Undergraduate Research Mentoring Research Articles

A US National Study of Barriers to Science Training Experienced by Undergraduate Students during COVID-19.

Undergraduate research is a high-impact practice on college campuses. How the COVID-19 pandemic has affected undergraduate researchers’ progress is poorly understood. We examine how demographics, academic characteristics, research disruptions and faculty mentorship are associated with four barriers to research progress. Data are drawn from a survey of over 1000 undergraduate student researchers across the US. We examine students who actively continued to conduct faculty-mentored research during mid-March/April 2020 (n = 485). Using generalized estimating equations that control clustering by institution, we found economic hardship, discomfort teleconferencing, lower quality mentors, sexual minority status and higher grade point averages were associated with motivation problems. Economic hardship, serious illness, Internet connection issues, a lack of face-to-face meetings and lower a frequency of mentor–mentee communication were associated with a time crunch with regard to conducting research. Discomfort teleconferencing, Internet connection issues, a lack of face-to-face meetings and decrease in research workload were associated with task uncertainty. Economic hardship, serious illness and being an engineering major were associated with lacking needed tools for the research. In sum, economic hardship was an important correlate of research barriers, as were communication challenges and sexual minority status. Results can inform practical actions by research program directors and faculty undergraduate research mentors.

Evaluating Mentorship Programs: Survey Items for Improving Student Affairs Practice.

Evaluating Mentorship Programs:Survey Items for Improving Student Affairs Practice Frank Fernandez (bio), Sarah Mason (bio), Carrie L. Saetermoe (bio), and Gabriela Chavira (bio) Student affairs professionals are increasingly expected to assess and evaluate programs that support student success (Fallucca, 2018). Beyond satisfying accountability pressures, assessment and evaluation work is important for gathering data to improve practice and support students. The two leading student affairs associations, ACPA and NASPA (2015), have called upon student affairs professionals to use assessment and evaluation practices in ways that are culturally relevant and that support the ethics and values of the profession. In this Research in Brief, we draw on our experiences evaluating a program that uses critical race theory to improve faculty–student mentoring. We share survey items from the quantitative portion of the evaluation, which examines the extent to which race is part of [End Page 223] mentoring relationships. Then we provide preliminary findings to show that the survey items predict sense of belonging when they are used as a summative scale. We discuss implications for professionals who work with student affairs-based mentoring programs, who use assessment and evaluation in their work, and for undergraduate research mentors. LITERATURE REVIEW AND STUDY CONTEXT Positive mentorship perceptions relate to higher intent to persist (Baier et al., 2016) and sense of belonging (e.g., Apriceno et al., 2020). Apriceno and colleagues (2020) used multiple survey items to examine student engagement with mentors, but they were unable to consider how mentors incorporate Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) students' minoritized statuses as part of the mentoring relationship. Other scholars have captured multiple factors in mentoring relationships but overlooked the importance of race in those relationships (Docherty et al., 2018). For instance, while Strayhorn and Terrell's (2007) study did not examine mentor demographics, it showed that mentoring relationships were more influential when they moved beyond personal, informal interactions and became research-focused. Black students who experienced research-focused relationships had higher college satisfaction (Strayhorn & Terrell, 2007) Prior literature has suggested that student affairs professionals must consider how mentoring relationships can support racially minoritized students. Rendón (1994) concluded that colleges and universities should "orient faculty … to the needs and strengths of culturally diverse student populations" because those faculty may then serve "as validating mentors for students who find the transition to college difficult" (p. 46). Recent qualitative studies have supported Rendón's early work. In a study of a single campus, Rodriguez (2020) highlighted the importance of using mentoring to promote students' racial efficacy. Additionally, a multicampus case study of students in STEM found that some mentors do, in fact, validate racially minoritized backgrounds (McCoy et al., 2015). Conversely, when faculty take a colorblind approach to mentoring, they tend to frame "their mentoring relationships in culturally racist ways" and, perhaps unintentionally, assume "a condescending, paternalistic attitude toward Students of Color" (McCoy et al., 2015, p. 236). This paper adds to prior literature by presenting a set of items that may be used to evaluate mentoring programs that incorporate discussion of race and ethnicity. BUILD PODER The study is part of a program evaluation of an NIH-funded project, Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) Promoting Opportunities for Diversity in Education and Research (PODER) program at California State University, Northridge, a four-year comprehensive university. BUILD PODER (BP) is an established program that focuses on increasing diversity in biomedical and biomedically related fields. The program is designed to explicitly train faculty mentors and students from four colleges within the university (i.e., Health and Human Development, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Science and Mathematics, Engineering and Computer Science) about critical race theory (CRT). CRT is generally thought to include five tenets: (a) racism is "ordinary, not aberrational"; (b) racism serves the interest of "white-over-color ascendancy"; (c) race is socially constructed; (d) the dominant group alters notions of racial groups over time to suit needs; and (e) People of Color have unique insights and stories to tell (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017, pp. 8–9). [End Page 224] BP faculty mentor training in the first year consisted of a 16-hour face-to-face workshop related to the more familiar aspects of CRT—microaggressions and microaffirmations...

Mentoring High-Impact Undergraduate Research Experiences

Abstract This article illustrates the Ten Salient Practices of Undergraduate Research Mentors with examples for English studies. The authors include both one-to-one and research-team examples, recognizing that although much English scholarship is solitary, peers and near peers play key roles in high-quality, mentored undergraduate research experiences.

Female mentors positively contribute to undergraduate STEM research experiences.

The positive influence of undergraduate research and mentoring on student success in STEM fields has been well-established. However, the role that the gender of a research mentor may play in the undergraduate research experience warrants further investigation. This is an especially critical issue to address, since the lack of female role models in STEM fields is acknowledged as an impediment to the success and progress of women pursuing STEM-careers. To evaluate how the gender of undergraduate research mentors influences the research experience of students, we collected and analyzed surveys from undergraduates and alumni who had completed undergraduate research at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. We found that even though students did not select mentors based on gender, there were differences in how students perceived their mentors, depending on the gender of their mentors. Interestingly, students with female mentors were more likely than students with male mentors to report that their research experience had prepared them for a career in science. Further, our gender-pairing analyses revealed that students who expressed that the gender of their mentor had contributed to their relationship with their mentor were more likely to have a female mentor. Our data indicate that female mentors favorably influence the undergraduate research experience of both male and female students. Finally, our study reinforces the conclusions of previous studies demonstrating that undergraduate research and mentoring are beneficial for students. Overall, our findings support that, for students to fully benefit from their undergraduate research experience, undergraduate research opportunities for students should include an equitable representation of female mentors.

Application of the Salient Practices Framework for Undergraduate Research Mentoring in Virtual Environments.

Undergraduate research is an excellent example of student engagement that leads to numerous benefits for the student and faculty. However, for students to gain the most from the experience, high-quality mentorship is needed. This article introduces readers to the Salient Practices framework, which is based on a comprehensive review of the research on undergraduate research mentorship as well as models of mentoring applied to the undergraduate research context. This article outlines how a group of faculty applied a mentor constellation model and adapted the Salient Practices framework to the virtual environment that resulted from COVID-19, creating a rich professional development experience for all participants. Lessons learned from initial efforts to mentoring in the virtual environment are also discussed. Implementation of mentoring in a virtual context opens up opportunities for increased access and broadening of research teams and mentoring constellations.

A Contemporary Perspective on Undergraduate Research Mentoring in University Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences Programs

The high‐impact practice of undergraduate research has expanded exponentially over the past 2 decades and has become a much more integrated pursuit across all levels of the educational landscape. Such a rapid expansion and diversity of approaches to these programs have resulted in the need to better understand and evaluate their efficacy in all disciplines. The fisheries profession has long been a leader in providing outstanding career preparation, which includes providing opportunities for students to engage in undergraduate research. To maintain this distinction, it is imperative that we as a field continuously evaluate how our current mentoring practices align with academic pedagogy recommended in the broader literature. Here, we review the extensive literature on undergraduate mentoring and construct a set of success criteria that represents a temporal sequence of best practices in undergraduate mentoring. We also present the results of a survey of fisheries faculty that was undertaken in order to understand what undergraduate mentoring practices are currently being used in our field. Collectively, this information can be used by individuals, departments, or institutions as a practical framework with which to evaluate and improve current mentoring programs or as a foundational starting point from which to design and implement new mentoring programs.

Encouraging or Obstructing? Assessing Factors That Impact Faculty Engagement in Undergraduate Research Mentoring

At colleges and universities around the world, faculty serve a critical role in supporting the well-documented practice of undergraduate research, scholarly and creative activity. Using unique data from an online survey of faculty members (n = 223) at three colleges and universities in the United States, we investigate the individual and institutional factors that facilitate or inhibit faculty members’ willingness to provide undergraduate students with research opportunities. We focus our quantitative analysis on individual and institutional variables associated with faculty participation. Our work confirms prior qualitative research, indicating the significance of institutional support for faculty engagement in undergraduate research mentoring.

Depression as a concealable stigmatized identity: what influences whether students conceal or reveal their depression in undergraduate research experiences?

BackgroundConcealable stigmatized identities (CSIs) are identities that can be kept hidden or invisible and that carry negative stereotypes. Depression is one of the most common CSIs among undergraduates. However, to our knowledge, no studies have explored how students manage depression as a CSI in the context of undergraduate research, a high-impact practice for undergraduate science students. Concealing CSIs can cause psychological distress and revealing CSIs can be beneficial; however, it is unknown whether these findings extend to students with depression in the context of undergraduate research experiences. In this study, we interviewed 35 life sciences majors with depression from 12 research-intensive institutions across the United States who participated in undergraduate research. We sought to understand to what extent students reveal their depression in research and to describe the challenges of concealing depression and the benefits of revealing depression in this specific context. Additionally, we explored whether students knew scientists with depression and how knowing a scientist with depression might affect them.ResultsMost students did not reveal their depression in their undergraduate research experiences. Those who did typically revealed it to another undergraduate researcher and few revealed it to a faculty mentor. Students who concealed their depression feared the potential consequences of revealing their identity, such as being treated negatively by others in the lab. Students who revealed their depression highlighted a set of benefits that they experienced after revealing their depression, such as receiving support and flexibility from their research mentor. We found that few students knew a specific scientist with depression. However, students perceived that knowing a scientist with depression would help them realize that they are not the only one experiencing depression in science and that people with depression can be successful in science.ConclusionsThis study illustrates that students with depression would benefit from research environments that are supportive of students with depression so that they can feel comfortable revealing their depression if they would like to. We also identified that students may benefit from knowing successful scientists with depression. We hope this study encourages undergraduate research mentors to support students with depression and ultimately reduces the stigma around CSIs such as depression.

The Genesis, Evolution, and Influence of Undergraduate Research Mentoring Relationships

The Genesis, Evolution, and Influence of Undergraduate Research Mentoring Relationships

The role of perceived support and local culture in undergraduate research mentoring by underrepresented minority faculty members: findings from a multi-institutional research collaboration

ABSTRACT Undergraduate research is value-added experiential learning that cultivates creative and intentional learners in and out of the classroom. However, only recently have researchers begun investigating the mechanisms related to mentoring undergraduate researchers, with scant attention being paid to the experiences of underrepresented minority (URM) faculty members. Using unique data collected from an online survey of faculty members (overall N = 215, URM n = 25), we find departmental and institutional support to be the key factors correlated with mentoring undergraduate research students. Reported support is more influential for URM faculty than white faculty, providing evidence of the importance of institutional policy as a mechanism to facilitate URM faculty participation in the high impact practice of mentoring undergraduate researchers. The findings are discussed in the context of institutional initiatives designed to support student and faculty success in the 21st century.

Reflections on undergraduate research mentoring.

Recruiting talented high school and college students to consider a career in the biomedical or biophysical sciences is important, yet often difficult. Encouraging students in regions like Appalachia adds additional challenges due to socioeconomic hurdles and misperceptions. This brief report contains the reflections of a research mentor engaging with students as a high school physics teacher, a principal investigator at research-intensive university, and as a principal investigator at a predominantly undergraduate-focused research university, as well as the viewpoint of a former undergraduate student in the mentor's lab. Different hurdles stand in the way of success at each level. A key issue at the high school level is engaging students in 'real science', the discovery of new knowledge and ideas. With undergraduate students at a larger research institution, a key issue is for the student to have opportunities to engage in meaningful scientific research. At a smaller and more rural research institution, especially in Appalachia, many students have socioeconomic concerns and misconceptions of what scientific careers entail. Regardless of background and environment, there are certain students who thrive on the scientific curiosity to discover new things. All they need is that opportunity to engage in meaningful scientific discovery to become interested in a scientific career.

Salient practices of award-winning undergraduate research mentors – balancing freedom and control to achieve excellence

ABSTRACT This paper contributes to research on teaching excellence by extending the current body of literature pertaining to mentoring pedagogies in undergraduate research settings across diverse social, institutional and disciplinary contexts. Our data comes from in-depth interviews with 32 international faculty who have received excellence awards for undergraduate research mentoring. The data reveal a freedom – control dialectic, illuminating the ways in which expert mentors negotiate the desire to create opportunities for students to experience freedom and creativity in research, yet maintain control over the topic, quality and outcomes. The research findings reveal a defining characteristic of award-winning mentors as an ability to establish and sustain a sense of challenge, while maintaining meaningful engagement and a sense of achievement amongst students. The findings show the importance of tailoring practice to the needs of particular student groups, and there are implications for institutional resourcing, as well as mentor training and development.

Are You a Scientist? Exploring Science Identity in a Structural Biology Outreach Program

As part of the science community, scientists are agents of social influence that can impact a student's sense of belonging and participation in science. Students mentored in research experiences have an increase in science persistence, efficacy, and identity. To further investigate the effect of mentored research experiences on a student's science identity, we developed a research‐intensive outreach lab dedicated to instructing high school students and undergraduate research mentors on techniques used in structural biology. Lab participants expressed fluorescent proteins in bacteria and purified the proteins to subsequently determine the proteins' structure by X‐ray crystallography. The development of this outreach lab raised specific questions on the effectiveness of engaging students in science through outreach programs. Specifically, does an inquiry‐based science outreach program increase students' perception of themselves as a scientist by doing hands on experiments, group discussions and pre/post‐lab assignments? Prior to participation in the outreach program, a majority of the students already strongly identified as a science person. While the students' perceptions of themselves as a science person did not change, how students viewed scientists changed from impersonal to personal characteristics after completion of the program. Students indicated that the inclusive environment of the outreach program created an authentic sense of belonging in a research setting. Based on these results, future work will focus on modifying and expanding mentored research programs to engage a range of students in research experiences.Support or Funding InformationThis work was supported by Dr. Martin St. Maurice and the Marquette University Strategic Innovation Fund.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

Are You a Scientist? Exploring Science Identity in a Structural Biology Outreach Program

At Marquette University, we developed a research‐intensive outreach lab dedicated to instructing high school students and undergraduate research mentors on techniques used in structural biology. The development of this outreach lab has raised specific questions on the effectiveness of engaging students in science through outreach programs. Specifically, does a semester long science outreach program that mimics a course‐based research experience increase students' perception of themselves as a science person by doing hands on experiments, group discussions and pre/post‐lab assignments? Which students (the high school students or undergraduate research mentors) are more positively influenced, if at all, and have a greater sense of identity in science? We hypothesized that all participants would have a positive gain in science identity but for different reasons. It was thought the high school students would have an increase in science identity due to exposure to an authentic research experience, while the undergraduates' science identity gain would be closely related to the mentoring of the high school students as they perform their experiments. Lab participants of the outreach lab express fluorescent proteins in bacteria and purify these proteins to subsequently determine the protein structure by X‐ray crystallography. These proteins are chosen because of their unique fluorescent properties that allow students to visualize the protein through the various stages of protein purification and protein crystallization. Seven main experiments are performed including: transformation, cell growth and induction, protein purification, screening conditions for crystallization, crystal refinements, and X‐ray diffraction of protein crystals. In order to assess science identity in our students, pre‐ and post‐surveys on how the students view themselves as a science person as well as a pre‐ and post‐exam were given. Due to the small sample size, the data were collected over two years with 22 participants. A focus group was another additional measure that was used to assess the students' perception of the outreach lab and the lab's impact on their science identity. Based on preliminary results, both the high school students and undergraduate research mentors had a positive gain in science identity after completing the outreach lab. Factors such as the type of experiments that were performed and the inclusive nature of the lab provided a space for the students to explore their science identity. This outreach lab can be used to engage both high school students and undergraduates in an authentic research experience that will increase students' engagement in science.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

Expression and purification of human Brain and Muscle Arnt‐like 1 protein (hBMAL1)

The circadian rhythm is an intrinsic biological clock in living organisms that oscillates every 24‐hours. It is influenced by external environmental cues to regulate many behavioral and physiological processes. Prolonged disruptions to circadian rhythms in humans have been associated to sleep disorders, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, as well as high risks of cancer. Within every individual cell at a molecular level, the circadian rhythm is maintained by a negative feedback loop made of several core proteins' accumulation and degradation in a daily cycle. One of the core proteins involved in this cycle is Brain and Muscle ARNT‐Like 1 (BMAL1). Crystal structures of the N‐terminal DNA binding part of BMAL1 has provided some understanding of its DNA‐binding function, however, the lack of C‐terminal structural information of BMAL1 hinders our understanding of its regulatory role in the circadian rhythm. With the purpose of obtaining the atomic structure of full length circadian protein BMAL1, the complete human BMAL1 (hBMAL1) gene was cloned into bacterial systems for protein expression. However, the recombinant hBMAL1 is in its mis‐folded and aggregated form. Various methods in expression and purification of hBMAL1 are being developed to obtain high homogenous soluble hBMAL1. After achieving that objective, the full length hBMAL1 protein will be used in in vitro studies using various structural and functional analysis tools. The results will deepen our understanding of the regulatory mechanism of the circadian rhythm and build the foundation to develop therapeutic agents for circadian rhythm related diseases. In addition, the research project has been chosen for the Research‐Teaching‐Integration program. A teaching module will be developed and delivered to senior biochemistry students to raise their interests of scientific research and apply the biochemistry principles that they learn during the semester to analyze real experimental data.Support or Funding InformationResearch reported has used instruments sponsored by the BUILDing SCHOLARS program funded by National Institute of General Medical Sciences of NIH under linked Award Numbers RL5GM118969, TL4GM118971, and UL1GM118970.Research reported has used the core facility at the BBRC supported by National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities under award number 5G12MD007592.Research reported was also supported by the Campus Office of Undergraduate Research Initiatives (COURI), Summer Undergraduate Research Mentoring Experience (SURME), BUILD Research Teaching Integration (RTI), and Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement (RISE) program awards.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

Entry points when undergraduate research mentors reflect on their role: a qualitative case study

Graduate students and postdoctoral researchers are increasingly taking on mentoring roles in undergraduate research (UR). There is, however, a paucity of research focusing on how they conceptualize their mentoring role. In this qualitative interview study, we identified three entry points that mentors reflect on to define their role: (1) What are the goals of UR? (2) What do the students expect from me? and (3) How should I use my expert knowledge? We discuss how academic developers can use these entry points together with a set of reflective lenses to stimulate critical reflection on the mentoring role and help the mentors to define their role and help the mentors to define their role.

Science/education portraits II: Pre-tertiary and undergraduate research mentors should consider publication as project endpoint

Science/education portraits II: Pre-tertiary and undergraduate research mentors should consider publication as project endpoint

Mentor perspectives on the place of undergraduate research mentoring in academic identity and career development: an analysis of award winning mentors

This study examines how Undergraduate Research (UR) mentoring fits into the career profile of award-winning UR mentors and the factors that motivate engagement as UR mentors. Twenty-four award-winning UR mentors in four countries were interviewed about their mentoring practices. Six themes emerged: (1) Academic Identity and Motivations; (2) Challenges to Academic Identity and Career Development; (3) Enhanced Research Productivity; (4) Recognition and Reward; (5) Institution Values Commitment and (6) Developing Other Mentors. The authors discuss these themes and how the findings can be utilized for academic development and identity formation for faculty.

Race and Gender Differences in Undergraduate Research Mentoring Structures and Research Outcomes.

Participating in undergraduate research with mentorship from faculty may be particularly important for ensuring the persistence of women and minority students in science. Yet many life science undergraduates at research universities are mentored by graduate or postdoctoral researchers (i.e., postgraduates). We surveyed a national sample of undergraduate life science researchers about the mentoring structure of their research experiences and the outcomes they realized from participating in research. We observed two common mentoring structures: an open triad with undergraduate-postgraduate and postgraduate-faculty ties but no undergraduate-faculty tie, and a closed triad with ties among all three members. We found that men and underrepresented minority (URM) students are significantly more likely to report a direct tie to their faculty mentors (closed triad) than women, white, and Asian students. We also determined that mentoring structure was associated with differences in student outcomes. Women's mentoring structures were associated with their lower scientific identity, lower intentions to pursue a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) PhD, and lower scholarly productivity. URM students' mentoring structures were associated with higher scientific identity, greater intentions to pursue a STEM PhD, and higher scholarly productivity. Asian students reported lower scientific identity and intentions to pursue a STEM PhD, which were unrelated to their mentoring structures.

Perceived barriers towards participation in undergraduate research activities among medical students at Alfaisal University—College of Medicine: A Saudi Arabian perspective

Background: The importance of undergraduate research (UR) to students is well acknowledged in literature; however, little is known about its perceived barriers. The aim of study is to explore the perceived barriers toward participation in UR activities among students at Alfaisal University—College of Medicine, Saudi Arabia.Methods: An online, anonymous, cross-sectional, self-rating survey was administered. A two-tailed Mann–Whitney U-test was used to compare the average five-point Likert scale responses between male and female students.Results: Two-hundred and twenty-one students (n = 221/350) participated in the survey with a 63.1% response rate. The percentage of participation in UR significantly differed by gender (males vs. females: 68.6% vs. 45.4%; p < 0.0005, Chi-square test). The top three barriers toward participation in UR were “lack of time” (77.4%), “lack of formal UR courses in curriculum” (76%) and “lack of UR mentors” (70.1%). Statistically significant differences of means were identified between male and female students regarding the following statements: “lack of supervising research mentors” (p < 0.01), “lack of interest in research” (p < 0.04), “lack of finding same-gender research mentor” (p < 0.00) and “lack of UR opportunities” (p < 0.00).Conclusion: Our results were fairly comparable to the Western studies. Medical educators should carefully look into all UR barriers and consider implementing applicable solutions.