¿FIELD TO LAB CURIOUS? - ENHANCING STUDENT BELONGING WITH MICRO-RESEARCH

A major barrier identified for students interested in field-based science degrees is a sense of belonging in the discipline. This component of self-efficacy disproportionally affects those from historically marginalized groups, furthering inequalities. While many employers rate field skills highly in potential candidates, completely field-based research and employment opportunities are rare. Instead, most fieldwork is informed and shaped by laboratory-based research. The UC Merced (UCM) Natural Reserve System’s ¿field curious?^TM program addresses this barrier through no-cost weekend field excursions to UCM research stations throughout California. In 2023, we launched ¿field curious?^TM: Sustainable Ag from Field to Lab (F2L), a follow up program designed to provide students with field and laboratory research opportunities. The program is a paid research opportunity over a series of days on campus and provides students with a “field kit” of a backpack, notebook, water bottle, and hand lens. During the first year, 51 students in four cohorts conducted micro-research projects with field measurement of CO₂ fluxes and collection of soil and plant samples. Laboratory work focused on bulk soil properties, soil nutrient analysis, and elemental and stable isotope analysis of plants and soil samples. Based on a retrospective, anonymous survey, student responses were overwhelmingly positive and multiple students expressed interest in continuing their research projects.

Over the next year, we will use insights from the pilot year of the F2L program to improve its second year in Fall 2024 by establishing learning objectives and incorporating assessments of program outcomes through pre- and post-experience surveys. The surveys will measure how the experience impacted students’ perceived success in achieving module learning objectives, evaluate student’s sense of identity as researchers in geosciences/STEM and how the program affected students’ education and career pathways. We will also develop standard operating procedures for collecting and maintaining long-term datasets of F2L data thereby affording students the ability to contribute to authentic research and towards improving their self efficacy. The results will inform future F2L modules and student retention in UCM undergraduate programs while supporting long-term ecological field research at UCM sites.