Implementation and Evaluation of Curricular Undergraduate Research Experiences in the Life Sciences

生命科学课程本科生研究经验的实施和评估

• 批准号: 2150444
• 负责人: Jeremy Sanford
• 金额: $ 50万
• 依托单位: University of California-Santa Cruz
• 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=2150444&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Implementation; Evaluation; Curricular; Undergraduate; Research

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) program, this Track 2 project focuses on improving the success of underrepresented students in the life sciences. Underrepresented and first-generation college students face many structural impediments in higher education such as a lack of awareness on how to become involved in high impact practices like undergraduate research experiences and internships. Undergraduate research has been shown to be a major contributor to student academic success, helping to shape students' sense of belonging in STEM. A major goal of this project is to increase the number of course-based undergraduate research (CURE) laboratories so that more students, including those from underrepresented groups have access to this transformative pedagogical intervention. Students who complete CURE labs will be invited to meet with industry representatives to explore potential internship opportunities. This project aims to determine how experiential learning through CUREs influences student success.This project will expand CUREs as an approach to provide research opportunities for students interested in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology. The plan has two components. First, the department will establish four new faculty-led CURE labs that will engage up to 100 undergraduates. By bridging research and education, this program will create opportunities for students to work with faculty on authentic research projects in cutting edge fields in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology. Through embedding research into the curriculum, the project will empower students from groups underrepresented in STEM to become members of the research community. The second part of this project will focus on developing partnerships with biotechnology companies in Silicon Valley to provide student internships. These partnerships will increase the college’s capacity for providing research experiences for undergraduates as well as providing students with important networking opportunities for post-graduation careers. The project will assess student learning in the CURES by examining a student’s understanding of experimental design and their self-reported gains in scientific skills. Finally, the project will examine the impact CUREs have on student achievement by comparing the retention and graduation rates of students enrolled in the CURES to those of students who do not enroll in a CURE. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education, broaden participation in STEM, and build capacity at HSIs. Achieving these aims, given the diverse nature and context of the HSIs, requires innovative approaches that incentivize institutional and community transformation and promote fundamental research (i) on engaged student learning, (ii) about what it takes to diversify and increase participation in STEM effectively, and (iii) that improves our understanding of how to build institutional capacity at HSIs are supported by this program.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.

在改善本科STEM教育的支持下：西班牙裔服务机构（HSI）计划，这个轨道2项目的重点是提高生命科学中代表性不足的学生的成功。代表性不足的第一代大学生在高等教育中面临许多结构性障碍，例如缺乏如何参与高影响力实践的意识，如本科研究经验和实习。本科研究已被证明是学生学业成功的主要贡献者，有助于塑造学生在STEM领域的归属感。该项目的一个主要目标是增加以课程为基础的本科生研究（CURE）实验室的数量，使更多的学生，包括那些来自代表性不足的群体有机会获得这种变革性的教学干预。完成CURE实验室的学生将被邀请与行业代表会面，以探索潜在的实习机会。本项目旨在确定通过CURE的体验式学习如何影响学生的成功。本项目将扩大CURE作为一种方法，为对分子，细胞和发育生物学感兴趣的学生提供研究机会。该计划有两个组成部分。首先，该部门将建立四个新的教师领导的治愈实验室，将吸引多达100名本科生。通过连接研究和教育，该计划将为学生创造机会，与教师在分子，细胞和发育生物学前沿领域的真实研究项目。通过将研究嵌入到课程中，该项目将使来自STEM中代表性不足的群体的学生能够成为研究社区的成员。该项目的第二部分将侧重于与硅谷的生物技术公司建立伙伴关系，为学生提供实习机会。这些伙伴关系将提高学院为本科生提供研究经验的能力，并为学生提供毕业后职业生涯的重要网络机会。该项目将通过检查学生对实验设计的理解和他们自我报告的科学技能的收获来评估学生在治愈中的学习。最后，该项目将通过比较参加CURE的学生与不参加CURE的学生的保留率和毕业率来研究CURE对学生成绩的影响。HSI计划旨在加强本科STEM教育，扩大STEM的参与，并建立HSI的能力。实现这些目标，鉴于HSIs的多样性和背景，需要创新的方法，激励机构和社区转型，促进基础研究（i）参与学生学习，（ii）关于如何有效地使STEM多样化和增加参与，以及（iii）该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，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。