Characterization of STEM Undergraduate Research Experiences and Student Outcomes

STEM 本科生研究经历和学生成果的表征

• 批准号: 2142404
• 负责人: Anya Goodman
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: California Polytechnic State University Foundation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-07-01 至 2025-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2142404&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Characterization; STEM; Undergraduate; Research; Experiences

This project aims to serve the national interest by investigating how participation in undergraduate research, particularly during the academic-year, can benefit STEM students. Undergraduate research plays an important role in showing students the scientific research process and inspiring students to pursue STEM-related careers. The focus of this project is students' academic-year research at primarily undergraduate institutions. The project seeks to expand current understanding, through social science research methods, of how the benefits of undergraduate research are achieved. This effort connects to the NSF’s mission to broaden access to and encourage participation in STEM-related activities among diverse student populations. Intended outcomes of the project are a blueprint and toolkit to help STEM instructors design successful undergraduate research experiences. The novelty of this project lies in the integration of well-established social science research with education research, where the former is focused on understanding how different aspects of work design influence motivation and the latter relates to STEM Undergraduate Research Experiences (UREs). Adopting a job characteristics theory lens, the primary goals are to develop and validate a multi-dimensional indirect URE-modified measure of the work-design structure. These goals will be accomplished by first adapting an established work-design measure from the domain of organizational psychology to the STEM URE context. The measure will be adapted through an iterative process of subject matter expert interviews. From the earliest stages of the project, bilingual participants will be included in the interview process to ensure the instrument functions reliably across linguistically diverse groups. This new measure will be used along with a survey of self-reported STEM-critical student outcomes (e.g., science identity, design thinking, data literacy) for relational assessment. The results from this project will be disseminated broadly via conferences, peer-reviewed academic journals, and science blogs. Creative Commons will be leveraged to facilitate wider access and an informational website will also be developed to disseminate the results from this project. This project will add new knowledge about the structure of UREs, what aspects of URE structure are most likely to generate critical student outcomes, and URE design insights to accelerate the motivational, attitudinal, and behavioral potential of diverse student populations. The NSF IUSE:EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, 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.

该项目旨在通过调查参与本科生研究（特别是在学年期间）如何使 STEM 学生受益，从而服务于国家利益。本科生研究在向学生展示科学研究过程和激励学生从事 STEM 相关职业方面发挥着重要作用。该项目的重点是学生主要在本科院校进行的学年研究。该项目旨在通过社会科学研究方法扩大目前对本科生研究如何实现效益的理解。这项努力与 NSF 的使命相关，即扩大不同学生群体接触 STEM 相关活动的机会并鼓励其参与。该项目的预期成果是帮助 STEM 教师设计成功的本科生研究经验的蓝图和工具包。 该项目的新颖之处在于将成熟的社会科学研究与教育研究相结合，前者专注于了解工作设计的不同方面如何影响动机，后者与 STEM 本科生研究经验（URE）相关。采用工作特征理论视角，主要目标是开发和验证工作设计结构的多维间接 URE 修改测量。这些目标将通过首先将组织心理学领域的既定工作设计措施调整到 STEM URE 背景来实现。该措施将通过主题专家访谈的迭代过程进行调整。从项目的最初阶段开始，双语参与者将被纳入访谈过程，以确保该工具在不同语言群体中可靠地发挥作用。这项新措施将与自我报告的 STEM 关键学生成果（例如科学认同、设计思维、数据素养）调查一起用于关系评估。该项目的结果将通过会议、同行评审的学术期刊和科学博客广泛传播。将利用知识共享来促进更广泛的访问，还将开发一个信息网站来传播该项目的成果。该项目将增加有关 URE 结构的新知识、URE 结构的哪些方面最有可能产生关键的学生成果，以及 URE 设计见解，以加速不同学生群体的动机、态度和行为潜力。 NSF 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。通过参与学生学习轨道，该计划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 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。