An Institutional Model for Increasing Student Engagement through Course-embedded Undergraduate Research Experiences

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Through the project titled "An Institutional Model for Increasing Student Engagement through Course-embedded Undergraduate Research Experiences," investigators at Georgia Gwinnett College will build upon a pilot project - Four Year Undergraduate Research and Creative Experience (4YrURCE) - to increase knowledge about the relationships between research and student outcomes such as improved learning and increased career interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. They will do this by supplementing traditional faculty-mentored research and classroom instruction with Course-embedded Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs). Each Course-embedded Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) will provide a scaffolding of research skills, creative abilities, and core content knowledge (STEM competencies). As students progress through multiple CUREs, they will build on these competencies and gain the ability, confidence, and skills to conduct independent research and to enter the STEM workforce. Key components of the project will include a Peer Tutoring Intervention Program (PTIP) in freshman gateway STEM courses as an integrated component of the 4YrURCE model; a Faculty Development Institute will provide an opportunity to engage participants in practicing evidence-based pedagogies, reflecting on the learning outcomes, considering how all students - especially under-prepared and underrepresented students - thrive in active learning environments and learn how to build student metacognitive skills, resilience, and grit; and a research study on the efficacy of the CUREs model using a systems approach framework. To increase broader impacts, the project will provide stipends for faculty members at other institutions to engage in the faculty development activities and mini-grants to thirteen faculty members to pilot and test CUREs on their campuses.The overarching goals of the project are to build upon the on-going 4YrURCE pilot project designed to improve STEM learning and engagement and to conduct a longitudinal study on the efficacy of the proposed CUREs model. The specific objectives are to: (1) increase enrollment, persistence, and retention rates of underrepresented and under-prepared students in STEM disciplines; (2) provide research-based curricula founded on STEM competencies that provide multiple research and creative experiences for all students during all four years of matriculation; (3) provide leadership to a diverse group of students through peer mentoring and peer tutoring opportunities; and (4) provide diverse faculty that use evidence-based pedagogies to engage students, promote learning, develop students' metacognitive skills, and promote resilience among students. Mixed methods will be used to evaluate the project both formatively and summatively. Results are anticipated to show the extent to which the interventions (i.e. PTIP, CURE, etc.) impact student performance and student success including demonstrated increases in STEM competencies, engagement, retention, and completion and the extent to which the faculty development strategies improve adoption of effective pedagogical strategies.