I-Corps L: A Commercial Approach to Distribute Fused Research-Mentoring Modules

通过美国国家科学基金会创新团队学习计划（I-Corps L），该项目将开发更广泛使用有效方法的方法，帮助本科生和教师从本科研究经验中获得更大的收益。对本科生来说，与教师合作进行研究可能是一种变革性的经历。研究参与可以增加学生的信心和热情，从而提高学习成绩和更强的职业关注。与教师合作进行研究也有助于学生为未来的研究和职业机会创造凭证。一些研究还表明，对于本科生来说，与教师和研究生的个人关系比实际的研究内容更重要。教师指导的质量对学生参与研究的收益有显著影响。然而，很少有教师能够独自开发出最有效的指导实践。该项目将采用一套有效的指导实践，并已开发用于帮助本科生和他们将与之合作的教师。主题涉及招聘、培训和沟通等问题。该计划由一系列单元组成，供导师和学员使用，这些单元解释了核心主题，并帮助建立有效的导师-学员关系，这对于学生在本科研究中获得最大利益至关重要。“I-Corps for Learning”项目将开发各种方法，使这种导师-学员培训计划能够在美国各地的本科院校中轻松实施。科学、技术、工程和数学专业的本科生与研究导师培养的关系有可能成为他们一生中最具形成性和影响力的关系之一。众所周知，学生的教育和职业坚持是由在实践经验中获得的自信和批判性思维能力所赋予的。研究导师是增强学员信心和培养学员批判性思维技能的关键。身临其境的正式研究项目，如美国国家科学基金会的本科生研究体验，是高质量的学习体验，将研究和职业发展活动结合在一起。大学也可能有他们自己的正式研究项目，也促进动手实验室经验。指导经验（教员/本科生、研究生/本科生）在质量上可能差别很大，有一种担忧是，研究指导者往往得不到可能得到的整体指导的质量。这可以归因于导师没有获得或了解教育材料，以及导师缺乏时间来开发和评估他们自己的计划。通过增加有效指导实践的广泛实施，该项目将有助于提高STEM教育中学生与教师研究合作的有效性。

Through the NSF Innovation Corps for Learning Program, (I-Corps L), this project will develop ways to achieve more widespread use of effective methods for helping undergraduate students and faculty gain greater benefits from undergraduate research experiences. Collaborating with faculty on research can be transformative experiences for undergraduate students. Research participation can increase students' confidence and enthusiasm leading to improved academic performance and stronger career focus. Working with faculty on research also helps students create credentials for future research and professional opportunities. Some work also indicates that, for undergraduates, the personal connections with faculty and graduate students are more important than the actual research content. The quality of faculty mentoring has a significant influence on the benefits of research participation for the student. However few faculty are able to develop optimally effective mentoring practices on their own. This project will use a set of effective practices about mentoring and have been developed to help undergraduate students and the faculty with whom they will collaborate. Topics address issues of recruiting, training, and communication. The program is a series of units, for use by both the mentor and mentee, that explain core topics and help build the type effective mentor-mentee relationship essential to achieving the greatest benefit to the student for undergraduate research. This I-Corps for Learning project will develop approaches to enable this mentor-mentee training program to be easily implemented across a wide spectrum of undergraduate institutions across the United States.Relationships that undergraduate students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics cultivate with a research mentor have the potential to be among the most formative and influential relationships of their lives. It is known that a students' educational and career persistence is empowered by confidence and critical thinking skills gained during hands-on experiences. Research mentors are a key to bolstering a mentee's confidence and developing that mentee's critical thinking skills. Immersive formal research programs, such as the NSF's Research Experience for Undergraduates, are high-quality learning experiences that combine research and career development activities in group settings. Universities may also have their own formal research programs that also facilitate hands-on lab experience. The mentoring experience (faculty member/undergraduate student, graduate student/undergraduate student) can vary widely in quality and there is a concern that research mentees often do not receive the quality of holistic mentoring that is possible. This can be attributed to mentors not having access to, or knowledge of, educational materials and a lack of time for mentors to develop and assess their own program. By increasing the widespread implementation of effective mentoring practices, this project will help to improve the effectiveness of student-faculty research collaborations throughout STEM education.