Team Experiences and Mentoring Strategies for Undergraduate Research

该项目旨在为国家利益服务，培养能够在多样化、协作的团队中有效工作的STEM劳动力。这种类型的工作通常被称为“团队科学”，这是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，比如建立传染病传播的模型。该项目将研究将团队科学训练嵌入多学科本科研究经验（CUREs）的影响。在整个项目过程中，调查将包括大约6000名来自多个STEM学科的本科生。众所周知，CUREs是一种高影响力的STEM教学实践，但对于CUREs如何帮助学生培养团队科学能力的理解有限。该项目将调查在生物、化学、工程和地质科学等多学科领域的指导和团队科学训练的影响。在这些课程中，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合作解决研究问题。该项目旨在实现两个关键成果。首先，它被期望推进关于将团队科学训练整合到CUREs的有效实践和影响的基础知识。其次，它有望为学生的职业生涯做好准备，成为能够跨学科协作解决具有挑战性的国家和全球问题的STEM专业人士。由于东卡罗莱纳大学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STEM职业的参与。本项目旨在开发经验证据，证明将团队科学训练嵌入本科生研究经历如何影响作为可转移的团队科学能力的知识、技能和态度的发展，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生团队科学训练。为实现这一目标而设计的项目活动包括：1)增加基于课程的STEM研究机会的数量；2)培训导师如何建立科学团队，以及如何在整个机构内培养学习者社区；3)提供研究经验，建立本科生的STEM学科知识和团队协调策略；4)提高团队成员之间的沟通技巧和生产自信；5)增加对学科和跨学科研究贡献的理解。该项目建立在项目团队过去在开发和实施生物学、化学和物理领域的论证驱动探究以及生物学和化学领域的cure方面的工作基础上。该项目将把这些努力扩展到包括地质科学和工程，从而开发一系列跨越大学许多STEM学生和教师感兴趣的领域的cure。项目评估将采用多维度的混合方法，包括机构和课程数据、观察学生和团队行为、评估有形研究成果、收集调查以及与学生和教师参与者的访谈。本项目由美国国家科学基金改进本科STEM教育计划：教育与人力资源资助。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，通过该轨道，该项目支持有前途的实践和工具的创建、探索和实施。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.