ERIC Number: ED573125
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2017
Pages: 290
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: 978-0-3094-5280-9
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Undergraduate Research Experiences for STEM Students: Successes, Challenges, and Opportunities
Gentile, James, Ed.; Brenner, Kerry, Ed.; Stephens, Amy, Ed.
National Academies Press
Undergraduate research has a rich history, and many practicing researchers point to undergraduate research experiences (UREs) as crucial to their own career success. There are many ongoing efforts to improve undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education that focus on increasing the active engagement of students and decreasing traditional lecture-based teaching, and UREs have been proposed as a solution to these efforts and may be a key strategy for broadening participation in STEM. In light of the proposals questions have been asked about what is known about student participation in UREs, best practices in UREs design, and evidence of beneficial outcomes from UREs. "Undergraduate Research Experiences for STEM Students" provides a comprehensive overview of and insights about the current and rapidly evolving types of UREs, in an effort to improve understanding of the complexity of UREs in terms of their content, their surrounding context, the diversity of the student participants, and the opportunities for learning provided by a research experience. This study analyzes UREs by considering them as part of a learning system that is shaped by forces related to national policy, institutional leadership, and departmental culture, as well as by the interactions among faculty, other mentors, and students. The report provides a set of questions to be considered by those implementing UREs as well as an agenda for future research that can help answer questions about how UREs work and which aspects of the experiences are most powerful. Following a summary, this book contains these chapters: (1) Introduction; (2) Heterogeneity of Undergraduate Research Experiences: Characterizing the Variability; (3) Undergraduate Research Experiences in the Larger System of Higher Education: A Conceptual Framework; (4) Research Documenting Student Participation in UREs; (5) The Role of Mentoring; (6) Faculty Impact and Needs; (7) Need for Research about UREs; (8) Considerations for Design and Implementation of Undergraduate Research Experiences; and (9) Conclusions and Recommendations. Three appendices are included: (1) STEM Participation Rates; (2) Committee Questions to Undergraduate Institutions and Selected Responses; (3) Committee and Staff Biographies. Individual chapters contain references.
Descriptors: Undergraduate Students, Student Research, STEM Education, Student Participation, Best Practices, History, Influences, Evaluation Methods, Persistence, Knowledge Level, Females, Womens Education, First Generation College Students, Mentors, Role, College Faculty, Teacher Influence, Research Needs, Program Design, Program Implementation, Objectives
National Academies Press. 500 Fifth Street NW, Washington, DC 20001. Tel: 888-624-8373; Tel: 202-334-2000; Fax: 202-334-2793; e-mail: Customer_Service@nap.edu; Web site: http://www.nap.edu
Publication Type: Books; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Science Foundation (NSF)
Authoring Institution: National Academies, National Academy of Engineering; National Academies, National Academy of Medicine; National Academies, National Academy of Sciences
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A