Characterization of STEM Undergraduate Research Experiences and Student Outcomes

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。这个项目的重点是学生在主要本科院校的学年研究。该项目寻求通过社会科学研究方法，扩大目前对如何实现本科生研究的好处的理解。这一努力与国家科学基金会的使命相联系，即在不同的学生群体中扩大获得和鼓励参与STEM相关活动的机会。该项目的预期成果是帮助STEM讲师设计成功的本科生研究经验的蓝图和工具包。该项目的创新之处在于将成熟的社会科学研究与教育研究相结合，前者侧重于了解工作设计的不同方面如何影响动机，后者与STEM本科生研究经历(URES)有关。采用工作特征理论的视角，主要目标是开发和验证工作设计结构的多维间接URE修正测量。这些目标将首先从组织心理学领域适应STEM URE背景下的既定工作设计措施来实现。这项措施将通过与专题专家面谈的反复过程加以调整。从项目的最早阶段开始，双语参与者将被纳入面试过程，以确保该工具在语言不同的群体中可靠地发挥作用。这一新的衡量标准将与对自我报告的STEM关键学生结果(例如，科学认同感、设计思维、数据素养)的调查一起用于关系评估。该项目的成果将通过会议、同行评议的学术期刊和科学博客广泛传播。将利用知识共享促进更广泛的获取，还将开发一个信息网站来传播这一项目的成果。这个项目将增加关于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结果，以及URE设计洞察力，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，以提高所有学生的STEM教育的有效性。通过参与的学生学习路径，该计划支持有前景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优势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 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.