IMPACT OF UNDERGRADUATE TRAINING IN PROPOSAL DEVELOPMENT AND LAB PARTICIPATION ON STUDENT INTEREST IN BIOLOGY AND CHEMISTRY

This project details a quantitative and qualitative assessment of the impact of the SRW program on student interest and retention in biology and chemistry majors.

Streitwieser, B., Light, G. (2009). Young scientists entering the community of practitioners: The Science Research Workshop Program. International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL) Annual Conference, Bloomington, IN. (Forthcoming).

Streitwieser, B., Light, G., Pazos-Lago, M., Drane, D., Hirsch, P. (2008, September). The Science Research Workshop Program: Situated learning in the scientific community. Presentation at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Conference, San Diego, CA.

Streitwieser, B. (2008, September). The Science Research Workshop Program: Learning what real scientists do and writing a proposal to support first time research. Presentation at the S.T.E.M. Communities in Conversation conference, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL.

Our research to date details two years of study of the NSF-funded Science Research Workshop Program (SRW), an intervention for first and second year biology and chemistry students aimed at increasing their likelihood of majoring in science and pursuing a professional research career. The philosophy supporting SRW comes from the work of Lave and Wenger (1991) and the idea of engaging learners with common domains of interest in legitimate participation in communities of practice. Survey and interview data analyzed shows students making important advancements in several critical areas the literature has tied to retention success. Program participants show significant differences compared to control group students in perceptions of research self-efficacy (Bieschke, Rosen and Garcia, 1996) and interest in science, clarity of future goals, and determination to stay in a science career path (Lopato, 2004). Twenty eight participants so far have won summer research funding and almost all participants have gone on to successful laboratory experiences. The program has dramatically expanded in its third year and data collection is currently underway.