Leveraging the UFERN Model to Improve International Research Experiences for Undergraduates

As undergraduate students cultivate their scientific knowledge and abilities, several high-impact educational practices such as undergraduate research and global experiences have proven exponentially beneficial for their development and success. Current literature on underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities has focused primarily on the impact of undergraduate research on this subpopulation. However, fewer studies have explored the impact of global research experiences and women of color in international research experiences. Grounded in the theoretical frameworks of Social Cognitive Career Theory, Intersectionality, and Community Cultural Wealth, this present study explored the impact of international undergraduate research experiences on women of color from groups underrepresented in chemistry. We found that, after participating in international research, women of color from historically underrepresented groups (1) were aware of the realities of being a woman and a minority in STEM, (2) had utilized a wealth of cultural capital to navigate the international research experience, (3) had recognized the value of the international research experience on their personal growth, and (4) had recognized the benefits of their international research experience on postundergraduate pursuits. The findings suggest that international research experiences contribute substantially to the holistic development of women of color in scientific disciplines such as chemistry.

The impacts of globalization, changing socio-demographics, and technological advances are uniquely altering the role of engineering in society, identifying significant challenges in the way colleges and universities address the engineering profession, engineering education, and associated engineering student assessment processes and practices. Schools of engineering have been challenged to reconsider how they prepare their graduates to bring high level skills and strategies including team focused innovation, a comprehensive engineering problem-solving approach, cultural competence, globally focused ethics, and leadership to the workplace. Numerous prominent organizations including the National Academy of Engineering, the National Science Foundation, and the National Research Council have charged engineering schools to task on preparing engineers for global workforces. In response, many engineering programs are experimenting with strategies and programs designed to prepare students to solve important engineering problems that stretch far beyond national boundaries geographically, technologically, culturally and socio-politically. Sparse research exists, however, that comprehensively assesses globally focused outcomes associated with such engineering efforts, and the simple question remains: Are international efforts effective? The researchers compare the experiences of students participating in two Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) programs funded by the National Science Foundation; the NanoJapan International REU Program in Japan and the domestic Rice Quantum Institute (RQT) REU at Rice University. NanoJapan is a twelve-week summer program through which twelve freshman and sophomore physics and engineering students from U.S. universities complete research internships in Japanese nanotechnology laboratories. The RQI is a ten-week undergraduate REU in which sophomore and junior students from U.S. universities complete research in atomic, molecular, optical, surface, materials, chemical and biophysical sciences with faculty at Rice University. The students completed the Engineering Global Preparedness Index (EGPI), a multi-dimensional engineering global preparedness index that measures students' preparedness for global workforces. The four subscales in the EGPI directly align to important soft or professional skills needed by both engineers and other globally prepared professionals. By comparing EGPI results among participants in a domestic and international research experience, the researchers sought to gain insight into what global workforce competencies were developed in an international setting in comparison with the experience of conducting research in a domestic lab setting. Results indicate that the students in the NanoJapan program demonstrated greater increases in engineering global preparedness than the RQI students, and that the RQI students, who did not go abroad, actually declined on most measures of global preparedness at the end of the summer. The researchers posit that this may be attributed to the NanoJapan curriculum that encouraged participants to actively reflect on cultural aspects of research and to the nature of the international experience itself. Moreover, the NanoJapan experience may more closely mirror the typical global workforce/team experience students will encounter after graduation once entering the workforce. The researchers discuss implications for the design of international research and internship experiences.

Undergraduate research and international experiences are often described as high-impact educational practices beneficial for undergraduate student success and for supporting the development of science identity and intercultural competencies. While several studies have investigated the impact of undergraduate research on students from minoritized groups, fewer studies have focused on their engagement in global experiences, and fewer still have explored their engagement in international research experiences. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of Science Identity, Social Cognitive Career Theory, and the Intercultural Competence Model, this present study explores the benefits of participating in an international research experience for minority undergraduate scientists. Using a qualitative case study methodology, we examined the evolution of students' science identity, research competencies, and intercultural competence after engaging in a three-month international research opportunity in France and Belgium. We found that after participating in international research, minority undergraduate scientists had: (1) Increased confidence in their science identity and abilities; (2) Gained and strengthened skills necessary to be a successful researcher, (3) Recognized the influence of international exposure on their growth personally and professionally, (4) Expressed how monumental this research opportunity is for all minority students to experience. Our findings suggest substantial benefits from an international research experience on the development of minority undergraduate scientists.

Undergraduate research and international experiences are often described as high-impact educational practices beneficial for undergraduate student success and for supporting the development of science identity and intercultural competencies. While several studies have investigated the impact of undergraduate research on students from minoritized groups, fewer studies have focused on their engagement in global experiences, and fewer still have explored their engagement in international research experiences. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of Science Identity, Social Cognitive Career Theory, and the Intercultural Competence Model, this present study explores the benefits of participating in an international research experience for minority undergraduate scientists. Using a qualitative case study methodology, we examined the evolution of students’ science identity, research competencies, and intercultural competence after engaging in a three-month international research opportunity in France and Belgium. We found that after participating in international research, minority undergraduate scientists had: 1) Increased confidence in their science identity and abilities; 2) Gained and strengthened skills necessary to be a successful researcher, 3) Recognized the influence of international exposure on their growth personally and professionally, 4) Expressed how monumental this research opportunity is for all minority students to experience. Our findings suggest substantial benefits from an international research experience on the development of minority undergraduate scientists.

The current study presented an initial evaluation, following Year 1, of a National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsored Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program in chemical engineering conducted at a large Mid-Atlantic research university. A methodology for evaluating student outcomes from undergraduate research experiences was also proposed. Evaluation of the REU program relied upon an extensive assessment methodology, utilizing preand post-survey measures of research and scientific-based experiences and skills as well as indepth student and faculty mentor interviews of REU experiences, gains, and perceived benefits. Participants (n = 21; 25% female; 42% underrepresented minority status) evidenced significant gains in broad research experience and specific research-based skills and experiences after completing the REU program. Specific production metrics, ratings of research experiences, as well as initial graduate school plans and outcomes, were also obtained. Results indicated involvement in presentations and publications as well as moderate to high ratings of core REU experiences. A key finding from the study is the clarifying role the REU program played in facilitating students’ graduate school plans; results support REU programs as a refining experience rather than a prompting experience for graduate school outcomes. Qualitative analysis of student interview data revealed a perceived significant benefit of working collaboratively with other students while engaged in the research experience and an increased and improved understanding of the nature of research. Qualitative analysis of faculty mentor interview data corroborated the perceived benefits of student pairing and research collaboration, and also noted the ability of student pairing to facilitate student work and time management. Despite high ratings of core REU program elements, students expressed a desire for more time working with and under the advisement of faculty mentors. Across students and faculty mentors, suggestion was made for the inclusion of additional social and related events and programs to further facilitate research collaboration and integration during the program. Limitations, recommendations for improvement of the REU program and for future evaluation of the REU, and implications for institutions interested in implementing REU programs are discussed.

The Importance of Scientific Publishing: Teaching an Undergraduate How to Swim the Entire Length of the Pool

Undergraduate education represents an important transitional stage in which students make career decisions, and undergraduate research experiences (UREs) play a critical role in training the next generation of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics researchers. Extensive studies have identified the different ways in which researchers and graduate students understand their profession, but little work has focused on undergraduate students. To contribute to this gap in literature, this study examines how undergraduate students conceptualize successful researchers. Data were collected using semistructured interviews with transfer students at a research-intensive university, in which participants articulated how they perceive a successful researcher and how their conception had changed based on their undergraduate experiences. Using phenomenography as the research approach, three conceptions of successful researchers were identified based on variations within the following aspects: process of research, interactions with other researchers, and scope of contribution. Retrospective conceptions were more simplistic, with little appreciation for the complex methodological processes and collaborations needed to meaningfully contribute to the research community. After UREs, participants reported conceptions with more nuanced understanding that successful researchers demonstrate proactive engagement, collaboration, and contribution. These findings can be applied to facilitate meaningful research experiences and target undergraduates’ professional development as they are enculturated into the research community.

ABSTRACTResearch experience for undergraduate (REU) programs are designed to recruit students to science and engineering research careers by allowing the students to conduct research with faculty mentors. International research experiences can enhance the research experience by allowing the student to conduct research in a unique environment and also provide the student with a more global perspective. This paper describes the outcomes of an international REU program in which students quantify hydrological and biogeochemical fluxes in a tropical montane forest in central Costa Rica. Having the students at a central research station location and focusing their research on a common research problem is an important aspect of an international REU program, to avoid a feeling of isolation and to ensure that the students remain safe in their research and during their free time. However, this shared experience can highlight differences among the faculty mentors and make the students evaluate their individual experience more critically. To better understand the relationship between the REU student and their faculty mentor(s), we conducted pre- and post-trip focus groups to understand the students' experience in the REU and the manner in which the faculty mentor can affect that experience and the desire to continue in research. Results of the pre-trip focus group suggest that the undergraduate students are most concerned about their projects and give little to no thought about the faculty mentor with whom they will be completing their research. Post-trip results from 2011 and 2012 suggest that mentors had a much greater impact on the experience than expected. Many students said that their future research/graduate school plans were affected by their REU mentor relationship, and that while they might not have considered the importance of faculty mentors before the research experience, they now recognize the mentor as a crucial aspect of a research project. Using a classification system commonly used in management research, the mentoring styles were classified with management classification styles as autocratic, democratic, or laissez-faire. The overall results suggest that the student-to-mentor relationship created through these authentic experiences is one of the most important aspects of REU programs, and that the mentoring style not only determines the research productivity of the student, but also appears to influence the decision of that student to conduct research in the future and/or attend graduate school. The mentoring style also affects research productivity and allows students to identify the characteristics they perceive as important to success in a graduate program. While this paper focuses on a single REU program, the results provide baseline data to examine the role of the faculty mentor across other REU programs and in decisions about graduate research by both the student and the faculty. Mentoring styles and student expectations of their mentors should be taken into consideration when developing a research experience and pairing mentors with prospective students.

Research is one of the key distinguishing features of an academic institution. The way an institution grooms its future researchers determines its long term survival. The ability to do and communicate ones research findings is so important that it is now an internationally recognized minimum competency for graduate of any medical school. To remain relevant the Faculty of Medicine Makerere University needs to identify research enhancing opportunities like undergraduate research experiences. This was a cross sectional study involving 424 graduate and undergraduate students of Makerere University Medical School on the traditional curriculum. A self administered questionnaire was used to capture reported details of individual research experiences. There were 424 student respondents, 88% of whom were undergraduates (372/424). About 41% (176/424) of these respondents reported having had a previous research experience. Among the postgraduates 74% (37/50) reported having had a previous research experience compared with 68% (139/342) of the undergraduates [OR=4.16, 2.07-8.57]. The sum of individual undergraduate experiences had the strongest positive correlation with the total number of studies done by an individual [R=0.801]. Early, guided undergraduate research experience can be used to promote research within the Faculty of Medicine Makerere University. Running Head: Research Undergraduates Makerere.

Understanding the impact of undergraduate research experiences (UREs) and course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) is crucial as universities debate the value of allocating scarce resources to these activities. We report on the Berkeley Undergraduate Research Evaluation Tools (BURET), designed to assess the learning outcomes of UREs and CUREs in chemistry and other sciences. To validate the tools, we administered BURET to 70 undergraduate students in the College of Chemistry and 19 students from other STEM fields, comparing the performance of students who had less than one year of undergraduate research to those with more than one year of research experience. Students wrote reflections and responded to interviews during poster presentations of their research project. BURET asks students to communicate the significance of their project, analyze their experimental design, interpret their data, and propose future research. Scoring rubrics reward students for integrating disciplinary evidence into their narratives. We found that the instruments yielded reliable scores, and the results clarified the impacts of undergraduate research, specifically characterizing the strengths and weaknesses of undergraduate researchers in chemistry at our institution. Students with at least a year of research experience were able to use disciplinary evidence more effectively than those with less than one year of experience. First-year students excelled at explaining the societal relevance of their work, but they incorporated only minimal discussion of prior research into their reflections and presentations. Students at all levels struggled to critique their own experimental design. These results have important implications for undergraduate learning, suggesting areas for faculty members, graduate student research mentors, and CURE or URE programs to improve undergraduate research experiences.

Undergraduate research experiences are being incorporated into degree programs with increasing frequency. However, there has been little study into their effectiveness in preparing students for research or into the learning gains that students realise from one or more research experiences. We surveyed science students in an elite, research‐based undergraduate degree program at a research‐intensive university. These students complete six research projects during their degree and we aimed to delineate factors that students perceive as leading to either good or bad experiences. Two factors stand out as contributing to a successful research experience: the supervisor, with students reporting both pedagogic and affective benefits of good supervision; and the feeling that they are doing authentic science. Surprisingly, given the research‐intensive nature of this degree, the learning gains students report relate to both an appreciation of what research is like and life skills, such as time management, rather than scientific thinking skills.

Undergraduate research experiences (UREs) have long been integrated into the landscape of undergraduate education, and the typical, one-on-one model has been associated with several positive student outcomes. Newer models of URE, aimed at improving scalability and promoting access for larger cohorts of students, have proliferated. However, due to the absence of a systematic classification of the models of UREs, comparisons across model types are limited, particularly in Canada. Therefore, it is unclear if these scalable models have achieved the aim of providing a more accessible, but equally impactful URE. We used principal component analyses of key variables derived from the course syllabi of 76 UREs to generate a typology of curriculum-based biology UREs, categorized into the following: Type A (apprenticeship-style research), Type B (field courses), and Type C (high enrollment, course-based research). Analysis of the course characteristics of these three course types revealed that Type C courses were the best positioned to provide an accessible learning environment and to include students who would otherwise not participate in research. The development of a typology of UREs provides a foundation to extend previous research on undergraduate research courses—which primarily focuses on the apprenticeship model—to include the other course types characterized in this study.

The organization Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience (FUN; www.funfaculty.org) was established in 1991 by a group of neuroscientists dedicated to innovation and excellence in undergraduate neuroscience education and research (Ramirez and Normansell, 2003 ). The founders experienced a need for a community of neuroscience educators because no formal division existed within the Society for Neuroscience (SfN; www.sfn.org) to support undergraduates or the faculty who focus on undergraduate neuroscience education. An educator's ability to incorporate current research and techniques in crowded undergraduate curricula becomes even more critical as our understanding of how nervous systems develop, function, adapt, and malfunction continues to expand. Teaching faculty must meet the significant challenges of communicating a broad and fast-paced discipline to a growing undergraduate audience. Moreover, as research experiences for undergraduates are increasingly encouraged and expected, providing undergraduates with meaningful research experiences is an additional, ongoing challenge for educators in the face of smaller budgets for research and education. To help undergraduate neuroscience faculty meet these challenges, FUN has emerged as a professional organization dedicated to the support and development of undergraduate neuroscience educators. The need for an organization that specifically supports excellence in undergraduate neuroscience has grown as an increasing number of interdisciplinary undergraduate neuroscience programs are formalized at colleges and universities. As evidence of the growing interest, FUN's membership has been increasing steadily and currently includes more than 500 individuals at more than 300 colleges and universities. FUN's members represent a broad range of scientific disciplines, including biology, psychology, chemistry, computer science, and philosophy; they work and teach at a variety of institutions, ranging from private, small liberal arts colleges to regional, state, and research universities.

The undergraduate research experience is one of several experiences that can impact the future career choices of our undergraduate students. In academia, both the faculty and the students are challenged to embrace engaged learning experiences and evidence-based education through undergraduate research. This has been the transition in higher education over the last 20 years: moving towards creating powerful educational environments that improve learning, rather than adding more courses that merely transfer knowledge. However, undergraduate research as a retention strategy does not go far enough. A report from the Council on Undergraduate Research succinctly summarizes that undergraduate research should be: faculty-driven, student-centered, and institutionally supported and provides the combination of factors necessary for: pedagogical effectiveness, enhanced learning outcomes, research productivity, and research program sustainability. Research should be at the core and must be instrumental in generating a major interface with the academic and business world. It empowers the faculty for an in-depth approach in teaching. It has the potential to enhance the consultancy capabilities of the researcher. Research can be internally driven or projects can be commissioned by national and international organizations such as the UNO, World Bank, OECD, Asian Development Bank, NCERT, Planning Commission, ISRO, DRDO, Central & State ministries and industrial agencies. Students need to be mentored in the entire research process. The best way for this to happen is to put students in a position to become a research assistant and be truly useful to the research program. Undergraduate research allows students to develop professionally and personally in ways not possible through traditional lecture and laboratory courses. Research is an important theme that threads its way through the undergraduate experience from the first year through to graduation. Weaving together the threads of what is currently underway provides a powerful basis from which to build an enriched, comprehensive learning environment for undergraduate students and encourage engineering graduates towards pursuing research. Undergraduate research allows students to develop professionally and personally. Research experiences give students an opportunity to gain a deeper knowledge of research techniques and processes, apply classroom learning in real-world contexts, explore academic literature, and form meaningful relationships with faculty members and professional researchers. In India the technical education institutes realize the immediate need to bridge the gap between the institute and industry needs and the students must be aware of the latest technology. Therefore, it is essential to establish labs of current technologies in the Engineering departments of colleges. This paper looks forward offering the students perspective undergraduate internships available for undergraduate research. This paper tries to present some of the websites which encourage taking up the research projects at undergraduate level.

Supporting STEM students through remote interdisciplinary collaboration in undergraduate research