COMBINING BEST PRACTICES OF INDIVIDUAL AND COURSE-BASED RESEARCH EXPERIENCES TO CREATE A COLLABORATIVE UNDERGRADUATE GEOSCIENCE RESEARCH COMMUNITY

Longitudinal studies show that students who participated in authentic research opportunities (ARO), including members of underrepresented groups, were 14-17% more likely to persist in STEM fields on to graduate school compared with their colleagues who did not. Yet these same studies on the effectiveness of individual research experiences (IRE) and course-based undergraduate research experiences (CURE), suggest shortcomings that can inhibit wider student participation or even reduce student persistence in science. Participation in a stand-alone IRE or CURE can leave students with false impressions about the nature of science – for example how long it takes to complete a scientific research project or that research is a solitary endeavor.

We have been piloting a collaborative undergraduate research community ARO design that combines characteristics and best practices of IRE with a CURE that addresses a large-scale geological question: How has the high-elevation topography of the American West evolved? Each student: 1) participates in a weekly seminar to discuss peer-reviewed literature that addresses the focal question in diverse ways; 2) conducts an IRE with a faculty member that stands alone but that addresses some aspect of the CURE’s large-scale research question.

We will discuss the rationale for this hybrid design and our considerations in implementation. Preliminary data from four semesters of classroom observation and interviews suggest attitudinal changes among participants about the nature of scientific research. Students self-report increased confidence to think critically about the appropriateness of research methods and interpretations of results reported in the literature and their ability to apply lessons learned to their own work. We argue that this hybrid model is an effective way to approach recognized challenges in ARO design because it: 1) encourages students to consider research earlier in their college career, 2) includes students whose past experience hasn’t prepared them to consider applying for an ARO or whose applications for other individual research opportunities haven’t been accepted, 3) authentically represents the pace and nature of research, 4) builds a sustained long-term, supportive community among students, faculty, and university researchers.