USING CURRICULAR APPROACHES TO SUPPORT TRANSFER STUDENT SUCCESS IN UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH

There are numerous benefits undergraduates derive from participating in research experiences. The University of Hawaii’s Global Environmental Science (GES) Program has a faculty-mentored undergraduate research thesis experience as a degree requirement and a large percentage of majors are transfer students. After conducting a programmatic review of GES graduates and departures (i.e., those that leave the program prior to achieving the degree), specific periods of the program were identified as opportunities to implement curricular interventions to facilitate and improve the research engagement and experience of GES majors; especially those originating as transfer students. Started in the Spring of 2015, these curricular interventions occur when the transfer students enter the program, when they attempt to find the required faculty-mentored research project, and when they are completing their thesis experience. The ongoing results and successes of these curricular interventions will be presented.