Improving High Impact Undergraduate Research Access Through Faculty Professional Development and Implementation of Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences

Columbia Basin College, Pasco WA

Investigators

Abstract

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track 1: PPP aims to equitably increase student access to undergraduate research. Undergraduate research has been recommended as an integral high-impact practice, but engagement in research generally requires a commitment of time beyond a student's typical required coursework. This additional time commitment is more likely to be a barrier for many students, including Hispanic students. Integrating research experiences directly into required courses has been proposed as one model to eliminate this barrier to research experiences, but community college faculty need support and time to develop meaningful research experiences for their students. This project aims to provide the necessary faculty professional development and investigate its impact on their teaching practices. Further, this project will investigate the impact of these research experiences on students; it is expected that student participation in course- based undergraduate research experiences will result in content-specific skills development, a deeper sense of belonging to their intended major, and self-efficacy that drives motivation and retention. Finally, this project will provide opportunities for students to showcase their research more broadly and support students seeking external research internships. The first goal of this project is to increase Columbia Basin College’s research capacity by providing professional development and support to faculty members, which is expected to increase the college’s research capacity from a baseline of 15 students each year to over 250 students each year. Integrating research experiences into existing required courses will ensure equitable access for all students. The second goal of this project is to assess the impact of professional development and implementation of course-based undergraduate research experiences on all project participants. This will be conducted through faculty pre- and post-surveys, student pre- and post-surveys, analysis of course grades, and longer-term tracking of student impacts using institutional data and follow-up surveys. Assessment of participating faculty members will provide data to refine this professional development model, and assessment of students will generate data that can also refine this professional development model in addition to highlighting the impact of research experiences on course completion, retention, scientific identity, belonging, and self-efficacy. The final goal of this project is to expand, highlight, and celebrate student research. This will be accomplished by offering internship seminars with community partners, workshops to support external internship applications, and through the development of an institution- wide undergraduate research symposium where the most outstanding student work will be selected to be presented at regional conferences. It is expected that the positive outcomes of this project will ultimately 1) increase the number and diversity of graduated, employment-ready individuals that can meet the needs of tomorrow’s workforce and 2) provide a model for professional development and integration of course-based undergraduate research experiences that can be expanded and adopted by other two-year HSIs. 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.