Team Experiences and Mentoring Strategies for Undergraduate Research

该项目旨在培养一支能够在不同的、协作的团队中有效工作的STEM员工队伍，以服务于国家利益。这种类型的工作通常被称为“团队科学”，一种利用来自不同领域的个人的技能来解决复杂问题的方法，例如对传染病传播进行建模。该项目将研究在基于多学科课程的本科生研究经验(CURE)中嵌入团队科学培训的影响。在项目过程中，调查将包括多个STEM学科的约6000名本科生。众所周知，CURCES是一种影响很大的STEM教学实践，但人们对CURCES如何帮助学生发展团队科学能力的了解有限。这个项目将调查导师和团队科学培训在跨越生物、化学、工程和地质科学的多学科治疗中的影响。在这些治疗中，学生将接受研究和团队科学方面的培训。他们将运用他们的团队科学能力和研究技能来协作解决研究问题。该项目旨在实现两个关键成果。首先，预计它将促进关于将团队科学培训整合到治疗中的有效做法和影响的基础知识。其次，它预计将为学生成为STEM专业人员做好准备，他们可以跨学科合作，解决具有挑战性的国家和全球问题。由于东卡罗来纳州35%的本科生是低收入和/或第一代大学生，预计该项目将有助于扩大对STEM职业生涯的参与。该项目旨在开发经验证据，说明将团队科学培训嵌入到本科生研究经历中，如何影响知识、技能和态度作为可移植的团队科学能力的发展，以及哪些因素有助于成功、包容和可扩展地实施跨学科的本科团队科学培训。为实现这一目标而设计的项目活动包括：1)增加现有的以课程为基础的STEM研究机会；2)培训导师，介绍如何建立科学团队和如何培养全机构的学习者社区；3)提供研究经验，帮助本科生加深对STEM学科和团队协调战略的了解；4)提高团队成员的沟通技能和生产性主动性；以及5)增加对学科和跨学科对研究贡献的理解。该项目建立在项目组过去开发和实施生物、化学和物理中的论点驱动的探究以及生物和化学中的治疗方法的工作的基础上。该项目将把这些努力扩展到地质科学和工程学，从而开发出一套涵盖该大学许多STEM学生和教职员工感兴趣的领域的治疗方法。该项目的评估将使用多维、混合的方法，包括机构和课程数据、对学生和团队行为的观察、对有形研究产品的评估、调查收集以及与学生和教职员工参与者的访谈。该项目得到了美国国家科学基金会改善本科生STEM教育计划：教育和人力资源的支持。IUSE：EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。该项目处于参与学生学习轨道中，通过该计划支持有前景的实践和工具的创建、探索和实施。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project aims to serve the national interest in educating a STEM workforce that can work effectively in diverse, collaborative teams. This type of work is often called “team science,” an approach that engages the skills of individuals from different fields to tackle a complex problem, such a modeling the spread of infectious disease. The project will study the impact of embedding team science training in multidisciplinary course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs). Over the course of the project, the investigation will include approximately ~6000 undergraduate students across multiple STEM disciplines. CUREs are known to be a high-impact STEM teaching practice, but there is limited understanding about how CURES might help students develop team science competencies. This project will investigate the impact of mentorship and team science training in multidisciplinary CUREs across biology, chemistry, engineering, and geological sciences. In these CUREs, students will receive training in both research and in team science. They will apply both their team science competencies and research skills to collaboratively solve research problems. The project is designed to achieve two key outcomes. First, it is expected to advance foundational knowledge about effective practices for and the impacts of integrating team science training into CUREs. Second, it is expected to prepare students for careers as STEM professionals who can work collaboratively across disciplines to solve challenging national and global problems. Because 35% of the undergraduates at Eastern Carolina are low-income and/or first-generation college students, it is expected that this project will help to broaden participation in STEM careers.This project aims to develop empirical evidence about how embedding team science training in undergraduate research experiences affects the development of knowledge, skills, and attitudes as transportable team science competencies and what factors contribute to successful, inclusive, and scalable implementation of undergraduate team science training across disciplines. Project activities designed to achieve this goal include efforts to: 1) increase the number of available course-based STEM research opportunities; 2) train mentors about how to build science teams and how to foster a community of learners across the institution; 3) provide research experiences that will build undergraduate students’ knowledge of both STEM subjects and team coordination strategies; 4) improve communication skills and productive assertiveness among team members; and 5) increase understanding of disciplinary and interdisciplinary contributions to research. The project builds on past work by the project team in developing and implementing Argument-Driven Inquiry in biology, chemistry, and physics, as well as CUREs in biology and chemistry. The project will extend these efforts to include geological sciences and engineering, thus developing a collection of CUREs that span the interest areas of many STEM students and faculty at the University. Evaluation of the project will use a multidimensional, mixed-methods approach that includes institutional and course data, observation of student and team behaviors, assessment of tangible research products, collection of surveys, and interviews with student and faculty participants. This project is supported by the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Program: Education and Human Resources. The IUSE: EHR program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. This project is in the Engaged Student Learning track, through which the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.