Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences for Place-Bound Students to Promote Student Persistence

This project aims to serve the national interest by developing and investigating a model for engaging students from diverse backgrounds in undergraduate research. The project is centered at Central New Mexico Community College, a 2-year Hispanic Serving Institution, where the principal investigators will implement and examine a hybrid undergraduate research experience (URE) consisting of an integrated course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) and a traditional apprenticeship undergraduate research experience with stipend support.

The hybrid URE model addresses and builds upon the place-bound and cultural experiences of the students, high impact practices, core competency instructional modules, and professional development activities. In particular, the research experiences will focus on advancing knowledge about the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, of which Albuquerque is one of the top ten cities in the country experiencing this phenomenon.

As such, the project has the potential to inform institutions interested in fostering undergraduate research experiences for students who bring place-bound experiential knowledge to investigate local research problems. The project will also contribute systematically collected information to the National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS), thus further situating the research in a societally important context.

The project has the potential to contribute to student success and retention in STEM, to advance knowledge about CUREs and UREs broadly, contribute to the national investigation of UHI effect, and the development of a hybrid model of CUREs for community colleges.

The project has three objectives: (1) To strengthen students’ persistence in STEM; (2) to develop students’ content knowledge to promote research practices; and (3) to create an operational framework (STEM content and implementation) to enable a robust year-long course-based undergraduate research experience. Place-bound students typically have family and cultural responsibilities and face challenges to participating in traditional apprenticeship research experiences.

However, course-based undergraduate research experiences provide a practical alternative. For this project ten students per year will participate in a year-long series of special project courses and will receive significant stipend support. A mixed methods culturally responsive study will investigate expected outputs and outcomes, alignment of project activities to outcomes and implementation, and fidelity to the logic model.

The study will conduct document analyses of student products, quantitative analysis of institutional data, assessment of student knowledge and skills, qualitative analysis of interview data, and analyses of retention and graduation rates. Findings from each type of data collection and analysis will inform project improvement, document outcomes for accountability, and advance knowledge and understanding of the undergraduate research experience.

Additionally, data collected in Albuquerque, New Mexico by student research teams will contribute to documenting the UHI effect. The Advancing Innovation and Impact in Undergraduate STEM Education at Two Year Institutions program description supports research and development projects supporting education and research efforts at two-year colleges.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.