURY faculty are highlighted.
Student researchers are rarely trained to explain their work to a general audience but must do so throughout their careers. To assist undergraduate researchers in building this skill, the Student Research Showdown-a research video and presentation competition-was created at the University of Texas at Austin. Students create brief videos on which their peers vote, and the top video creators face off with presentations and are awarded prizes by a panel of judges. Students reflect on their experiential learning as they construct a narrative that disseminates their findings, communicates impact, and serves as a sharable testament to their success. Indirect measures indicate that students improve their research communication skills by participating in this event.
The Freshmen Research Initiative at Iowa State University promotes student interest and retention in science through introductory course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs). Successful strategies for the implementation of CUREs on a large scale in an affordable manner included the use of a postdoctoral coordinator and affiliation with student learning communities. Across multiple disciplines, students in single-semester introductory research courses reported personal gains related to research, to thinking and working like scientists, to attitudes and behaviors of a scientist, and to gains in skills as reported on the Undergraduate Research Student Self-Assessment. Key outcomes related to persistence in STEM, including self-efficacy and project ownership, were also suggested as early gains due to course-based research.
The Florida Undergraduate Research Conference (FURC) is an annual multidisciplinary conference that enables student scholars to present their research, network with other students, and attend professional development seminars. FURC has been held since 2011 and has featured more than 2,100 student presentations with participation from a broad array of institutions within the state. Survey data indicate that FURC is the first conference presentation for the majority of participants and that participation in the conference is associated with several positive outcomes. This article describes the history, structure, and planning of the conference and as well provides survey and outcome data that may assist other states and geographic areas as they consider forming their own conferences.
The Community Mapping and Analytics Project (MAP) at Allegheny College aims to collect, combine, analyze, and display data from myriad sources, including the US Census, US Department of Transportation, and the Pennsylvania Department of Health, as well as local police departments, 911 call centers, human services agencies, and the community hospital.With this data, the interdisciplinary research team-composed of community organizers, student researchers, a GIS specialist, and an epidemiologist-is creating a single data repository that can be used to answer questions related to community health.MAP is a research and public policy collaboration among academic researchers, including undergraduate researchers, health services providers, and community leaders.The ethical principles of community-based participatory research guide the project.
Disciplinary identity, or connection to a particular academic discipline, is constructed through a developmental process across a scholar's academic life course. Using unique data from an online survey of students at four different types of colleges and universities, this study investigates the extent to which disciplinary identity among undergraduate researchers is connected to their human and social capital and differs between social and natural scientists. Disciplinary identity for natural scientists is correlated with mentoring, being a first-generation student, and having a disability, whereas disciplinary identity for social scientists is correlated with only one factor: grit. Implications for institutions and undergraduate programs desiring to enhance the connection between students and their fields of study are discussed.
As libraries build in-house publishing programs, they can aid campus undergraduate research journal efforts in several ways. They may provide publishing platforms, archive student work such as multimedia, professionalize titles through activities such as assigning DOIs, and offer instructional training that introduces undergraduates to the content creation process. To better understand the current landscape of undergraduate research publications, this study establishes an index of undergraduate research journals for the United States across all disciplines. This article examines several qualitative characteristics from a sample size of the index, including the publication processes, the review process, intellectual property issues, journal professionalization, and library involvement. The authors also offer an outline of guiding principles that can assist faculty mentors and students in making decisions regarding the student publication process.
