TY - JOUR
T1 - Assessing objective attainment in a research experience for undergraduates (REU) program focused on community college students
AU - Loyo-Rosales, Jorge
AU - Noravian, Armineh
AU - Cook-Davis, Alison
AU - Obenland, Carrie A.
AU - Nichol, Carolyn
N1 - Funding Information:
Dr. Alison Cook-Davis is Assistant Director for Program Evaluation at the Arizona State University’s Office of Evaluation and Educational Effectiveness (UOEEE). She has a BA in Psychology, MS in Social Psychology, MLS Legal Studies, and a Ph.D. in Experimental Social Psychology. Prior to joining UOEEE, she supported the research and program evaluation efforts of Maricopa County Adult Probation Department, coordinated and executed the research and program evaluation for a large Department of Justice Second Chance Act grant. These efforts included monitoring, assessing, and evaluating the impacts of program outcomes. Since joining the UOEEE in 2015, Dr. Cook-Davis has led research and evaluation activities for over 50 separate grant-funded programs or initiatives funded by the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Institutes of Health, and The Kern Family Foundation. These projects have focused on the evaluation of student success, outreach impacts, innovative learning techniques, and STEM-related interventions and curricula.
Funding Information:
As part of the Eninegering Research Center (ERC) Program of the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment (NEWT) Center has run a Research Expriencee for Undergraduates (REU) progamrevery summer since 2016. Starting in 2,0the 17 NEWT REU program focuses on offering research expriencee to community college students from the metropolitan areas of the center’s partnr unieversities: Phoenix for Arizona State University (ASU), Houston for Rice Univrsitey (Rice), and El Paso for the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). The objectives of the NEWT REU program are specified in NEWT’s logic model, and they are to (1) proidevcommunity college students, especially from underrepresented minorities in science and engineering (URM), with professional research expriencee in NEWT laboratories, (2) improve the program participants' communication skills, specifically poster elaboration and presentation, (3) increase the nbur ofemURM students choosing to pursue careers or graduate studies in NEWT-related STEM fields, and (4) improve the mentorship skills of NEWT graduate students and postdocs participting asmentors. The NEWT REU program is run by NEWT staff from Rice and the participants are placed for ten weeks in NEWT laboratories at ASU, Rice, and UTEP, where they are generally mentored by graduate students. From the inception of the program, NEWT has colaborlated with the University Office of Evaluation and Educational Effectiveness (UOEEE) at ASU to formulate the logic model and to provide external evaluation of the proramg. Evaluation is based on a social constructivism epistemological approach which assumes individual perceptions are relative and that reality is constructed socially. Therefore, participants’ perspectives obtained through interviews are used to provide insight on their perception of the REU expriencee. Evaluation of the 2018 REU cohort (9 out of 11 students were interviewed) showed that the first two program objectives are being met—objectives 3 and 4 require long term lontudignalidata for evaluatio. In nadtion,di the constructivist approach yielded qualitative information that allowed for more specific program appraisal. For example, the evaluation revaleed tht paarticipants observed improvement in communication skills beyond those stated in the objectives (i.e., poster elaboration and presentation), such as being trained in how to read peer-reviewed articles. The evaluation also provided a more nuanced understanding of the qlituy otahfperticaipants’ interaction with their mentors, allowing for better planning of mentor training in subsequent cohorts.
Funding Information:
This work was supported by the NSF Nanosystems Engineering Research Center for Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment (EEC-1449500) and Nanotechnology REU with Focus on Community Colleges (EEC-1757967).
Publisher Copyright:
© American Society for Engineering Education, 2019
PY - 2019/6/15
Y1 - 2019/6/15
N2 - As part of the Engineering Research Center (ERC) Program of the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment (NEWT) Center has run a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program every summer since 2016. Starting in 2017, the NEWT REU program focuses on offering research experience to community college students from the metropolitan areas of the center's partner universities: Phoenix for Arizona State University (ASU), Houston for Rice University (Rice), and El Paso for the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). The objectives of the NEWT REU program are specified in NEWT's logic model, and they are to (1) provide community college students, especially from underrepresented minorities in science and engineering (URM), with professional research experience in NEWT laboratories, (2) improve the program participants' communication skills, specifically poster elaboration and presentation, (3) increase the number of URM students choosing to pursue careers or graduate studies in NEWT-related STEM fields, and (4) improve the mentorship skills of NEWT graduate students and postdocs participating as mentors. The NEWT REU program is run by NEWT staff from Rice and the participants are placed for ten weeks in NEWT laboratories at ASU, Rice, and UTEP, where they are generally mentored by graduate students. From the inception of the program, NEWT has collaborated with the University Office of Evaluation and Educational Effectiveness (UOEEE) at ASU to formulate the logic model and to provide external evaluation of the program. Evaluation is based on a social constructivism epistemological approach which assumes individual perceptions are relative and that reality is constructed socially. Therefore, participants' perspectives obtained through interviews are used to provide insight on their perception of the REU experience. Evaluation of the 2018 REU cohort (9 out of 11 students were interviewed) showed that the first two program objectives are being met-objectives 3 and 4 require long term longitudinal data for evaluation. In addition, the constructivist approach yielded qualitative information that allowed for more specific program appraisal. For example, the evaluation revealed that participants observed improvement in communication skills beyond those stated in the objectives (i.e., poster elaboration and presentation), such as being trained in how to read peer-reviewed articles. The evaluation also provided a more nuanced understanding of the quality of the participants' interaction with their mentors, allowing for better planning of mentor training in subsequent cohorts.
AB - As part of the Engineering Research Center (ERC) Program of the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment (NEWT) Center has run a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program every summer since 2016. Starting in 2017, the NEWT REU program focuses on offering research experience to community college students from the metropolitan areas of the center's partner universities: Phoenix for Arizona State University (ASU), Houston for Rice University (Rice), and El Paso for the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). The objectives of the NEWT REU program are specified in NEWT's logic model, and they are to (1) provide community college students, especially from underrepresented minorities in science and engineering (URM), with professional research experience in NEWT laboratories, (2) improve the program participants' communication skills, specifically poster elaboration and presentation, (3) increase the number of URM students choosing to pursue careers or graduate studies in NEWT-related STEM fields, and (4) improve the mentorship skills of NEWT graduate students and postdocs participating as mentors. The NEWT REU program is run by NEWT staff from Rice and the participants are placed for ten weeks in NEWT laboratories at ASU, Rice, and UTEP, where they are generally mentored by graduate students. From the inception of the program, NEWT has collaborated with the University Office of Evaluation and Educational Effectiveness (UOEEE) at ASU to formulate the logic model and to provide external evaluation of the program. Evaluation is based on a social constructivism epistemological approach which assumes individual perceptions are relative and that reality is constructed socially. Therefore, participants' perspectives obtained through interviews are used to provide insight on their perception of the REU experience. Evaluation of the 2018 REU cohort (9 out of 11 students were interviewed) showed that the first two program objectives are being met-objectives 3 and 4 require long term longitudinal data for evaluation. In addition, the constructivist approach yielded qualitative information that allowed for more specific program appraisal. For example, the evaluation revealed that participants observed improvement in communication skills beyond those stated in the objectives (i.e., poster elaboration and presentation), such as being trained in how to read peer-reviewed articles. The evaluation also provided a more nuanced understanding of the quality of the participants' interaction with their mentors, allowing for better planning of mentor training in subsequent cohorts.
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M3 - Conference article
AN - SCOPUS:85078744334
SN - 2153-5965
JO - ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings
JF - ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings
T2 - 126th ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition: Charged Up for the Next 125 Years, ASEE 2019
Y2 - 15 June 2019 through 19 June 2019
ER -