Undergraduate Research Team Research Articles

Counting Tents: Pedagogical Reflections on Faculty–Student Collaboration in a Real-World Project on Homelessness

This teaching note describes the design and implementation of an undergraduate research team project to conduct a tent census. Previous studies highlight the importance of real-world research as a part of sociology curriculum. Tents, as a visible sign of homelessness, represent one such contemporary social problem. Our undergraduate research team documented and geolocated tents in the city of Seattle between 2019 and 2020. This project integrated elements of active learning, collaborative learning, and problem-based learning. The strengths of our student research team were experiential learning, greater awareness and engagement in homelessness, and development of research and problem-solving skills. We offer some generalizable “lessons learned” from our assessment of the successes and challenges of a unique tent census project for student learning and engagement. This article concludes with the challenges of these kinds of real-world projects as well as recommendations for future faculty–student collaborations on important sociological issues.

The Multilevel Research‐Intensive Community Creates Equity and Provides an Alternative to Standard Diversity Pipelines

Inducting lower‐division undergraduates into a community of practicing scholars is impeded by boundaries that segregate roles, responsibilities and identities at each academic level. Faculty at universities with large undergraduate populations have difficulty mentoring a significant fraction of undergraduates with standard 1‐on‐1 research apprenticeship. Research opportunities are thus conserved for students with the most apparent “merit”. With scarcity of opportunities, faculty do not have to advertise opportunities widely, disparately impacting recruitment of underrepresented students with limited social capital. Furthermore, underrepresented students are less likely to seek research experiences in later years if they lacked transformative experiences when career decisions are typically made in the first two years. Faculty filter applicants by establishing easily quantifiable criteria such as completion of advanced coursework, availability, and initial GPA. Use of these poor metrics of research potential have disparate impact on selection of students that have had insufficient preparation in high school, difficulty securing accommodations for disabilities, or need to work to pay for college. Criteria such as GPA and intention to pursue graduate study are perverse criteria because both increase significantly with research experiences. Inability to make informed selections can exacerbate implicit bias, especially in the absence of a track record of success. When working in isolation, students lacking specific knowledge or skills require remediation, which then diminishes retention in the lab in subsequent semesters. Disparate impacts on recruitment, selection, and retention are not manifestations of an unmet need to remediate deficits, but an unmet need for a research education model that removes barriers to participation. The Aggie Research Program (ARP) at Texas A&M is a research‐intensive community, based on asset models and leadership. Instead of 1‐on‐1 research apprenticeship, research is performed by a diverse undergraduate research team led by a graduate student or postdoctoral scholar preparing for the next stage of a research career. Research teams are productive because they further the team leader’s research by leveraging each undergraduate’s unique assets (talents, skills, perspectives, and experiences). Designed to remove institutional, economic, and cultural barriers to participation of underrepresented students, this model “targets within universalism” to achieve equity. First, research teams incur minimal risk to productivity if a potential recruit lacks a particular skill. With “legitimate peripheral participation”, neophytes without a track record can exhibit a growth trajectory. Over the course of multiple semesters, experienced team members become peer mentors to new team members. Team leaders meet in periodically to explore common interests in research leadership. The result will be an organic transition of an underrepresented undergraduate, who has not yet committed to a research career, to a potential faculty member, who creates diverse research education programs.

The Research‐Intensive Community Model has the Necessary Properties for Successful Propagation at Research‐Extensive Universities

Novel research education models often fail to propagate widely because they typically only include two of four necessary properties to successfully propagate and maintain their impacts: scalability, adaptability, sustainability, and inclusivity. Furthermore, research education models typically address the unmet needs of one stakeholder at a time. First, undergraduates need greater access to limited research opportunities at research‐extensive universities. Second, graduate students and postdoctoral scholars need mentoring and management experience to prepare for leadership roles in the next stage of their careers. Third, faculty need to maximize research productivity and recruit future graduate students with sufficient preparation. Fourth, administrators need to stretch their limited resources to support the competing institutional missions of research and education. The Research‐Intensive Community (RIC) model developed at Texas A&M University has the properties that are both necessary and sufficient to propagate broadly at research‐extensive universities because it turns the competing needs of diverse stakeholders into opportunities. Briefly, instead of a traditional 1‐on‐1 research apprenticeship, research is performed by a diverse undergraduate research team led by a graduate student or postdoctoral scholar. Research teams are productive because they leverage each undergraduate’s unique assets (talents, skills, perspectives, and experiences) to advance the research of the graduate student or postdoctoral scholar. Team leaders meet monthly to discuss best practices for leadership and mentoring that increase their own research productivity through effective team management. Because team leaders are empowered to run their team by their faculty mentors, economies of scale are leveraged to efficiently centralize program marketing, participant registration, project advertisement, and program evaluation. Since 2016, the Aggie Research Program (ARP) has implemented the RIC model to cultivate mutually beneficial relationships to meet the diverse needs of diverse stakeholders. As the ARP has grown, team leader meetings have become a nexus for specific research leadership programs that are either interdisciplinary or focused on specific life science disciplines. The ARP exhibits the necessary and sufficient properties for successful propagation: 1) Scalability: participation has grown 30% each of the first 5 years to currently serve over 800 participants/year 2) Adaptability: research teams are distributed across diverse disciplines in 12 colleges. 3) Sustainability: administrative costs are limited to $50,000/year. 4) Inclusivity: 41% of participants belong to underrepresented groups (financially disadvantaged, first‐generation, disabled and underrepresented minorities), which matches the demographics of the undergraduate student population at Texas A&M University.

Closing the Gap: Increasing Student Voice on Campus to Improve Understanding of a General Education Program's Goals

AbstractThis article traces the efforts made by Boise State's General Education program—University Foundations—and an undergraduate researcher to improve understanding of general education on campus. Undergraduate students often struggle to understand general education's goals. In order to improve this understanding, University Foundations committed itself to increasing the student voice on campus. It began by adding three different pieces of experiential learning—an undergraduate research team, a mentor program, and reflection in capstone courses—to build the student voice within the program. University Foundations then changed the language of the program to make it more accessible, created mottos to help in understanding general education's purpose, and made presentations to student and faculty groups. This would lead to further presentations that explained the purpose of general education to the universal freshman seminar course. Finally, University Foundations founded an annual faculty summit to help instructors better understand and articulate the purpose of general education to their students. By adding and sustaining the student voice, University Foundations worked to close the gap in understanding of the program's goals.

A Plate Based Assay for Determination of the Median Lethal Dose of 1-Hydroxyphenazine in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Caenorhabditis elegans is an ideal model organism for studying the xenobiotic detoxification pathways of various natural and synthetic toxins. We developed a new workflow to study the effects of 1-hydroxyphenazine (1-HP), a toxin produced by the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa, on the survival of C. elegans. Prior research has demonstrated that C. elegans can detoxify 1-HP through the general mechanism of O-glycosylation. As part of the Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) undergraduate research team, we have developed a workflow for a plate-based toxicity assay to determine the median lethal dose (LD50) of 1-HP. This was achieved through a toxin exposure method in which the worms were exposed to varying concentrations of 1-HP. The death rates were measured using a fluorescent bead assay. This workflow can be used to test C. elegans responses to different toxins and also the response of different mutant strains to a toxin of interest.

Advancing Global Health and Medicine Through the Energy of Youth: A Research Team Burning Bright.

More than a decade ago, tasked with the creation of an undergraduate research team in the field of integrative health and wellness, the discovery was made that undergraduate study is the perfect venue through which to ignite integrative researchers and clinicians for the future. This research team has produced a lasting impact on our university and community, at the individual, local, national, and international levels. From meager beginnings to numerous funded research projects, programs, publications, and presentations, the students have obtained invaluable skills in the field of integrative health and wellness, equipping them to be effective clinicians for our future. Team members have demonstrated collaboration and commitment and brought a variety of perspectives to our projects, which has been critical to the success of our work. Being part of this team has served to both expand their knowledge of integrative medicine and to help the students develop personally and professionally, instilling in them a dedication to the scientific method, evidence-based practice, and an integrative approach to health and wellness. Ultimately, this research team has empowered the creation of future health professionals that will contribute to the advancement of global health and wellness.

Environmental Cues Assist in Weight Management

Weight management and obesity research is extensive. Previously, our lab demonstrated enhanced weight loss for participants using a simple environmental cue. Specifically, participants placed brightly colored stickers with motivating weight loss sayings around their rooms, in their cars, and even on their wallets (participants were allowed to place the stickers wherever they liked). Participants that placed the cues in locations that they frequently encountered had significantly more weight loss compared to participants that had no such cues. In this follow up study, we employed a multiple baseline design whereby participants in the experimental group received the cues at various times during the experiment. If the cues were in fact impacting weight loss then we hypothesized that weight loss would be significantly enhanced only after the participants received their cues. Using this procedure we were able to confirm that weight loss across all participants was similar up until the introduction of the cues. Each week, a new group of participants received the cues and were allowed to use them for the remainder of the study. Results show that the introduction of the cues enhanced weight loss, regardless of which week the cues were introduced. Motivational factors may also play a role in these findings, however this study further supports the use of simple visual cues as a method of enhancing weight loss in adults.Support or Funding InformationThis research would not have been possible without the assistance of my undergraduate research team: Taz Watson, Martha Williams, Andrew DelCastillo, Scotty Dennis, & Shelley Rae Edwards.Special thanks to Millsaps College for supporting this research.

Multidisciplinary Undergraduate Research Team via Independent Study Courses

ABSTRACTUndergraduate students from Engineering, Physics, Geology & Chemistry come together to form multidisciplinary teams as part of an undergraduate research opportunity through a sequence of independent study classes within the Department of Engineering at James Madison University. The undergraduate research groups typically contain students from freshman to senior years, totaling approximately three to eight students per academic year per group. One of the primary objectives is to provide a high-level research experience for undergraduates in a nurturing environment within the academic year. Peer-mentoring is integral piece to the team dynamics. The course sequence that facilitates the research opportunity is constructed in order for students to produce research that can be applied to obtaining a minor in Materials Science. Methodologies employed in the course range from problem-based learning, inquiry-based learning, and collaborative efforts with outside entities. The course objectives are geared towards developing critical & creative thinking, technical writing and oral communication skills through the development of planned action & experiments with data analysis as well as submitting findings to be presented at regional and national conferences.

TheOnlySolution: Education, Youth, and Social Change in Afghanistan

This article draws on practice theory to examine aspiring youths' pursuit of higher education in Afghanistan. It finds that plans and actions are mediated through youths' families, communities, and solidarity networks. As a result, the personal improvement and enhanced reputational status that aspiring youth seek is structurally connected to processes of social reproduction and social change. The paper is based on over 100 in-depth interviews conducted with youth in Afghanistan by an undergraduate research team.

Bar-Coded Enterobacteria: An Undergraduate Microbial Ecology Laboratory Module

Microbial community ecology is an area of rapid growth centered within the larger discipline of microbiology. Newly developed research methods using molecular strategies have transformed this area into an accessible research topic. Despite such advances, transmission of this topic into pedagogical form has lagged behind. To improve this situation, an undergraduate research team created an artificial microbial community for class room use. They used color-coded enterobacterial taxa transformed with broad-host range plasmids that encoded green fluorescent protein color variants. Using this instructional tool, a class room teaching module was developed about microbial fitness. Over a multi-semester period, the module was introduced into a conventional microbiology curriculum and refined. The learning outcomes for this module include; understanding community composition, that the members of a community can respond in different ways to external events and, that these responses can be used to measure fitness. Learning outcomes were measured through pre and post testing and indicated a gain in understanding about microbial communities.

An Obesity Prevention and Treatment Worksite Intervention by a Faculty Directed Student Research Team

This Service Learning project was undertaken by an undergraduate research team, educated on research principles followed by knowledge application in a community setting. The objective of this project was to create and implement an obesity prevention and treatment intervention in a worksite setting. A program of six nutrition education sessions was delivered. Pre‐ and post‐assessments and surveys were used to identify the program's effect on participants’ food choices and anthropometric measurements. Waist circumference, height, weight, BMI, and body composition measurements (InBody 520) were assessed. The education topics included: calories, fats and oils, carbohydrates, proteins, fiber, water & minerals. Weekly goals, based upon the weekly lessons, were encouraged. Sixty‐three individuals (30 male/33 females), 76% ages 30–59, began the program. Males had the greatest average weight loss, 11.5 lbs. compared to women, 3.7 lbs. and had a greater improvement in percentage of individuals of normal BMI, post assessment. No significant average improvement in percent body fat was exhibited by males or females. Improvements were made in food choice selections by both genders. Results suggest a positive impact of an on‐site worksite intervention and provide insight into means by which future improvements may be made.