The Impact of Undergraduate Research Experience Intensity on Measures of Student Success

Despite the growing interest to provide research engagement opportunities to undergraduate students, few studies have investigated how engagement “intensity” impacts measures of student success. A quasi-experimental, matched-subject design was employed to study differences between varying levels of research experience intensity (i.e., Experienced, Novice, Control groups) on Graduating GPA, Time to Graduate, and type of post-graduation experience. Results indicated that experienced students had significantly higher graduating GPAs than novice or control students, and both research groups had significantly lower time to graduate than the control group. Findings also indicated experienced student researchers are significantly more likely to progress to graduate school than either novice research or control students. Implications for implementing research initiatives are discussed

Assessment of Student Learning of Undergraduate Research: Challenges, Strategies and Solutions

The complexities involved in establishing rigorous assessment practices across diverse content areas with faculty of varying degrees of assessment expertise can be challenging. Florida Atlantic University’s undergraduate research initiative includes a curricular and co-curricular initiative to enhance research in courses and programs across all disciplines. Faculty engage in curricular changes to improve student learning assessed through a common rubric and co-curricular involvement through rubrics developed for our symposium and undergraduate research journal. Participants will explore tools created to facilitate curricular and co-curricular change and reporting options used to more accurately reflect the effect such an initiative has on student learning

Catalyzing Curricular Change: Implementing and Assessing a Model for Integrating Research into the Curriculum

The curriculum grant program at Florida Atlantic University fosters the integration of undergraduate research and inquiry skills (URI) into the curriculum by supporting assignment, course and programmatic level enhancements. Faculty promote URI skills, represented by specific learning outcomes, by scaffolding student experiences within courses and across programs. Our model has undergone revisions in response to identifying best practices and more effective delivery strategies. Participants will explore methods to promote faculty development, encourage diverse content-area participation, and structure faculty communication to ensure impact and sustainability of efforts. Participants will also be exposed to examples of assessment tools and resultant data

Supporting Faculty during a pandemic: Creating collaborations to support Undergraduate Research

As campuses quickly pivoted to remote teaching and engagement during COVID-19, faculty faced significant challenges in converting their research and mentorship with undergraduates. At Florida Atlantic University, we observed a decline in faculty engagement with undergraduate researchers during summer 2020. In an effort to better support faculty mentors, we established a collaboration between FAU’s Office of Undergraduate Research and Inquiry, the Division of Research, Center for E-Learning, University Libraries, and FAU High School. This team created a resource guide and hosted a panel session to assist faculty whose research and mentorship of undergraduates were impacted by going virtual. In this presentation, we will discuss survey data documenting the decline in undergraduate research engagement and challenges faculty faced, including creating a remote community of inquiry, remote access to university instruments/software, and consideration for alternative, remote projects. We will also share the resource document we created to assist faculty

Part II- Partnering to Expand and Adapt STEM Research Communities at Three Institutions: The LEARN Consortium

The LEARN (Learning Environment and Academic Research Network) Consortium is a three institution, NSF-sponsored collaboration to study and create research learning communities, to impact STEM retention. This session will discuss the replicability of a first year STEM research community at two other institutions within the consortium. We will also outline how the core components (research engagement, tiered mentoring, and community building) have been adapted to meet the needs of an AA/AS transfer student population, and to accommodate different types of institutions. Evaluation and assessment data will be presented for Florida Atlantic University and Western Carolina University

General Chemistry 2 Laboratory: CHM 2046L

https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cnso_chemphys_facbooks/1015/thumbnail.jp

General Chemistry 1 Laboratory: CHM 2045L

https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cnso_chemphys_facbooks/1013/thumbnail.jp

General Chemistry 1 Laboratory

https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cnso_chemphys_facbooks/1001/thumbnail.jp

General Chemistry 1 Laboratory: CHM 2045L

https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cnso_chemphys_facbooks/1014/thumbnail.jp

The Impact of Undergraduate Research Experience Intensity on Measures of Student Success

Despite the growing interest to provide research engagement opportunities to undergraduate students, few studies have investigated how engagement “intensity” impacts measures of student success. A quasi-experimental, matched-subject design was employed to study differences between varying levels of research experience intensity (i.e., Experienced, Novice, Control groups) on Graduating GPA, Time to Graduate, and type of post-graduation experience. Results indicated that experienced students had significantly higher graduating GPAs than novice or control students, and both research groups had significantly lower time to graduate than the control group. Findings also indicated experienced student researchers are significantly more likely to progress to graduate school than either novice research or control students. Implications for implementing research initiatives are discussed