In higher education today, there are various programs aimed at improving student retention and graduation success. These programs include both academic and non-academic initiatives aimed at increasing student engagement. One such high impact practice is undergraduate research. There has been an increase in the number of undergraduate research…

STEM graduate students go through various stages in their development as researchers. Specifically, Ph.D. students are expected to complete coursework, work on their research, help with projects in the lab they are working in, maintain equipment, mentor other researchers, and fulfill departmental requirements. In this dissertation, I have explored…

In this dissertation, I present readers with three studies about the ways in which science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) research experiences impact undergraduate learning, perspectives, and academic/career activities. In the first two studies I focus on this topic by investigating the ways in which undergraduates were impacted…

The purpose of this study is to investigate how a virtual mentored research program, the National Summer Undergraduate Research Project (NSURP), affects sense of belonging among underserved students in science fields. Examining the effects of virtual research programs can contribute to the body of research on ways to instill sense of belonging…

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education has become increasingly important in the US due to its influence on the nation's educational needs, the creation of a skilled labor force, and opportunities for more tech-savvy workers. However, the evaluation approaches and methodologies used in STEM education programs have come…

This qualitative study examined how university students learn to engage in the practices of scientific inquiry via research apprenticeships and how such experiences prepare them to be STEM literate. Surveys and interviews addressed two primary research questions: 1. What is the nature of interaction between student participant and faculty mentor?…

The implementation of minority research and training (MRT) programs at the post secondary level has risen to close the educational achievement gap and build undergraduate pathways to generate a highly skilled and diverse STEM pool. Although the numbers of advanced science related degrees have slowly increased over the past decade, partially due to…

The purpose of this dissertation study was to explore the experiences of high school physics students who were solving complex, ill-structured problems, in an effort to better understand how self-regulatory behavior mediated the project experience. Consistent with Voss, Green, Post, and Penner's (1983) conception of an ill-structured problem in…

The quantitative Undergraduate Research Questionnaire (URQ) is used to assess the impact of undergraduate research mentorship affects, such as informal conversations, supportive faculty and/or peer interactions, on student confidence and motivation to continue working, learning or researching in the sciences (Taraban & Logue, 2012). Research…

This Executive Position Paper describes the findings of a study investigating the utility of Facebook Groups in fostering community among participants in the Delaware INBRE and EPSCoR undergraduate research internship programs. In the first phase of the study, findings from the existing evaluation of the programs and themes from the literature…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among transformational leadership, emotional complexity, and positive/negative emotions of leaders and followers. How leader openness, emotional complexity, gender, and trait affect may influence the extent to which leaders use various types of leadership and mentoring, and how all of…

This study adapted the current model of science undergraduate research experiences (URE's) and applied this novel modification to include community college students. Numerous researchers have examined the efficacy of URE's in improving undergraduate retention and graduation rates, as well as matriculation rates for graduate programs. However, none…