Engaging Undergraduates in Science Research: Not Just About Faculty Willingness.

Despite the many benefits of involving undergraduates in research and the growing number of undergraduate research programs, few scholars have investigated the factors that affect faculty members' decisions to involve undergraduates in their research projects. We investigated the individual factors and institutional contexts that predict faculty members' likelihood of engaging undergraduates in their research project(s). Using data from the Higher Education Research Institute's 2007-2008 Faculty Survey, we employ hierarchical generalized linear modeling to analyze data from 4,832 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) faculty across 194 institutions to examine how organizational citizenship behavior theory and social exchange theory relate to mentoring students in research. Key findings show that faculty who work in the life sciences and those who receive government funding for their research are more likely to involve undergraduates in their research project(s). In addition, faculty at liberal arts or historically Black colleges are significantly more likely to involve undergraduate students in research. Implications for advancing undergraduate research opportunities are discussed

Research Mentoring and Scientist Identity: Insights from Undergraduates and their Mentors

Background Mentored research apprenticeships are a common feature of academic outreach programs that aim to promote diversity in science fields. The current study tests for links between three forms of mentoring (instrumental, socioemotional, and negative) and the degree to which undergraduates psychologically identify with science. Participants were 66 undergraduate-mentor dyads who worked together in a research apprenticeship. The undergraduate sample was predominantly composed of women, first-generation college students, and members of ethnic groups that are historically underrepresented in science. Results Findings illustrated that undergraduates who reported receiving more instrumental and socioemotional mentoring were higher in scientist identity. Further, mentors who reported engaging in higher levels of negative mentoring had undergraduates with lower scientist identity. Qualitative data from undergraduates’ mentors provided deeper insight into their motivation to become mentors and how they reason about conflict in their mentoring relationships. Conclusions Discussion highlights theoretical implications and details several methodological recommendations

Engagement in Authentic Geoscience Research: Evaluation of Research Experiences of Undergraduates and Secondary Teachers

This article examines the effects of a program involving authentic research on the participants' interest in research, career plans, and attitudes on science. The findings are from the first year of a three-year program funded by the National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates program. In three out of four projects, participants increased their interest in research, with two-thirds planning to change career plans to become more research-oriented. The implications of these findings for providing authentic research opportunities are discussed. Educational levels: Graduate or professional

Measuring the Effects of a Research-Based Field Experience on Undergraduates and K-12 Teachers

During the summer of 1999, a new type of field course was taught in five of eastern Utah's National Parks and Monuments. It targeted a combination of university undergraduates and K-12 teachers, emphasized development of participants' problem-solving skills, and assessed the effectiveness of several non-traditional teaching methods. The course's primary goal was to teach participants to develop and test their own ideas. The course was also designed to help participants learn to use tools and methods employed by research scientists. A mix of undergraduates and teachers was targeted so that the course could be used to introduce undergraduates to the concept of teaching as a career. Assessments of the course's effectiveness were made on the basis of the achievements of stated outcomes, and by pre-course and post-course testing. Educational levels: Graduate or professional

How to Make Friends and Influence Students

Presented at the California Academic & Research Libraries 2014 ConferenceGiven the widespread adoption of social media on the University of San Diego’s (USD) campus, Copley Library formed a Social Media Committee to manage the library’s social media presence with a mission to promote the library’s services and events. To determine which social media platforms undergraduates were using the committee designed and administered a survey in the fall of 2013. The survey confirmed that USD undergraduates were still using Facebook and showed 56% use multiple social media sites. The conference session discussed Copley Library’s implementation of four social networking platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter

Investigating the influence of music training on verbal memory

Previous research has shown that musical training is associated with enhanced verbal memory. The current study investigated the generality of this association by presenting undergraduates who had received musical training (n = 20) and undergraduates with no formal music training (n = 20) with four types of word list; high visual imagery, high auditory imagery, high tactile imagery, and abstract. Those who had received music training showed enhanced memory for all word lists, suggesting that music training leads to a general enhancement in verbal memory that is not restricted to specific types of words (e.g., those invoking auditory imagery). The findings support previous research in showing that music training enhances cognitive skills beyond those that are specific to the domain of music. The possible cognitive and neural factors underpinning this effect are discussed

Supporting Undergraduate Research: Recommending Personalized Research Projects to Undergraduates

Undergraduates’ participation in faculty-mentored research is becoming an important issue in tertiary education in recent years, and it benefits both undergraduates and faculty members. In reality, many faculty members have research projects that need help from undergraduates, but undergraduates can hardly find the information, which creates information asymmetry problem. Besides, undergraduates lack the experience of doing academic research, the research interest information is incomplete, so they have difficulties in choosing suitable research projects. Thus recommender systems are necessary to facilitate undergraduates’ participation in research projects. Traditional recommendation approaches require relative complete information for decision making, and they can hardly meet the requirements as undergraduates’ research information is incomplete. In this study, we propose a two-stage model that integrates content-based method with collaborative method by leveraging research social networks, where undergraduates are encouraged to connect with faculty members and participate in social network activities, through which research information is collected. The proposed two-stage model alleviates the problems of information asymmetry and incomplete information. The recommender system has been developed in ScholarMate (www.scholarmate.com), and it allows undergraduates to choose suggested research projects

A Student Research Manual: Helping Students Help Themselves Identifying and Addressing Challenges Facing Prospective Undergraduate Researchers

Undergraduate research does not only help equip STEM majors to be better researchers and employees but increases retention of students to graduate school in needed scientific fields. However, while resources are being produced for undergraduates like Undergraduate Research Experiences (UREs), Centers for Undergraduate Research and Scholarship (CURS), and Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs), undergraduate involvement and awareness about these resources, and the value of undergraduate research in general, does not seem to be improving. Therefore, it would be valuable to figure out why undergraduates aren\u27t autonomously seeking out undergraduate research during their studies. To investigate why, a two-part survey was developed using the experience of a single undergraduate who, after complications, was able to participate in undergraduate research via a summer research fellowship. The survey asks undergraduates to rate their ability to perform certain aptitudes that are important for research as well as skills that aren\u27t important to research but undergraduates still consider valuable. They were then asked to rate the importance of these skills for acquiring and undergraduate research position. The same survey was administered to faculty. The goal is to determine where faculty and undergraduates are and aren\u27t aligned in terms of both undergraduates\u27 skill level and the importance of each skill. With this data we hope to communicate both to faculty and undergraduates the misconceptions facing each party and to bridge the gap between researchers and undergraduates. In doing so, increasing communication and fostering a climate that will enable more undergraduates to participate in undergraduate research

Event program

UNLV Undergraduates from all departments, programs and colleges participated in a campus-wide symposium on April 16, 2011. Undergraduate posters from all disciplines and also oral presentations of research activities, readings and other creative endeavors were exhibited throughout the festival

Event program

UNLV Undergraduates from all departments, programs and colleges participated in a campus-wide symposium on April 16, 2011. Undergraduate posters from all disciplines and also oral presentations of research activities, readings and other creative endeavors were exhibited throughout the festival