Broadening Participation and the Culture of Undergraduate Research Experiences

至关重要的是，美国必须建立并保持一支蓬勃发展的科学队伍，以推动未来的发现和创新。学术研究实验室是学生了解科学是什么、对科学家的期望是什么，并决定他们是否要在科学界追求或坚持的重要环境。这个项目调查了规范、期望和价值观在科学家、他们的学生和研究人员之间的传递。我们还不知道教师如何以支持或不支持学生的动机和经历的方式来交流文化信仰和科学实践，特别是那些来自历史上代表性不足的背景的学生。该项目的目标是跟踪三所大学的近一千名在教师研究实验室工作的学生，回答四个研究问题：1。教师直接或间接向他们的研究实验室传达的信息是如何塑造学生对科学规范和价值观的看法的？2. 教师对科学规范和价值观的信念在多大程度上预测了历史上未被充分代表的背景的学生在实验室中的微肯定体验？3. 教师对科学规范和价值观的信念在多大程度上预测了本科生的研究兴趣和坚持不懈，这些影响是否对历史上代表性不足的背景的学生更强？4. 我们观察到教师对科学规范和价值观的信念与学生认为他们的教师所相信的信念之间的差异在多大程度上？这些差异能预测学生的经历和结果吗？为了回答这些问题，该项目将借鉴纵向社会心理学方法和社会资本理论。本项目旨在采用与学生坚持，生产力和职业选择相关的行为测量，以及一年来收集的研究兴趣的主观测量。其目标是产生关于科学传播过程的变革性知识，塑造学生的研究经验和兴趣，以保留多样化和强大的未来科学劳动力。该项目由EHR核心研究（ECR）计划资助，该计划支持推进STEM学习和学习环境基础研究、扩大STEM参与和STEM劳动力发展的工作。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。

It is critically important that the United States create and maintain a thriving scientific workforce that propels future discoveries and innovations. The academic research laboratory is an essential context where students learn what science is, what is expected of a scientist, and decide whether they will pursue or persist within the scientific community. This project investigates the transmission of norms, expectations, and values between and among scientists, their students, and their research personnel. We do not yet know how faculty communicate the cultural beliefs and practices of science in ways that do – or do not – support student motivation and experiences, especially those students who are from historically underrepresented backgrounds. The goal of this project is to follow nearly one thousand students working within faculty research labs at three universities to answer four research questions: 1. How do the messages that faculty directly and indirectly convey to their research labs shape students’ perceptions about the norms and values of science? 2. To what extent do faculty’s beliefs about the norms and values of science predict experiences of microaffirmations in the lab among students from historically underrepresented backgrounds? 3. To what extent do faculty beliefs about the norms and values of science predict undergraduate student research interest and persistence, and are these effects stronger for students from historically underrepresented backgrounds? 4. To what degree do we observe discrepancies between faculty beliefs about the norms and values of science, and what students think their faculty believe? Do these discrepancies predict student experiences and outcomes? To answer these questions, the project will draw on longitudinal social psychological methods and social capital theory. This project aims to employ behavioral measures related to student persistence, productivity, and career choices, in addition to subjective measures of research interest collected over one year. The goal is to produce transformative knowledge on scientific communication processes that shape students’ research experiences and interests, in order to retaining a diverse and robust future scientific workforce.This project is funded by the EHR Core Research (ECR) program, which supports work that advances fundamental research on STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development.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.