Using Introductory Psychology Labs to Provide Early Research Experience to Regular and Transfer Students

Marymount University, Arlington VA

Investigators

Abstract

Psychology - Cognitive (73) This project is expanding on an earlier NSF-supported project at the College of St. Catherine, a liberal arts college for women ("Re-visioning General Psychology: Engaging Women in Scientific Questions," NSF Grant 0087926). The earlier project designed a revised course to adapt materials already developed to describe psychology as a science seeking answers to important questions that can be pursued with an array of strategies and methods. This expansion project is directed at three diverse groups of students (female, minority, and transfer students) and is also working to increase the overall scientific literacy of these three student groups, especially those who do not begin and end their education at one institution. Marymount University has a student population that is 70% female and 50% minority, with many transfer students. Psychology is a popular major and this project is a good opportunity to promote involvement and interest in science by minority students, many of whom are transfer students. The teaching materials developed are being made available to the academic community through publications, conferences, and on a web-site dedicated to the project. Materials posted on the web will be meta-tagged to ensure inclusion in the National Science Digital Library. The intellectual merit of this project has seven facets. 1. It develops scientific literacy and interest through access to research tools early in the students' undergraduate careers to enhance learning and scientific understanding. 2. It promotes scientific reasoning and problem-solving skills, especially for female, transfer and minority students. 3. It enhances students' perceptions of themselves as scientific thinkers. 4. It improves students' overall attitudes towards science and the scientific process. 5. It supports new transfer students by providing the opportunity for them to form relationships with other new students and with their lab instructors, thus facilitating their integration into the larger Departmental and University community. 6. It ensures that transfer students have an equivalent exposure to scientific thinking and scientific literacy to their non-transfer counterparts. 7. It fosters improved research skills and techniques of upper-division psychology students by providing them opportunities to mentor and tutor other undergraduate students. The broader impact of this project is the development of a model suitable for replication by other schools, especially for those schools with high percentages of minority and transfer students.