One-Year Research Experience for Associate's Degree Students Impacts Graduation, STEM Retention, and Transfer Patterns

Mentorship for Transfer Student Success in STEM Research: Mentor Approaches and Reflections

Mentorship has been widely recognized as an effective means to promote student learning and engagement in undergraduate research experiences. However, little work exists for understanding different mentors' perceived approaches to mentorship, including mentorship of students from backgrounds and educational trajectories not well represented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Transfer students, in particular, face unique trajectories in their pursuit of research opportunities, yet few studies investigate how mentors describe their approaches to supporting these students. Using semistructured interviews, this study examines how mentors approach mentoring students from diverse backgrounds as research trainees, with an emphasis on transfer students. First, using phenomenography as an analytical approach, we identified four categories describing variations in how mentors reflected upon or accounted for the transfer student identity in their approaches. We find that research mentors vary in their understanding and exposure to the transfer student identity and may have preconceived notions of the transfer student experience. Second, we present vignettes to illustrate how mentors' approaches to the transfer student identity may relate or diverge from their general approaches to mentoring students from different backgrounds and identities. The emerging findings have implications for developing effective mentorship strategies and training mentors to support transfer students.

"So, We Found a Way:" How Changing Modalities Affected a Year-Long Mentored Research Experience for Associate's Degree Students

The CUNY Research Scholars Program (CRSP) has provided year-long mentored research experiences for 1678 associate's degree STEM students since 2014. The pluralities (32%) of mentors, all of whom are full-time faculty, have been biologists. Other represented disciplines include, but are not limited to, chemistry, engineering, mathematics, environmental science, linguistics, and psychology. The research experiences take place at all 10 associate's degree-granting colleges within the City University of New York system. Our previous assessment demonstrated that CRSP students are significantly more likely than their counterparts in a matched sample to remain in STEM programs, graduate, transfer to research intensive institutions, and report a stronger sense of belonging in college. The Covid-19 pandemic challenged the program, as colleges shuttered laboratories and other facilities. Some mentors worried that lab-based research experiences would not be possible under such conditions. The first full-year pandemic cohort, however, demonstrated the resilience of the program and its participants. To assess the ongoing impact of CRSP and how it adapted using new modalities, we interviewed college-based directors, surveyed students and mentors, and held focus groups with mentors. Directors described how their colleges adapted to preserve all prepandemic components of the program. Mentors detailed their strategies for engaging students in authentic research experiences in virtual and other formats. Students reported that, along with scientific and technical skills, the program deepened their self-confidence and prepared them for transfer to baccalaureate programs. Our findings show how virtual platforms can be utilized to preserve the most beneficial aspects of undergraduate research experiences for associate's degree students.

A Call to Assess the Impacts of Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences for Career and Technical Education, Allied Health, and Underrepresented Students at Community Colleges

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) have the potential to impact student success and reduce barriers for students to participate in undergraduate research. Literature review has revealed that, while CUREs are being implemented at both community colleges (CCs) and bachelor's degree-granting institutions, there are limited published studies on the differential impacts CUREs may have on CC students in allied health programs, career and technical education, and nursing pathways (termed "workforce" in this essay). This essay summarizes proposed outcomes of CURE instruction and explores possible reasons for limited reporting on outcomes for CC and workforce students. It also provides recommendations to guide action and effect change regarding CURE implementation and assessment at CCs. This essay is a call to action to expand the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics career development pathway to include workforce students, implement CUREs designed for workforce students, and assess the differential impacts CUREs may have on workforce student populations at CCs.

Supervised Study: Required Independent Research at a Community College Supports Persistence in Science

This study assesses the impacts of the Science program at Piedmont Virginia Community College and its flagship capstone research experience, Supervised Study, through psychosocial perceptions associated with persistence in science and through a comparative analysis of subsequent science bachelor's degree attainment. Supervised Study involves authentic, independent projects, a research methods course and learning community, and one-on-one faculty mentoring. The Persistence in the Sciences survey was used as a repeated-measures instrument in four semesters of Supervised Study. Positive trends were observed for self-efficacy, science identity, community values, and networking, while responses related to project ownership were mixed (n = 13). To contextualize these observations, transfer and bachelor's degree completion rates were analyzed. Students who earn an associate's degree in Science (n = 113 between 2012 and 2019) complete bachelor's degrees at high rates (66.4%). Moreover, they are two to four times more likely to major in physical and natural sciences than their science-oriented peers, who take many of the same courses, with the exception of Supervised Study. Notably, these comparison rates remain consistent between different demographic groups. These findings further describe a model for research at the community college level that supports persistence in undergraduate science for a broad group of students.

The Batrachian Barf Bowl: An authentic research experience using ecological data from frog diets

Authentic research experiences (AREs) are a powerful strategy for inspiring and retaining students in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. However, recent demand for virtual learning has emphasized the need for remote AREs that also foster a sense of community and interpersonal connections among participants. Here, we describe an ARE activity that leverages digitized diet data from natural history collections to provide students with collaborative research experience across any learning environment. Using magnified photographs of frog stomach contents collected in the Peruvian Amazon, we designed an open‐source “bowl game” competition that challenges students to identify, measure, and compare diet items across vouchered frog specimens (“Batrachian Barf Bowl”). To demonstrate learning outcomes, we ran this activity with 39 herpetology class students from the University of Notre Dame and the University of Michigan. We used pre‐ and post‐activity assessments to evaluate effectiveness, scientific accuracy of results, and impact on student well‐being. With minimal preparation and training in invertebrate identification, students were successful in identifying hundreds of frog diet items to taxonomic order, although accuracy varied among clades (global accuracy ~70%). While we found no difference in science identity, community, or self‐efficacy between the two institutions at either time point (pre‐ and post‐activity), we found that well‐being was significantly higher for both sets of students after the activity. Overall, this approach offers a model for combining active learning with museum collections to provide experiential research opportunities that highlight the power of scientific collaboration.

Exploring Two-Year College Biology Instructors' Preferences around Teaching Strategies and Professional Development

Nearly half of all college students and the majority of college students of color begin their studies at 2-year colleges. The educational quality that these students experience will affect future success, but little research to date has focused on the professional development (PD) of their instructors. We offer an exploratory study on PD needs and preferences of ten 2-year college biology instructors who have experience with evidence-based instructional practices. Using a literature review and interview data, we address four research questions. We contextualize the interview results by describing interviewee teaching styles and their teaching and inclusion strategies, drawing on categorizations from education research literatures in and beyond biology. We then summarize interviewee experiences, preferences, and recommendations for PD. Most interviewees preferred PD that could be readily applied to their courses and included follow-up community support. While our purposive sample is limited, we note high levels of interest in PD supporting inclusive pedagogy and non-biology learning goals, such as study skills, metacognition, and quantitative skills. We describe implications for inclusive design of biology instructor PD.

Wild Caught Nematode Identification and Early Embryo Development: An accessible undergraduate research experience

Ample evidence suggests that participation in undergraduate research in community college is critical for stimulating interest and retention in STEM careers. Guided skill development and practice in a collaborative lab setting allows students to be competitive when applying to future research opportunities. The goals of this undergraduate research experience (URE) was for student-driven discovery with unknown outcomes including: introduction to primary literature, developmental biology, developing hypotheses, learning worm maintenance, microscopy, PCR, and sequencing analysis. The use of C. elegans and wild caught nematodes facilitated an exciting and affordable project that can be built on in future UREs.

Dancing for Parkinson's: A Gateway for Connectedness to Peers and Social Assurance

The first-year student experience in college is a crucial time for personal and professional development, especially for students entering science, technology, education, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Unfortunately, it is also the time when students most commonly leave STEM, largely due to disconnection from faculty and peers. The Freshman Research Initiative (FRI) is a program that introduces first-year undergraduates to research in a variety of fields. The program has shown positive outcomes for student success and retention in STEM fields. However, it has not been demonstrated whether this program can increase social connectedness and assurance, potentially contributing to students' longer-term retention in STEM. In this pilot study, we measured social connectedness/assurance among students before and after a 16-week course in neurophysiology. We found that combined scores of social connectedness and assurance significantly increased by the end of the course. We also found that individual constructs of social connectedness and assurance significantly increased. Furthermore, the majority of students from FRI were retained in STEM fields. We plan future studies to include collection of longitudinal data and measures to identify additional reasons that the FRI increased these positive outcomes among our student participants.

A Culturally Responsive Curricular Revision to Improve Engagement and Learning in an Undergraduate Microbiology Lab Course

We seek to increase student engagement and success to subsequently lead to increased retention and degree attainment for students at our Hispanic-serving institution. We hypothesized that using a culturally responsive approach in an undergraduate microbiology lab would increase engagement and learning gains. Using a culturally responsive approach allowed students to start their learning from their own place of understanding-centering students' lived experiences. Students interviewed family members to learn about "home remedies," and then devised experiments to test whether those home remedies affected growth of bacteria commonly implicated in gastrointestinal distress (Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, and Escherichia coli) or sore throat (Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Streptococcus pyogenes, and Mycoplasma pneumoniae). As a final assessment, students generated project posters which they presented at a class symposium. Implementation of a culturally responsive research experience focused on the gut microbiome resulted in increased learning gains as evidenced by movement up Bloom's Revised Taxonomy Scale. Student feedback indicated increased engagement, increased confidence in communicating science and a deeper understanding and appreciation for microbiology. Taken together, the results indicate that students appreciate a more culturally responsive and student-centered approach to learning in microbiology and encourages expansion of this approach to other modules in the course. This paper includes responsive data to support this claim, as well as a sample course calendar and supplementary learning material to support the human microbiome approach to microbiology.

Long-Term Outcomes of Biotechnology Student Participation in Undergraduate Research Experiences at Delaware Technical Community College

Engagement in undergraduate research experiences (UREs) positively impacts student skill development, scientific identity, and retention in STEM. Incorporating UREs into 2-year programs would greatly benefit the diverse, nontraditional student populations enrolled at community colleges. This article describes the infusion of the Bioscience/Biotechnology program at Delaware Technical Community College with course-based and mentored research experiences that could serve as a model for other institutions. Studies done with the Office of Institutional Research revealed a concurrent increase in enrollment and graduation rates. Retrospective interviews with graduates from the program highlight the critical influence of research, the mentor/student relationship, and a sense of community on the development of transferable skills, self-efficacy, and subsequent successes in pursuing higher education and employment.

Microbiomes for All

Microbiome research projects are often interdisciplinary, involving fields such as microbiology, genetics, ecology, evolution, bioinformatics, and statistics. These research projects can be an excellent fit for undergraduate courses ranging from introductory biology labs to upper-level capstone courses. Microbiome research projects can attract the interest of students majoring in health and medical sciences, environmental sciences, and agriculture, and there are meaningful ties to real-world issues relating to human health, climate change, and environmental sustainability and resilience in pristine, fragile ecosystems to bustling urban centers. In this review, we will discuss the potential of microbiome research integrated into classes using a number of different modalities. Our experience scaling-up and implementing microbiome projects at a range of institutions across the US has provided us with insight and strategies for what works well and how to diminish common hurdles that are encountered when implementing undergraduate microbiome research projects. We will discuss how course-based microbiome research can be leveraged to help faculty make advances in their own research and professional development and the resources that are available to support faculty interested in integrating microbiome research into their courses.