EHR-Polar DCL: Authentic Research through Collaborative Learning (ARC-Learn): Undergraduate Research Experiences in Data Rich Arctic Science

ARC-LEARE项目是俄勒冈州立大学STEM研究中心和地球、海洋和大气科学学院极地研究项目的合作伙伴关系。获得高质量的研究体验机会是一种高影响力的教育实践，它支持本科生在STEM领域成功地继续他们的教育。其中许多项目包括夏季几个月的密集体验，通常需要学生前往遥远或偏远的地方参加。这种常见的结构限制了许多学生的入学机会，特别是那些在平衡工作、家庭和抚养义务时延长或推迟了教育途径的学生。ARC-LEARN将提供一个更灵活、更低强度的模式，以消除参与的常见障碍。在两年的课程中，ARC学习的学生，在一个肯定的科学界工作，将接触到从理解科学挑战到与公众分享研究结果的全部研究“弧线”。这一计划的独特设计将有三大好处。首先，它将为培养下一代科学家提供关键培训，他们将负责解决与全球相关的环境挑战，而北极是这些挑战的起点。例如，学生们将分组工作，以更好地了解北极海冰的持续消失如何影响海洋和大气之间的热量交换，加剧海岸侵蚀，并改变食物网和粮食安全。其次，ARC-Learn将通过专注于发展关键的科学技能，如数据素养和可视化，来利用现有的大量数据资源。第三，该项目将增加极地科学专业人数不足、从两年制大学转学的学生以及那些无法长期离开家和家庭义务的学生获得本科研究的机会。这些群体的成功可以扩大对科学的参与，并导致未来的极地科学劳动力更加多样化。为了支持学生的成功，ARC-Learn将采用包容性和文化响应性的指导实践，灵活和模块化的时间表，以及让学生面对面和在线参与的选项。该项目直接响应了美国国家科学院、工程院和医学院关于本科生研究经验的共识研究(2017)和STEMM有效导师科学(2019)中的研究和方案建议。ARC-LEARE的总体目标是：1)培养和多样化下一代极地科学家；2)扩大关于设计和实施本科生研究经验的知识；以及3)建立关于导师如何发展包容性指导能力和效率的理解。项目研究的目标是了解有助于：1)实现学习成果；2)培养STEM认同感和STEM坚持性；以及3)指导团队科学的发展和包容性指导实践和心态的具体机制和计划设计元素。研究方法将侧重于使用经验数据(通过观察、调查、访谈和反思期刊收集)来解释促进(或抑制)学生进步和导师发展的项目过程。研究人员将调查学生(自我效能感、STEM身份和STEM轨迹)和导师(自我概念、对学生的看法以及包容性指导和协作能力)的经验。该团队将寻求揭示ARC学习计划要素(正式的协作和基于问题的学习、包容性指导、社区、科学生命周期以及长时间和低强度时间表)如何有助于学生成功以及培养STEM认同感和毅力。此外，该团队将询问外部因素和机构背景如何影响学生和导师的发展和成功。项目团队将通过直接支持和发展50名参与研究的代表不足和非传统的学生和导师，以及开发和广泛传播基于经验的框架和方案经验教训来扩大这项研究的影响，以支持这一新颖项目设计中有希望的元素的传播和扩展，以支持丰富多样的劳动力。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。

The ARC-Learn project is a partnership between the Oregon State University STEM Research Center and the College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences Polar Research programs. Access to quality research experience opportunities is a high impact educational practice that supports undergraduates to successfully continue their education in STEM fields. Many of these programs include intensive experiences that occur over the summer months, often requiring students to travel to distant or remote locations to participate. This common structure limits access for many students, especially those who have extended or delayed educational paths as they balance work, family, and dependent care obligations. ARC-Learn will provide a more flexible lower-intensity model to eliminate common barriers to participation. Over the course of two years ARC-Learn students, working within an affirmative science community, will be exposed to the full “arc” of research from understanding scientific challenges to sharing the results of research with the public. The unique design of this program will have three major benefits. First, it will provide critical training to develop the next generation of scientists, who will be charged with solving globally relevant environmental challenges for which the Arctic is ground-zero. For example, students will work in teams to better understand the ways in which continuing loss of Arctic sea ice impacts heat exchange between the ocean and atmosphere, intensifies coastal erosion, and alters the food web and food security. Second, ARC-Learn will leverage the vast data resources already available by focusing on developing critical science skills such as data literacy and visualization. Third, the project will increase access to undergraduate research for students who are underrepresented in the Polar sciences, transferring from two-year colleges, and those who are unable to be away from home and family obligations for extended periods of time. Success among these groups can broaden participation in science and lead to a more diverse future Polar science workforce. To support students’ success, ARC-Learn will employ inclusive and culturally responsive mentoring practices, a flexible and modular schedule, and the option for students to engage both in person and online. This project directly responds to the research and programmatic recommendations in the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine consensus studies on Undergraduate Research Experiences (2017) and Science of Effective Mentorship in STEMM (2019). The overarching goals of ARC-Learn are to: 1) develop and diversify the next generation of Polar scientists; 2) expand knowledge about design and implementation of undergraduate research experiences; and 3) build understanding about how mentors can develop inclusive mentoring competencies and efficacy. The project research objectives are to understand the specific mechanisms and program design elements that contribute to: 1) achievement of learning outcomes; 2) cultivation of STEM identity and STEM persistence; and 3) mentor development of team science and inclusive mentoring practices and mindsets. Research methods will focus on using empirical data (collected through observations, surveys, interviews and reflective journals) to explain the program processes that enable (or inhibit) student progress and mentor development. The researchers will investigate students’ (self-efficacy, STEM identity and STEM trajectories) and mentors’ (self-concepts, perceptions of students, and inclusive mentoring and collaborative competencies) experiences. The team will seek to uncover how ARC-Learn program elements (formal collaborative and problem-based learning, inclusive mentoring, community, science lifecycle, and long-duration and low intensity schedule) contribute to student success and development of STEM identity and persistence. Additionally, the team will interrogate how external factors and institutional contexts impact student and mentor development and success. The project team will broaden the impact of this research through direct support and development of 50 participating underrepresented and non-traditional students and mentors, as well as development and broad dissemination of an empirically-based framework and programmatic lessons learned to support propagation and scaling of promising elements of this novel program design to support a richly diverse workforce.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.