Undergraduate STEM Identity Development Across Research and Design Experiences

• In Event: Research In Progress Roundtables Session 4
  In Invited Roundtable: Gender, Race, and Identity in STEM Education (Table 6)

Abstract

This project implements and assesses an authentic inquiry laboratory course against research and design apprenticeships at a large R1 university. This convergent mixed-methods study collected pre and post quantitative surveys of students’ demographics, science identity, perceived research authenticity, and project ownership. Students’ qualitative descriptions of their identities and experiences were collected via interviews. Quantitative data will be analyzed via linear regression while a subset of interview transcripts will undergo structural and inductive coding. Findings aim to contribute to knowledge in the undergraduate STEM education literature on the relative importance and tradeoffs of research authenticity and project ownership in student learning environments.

Author

• Erica Light, University of Massachusetts - Amherst