Undergraduate Research: Changing the Culture at Community Colleges

Northern Arizona University (NAU) has been operating a National Science Foundation–funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates program for 18 years. The program works with tribal and community college faculty to recruit students traditionally underrepresented in the sciences for a 10-week summer research experience at NAU. Since 2006, 77 percent of the 83 participants have been from ethnic or racial groups underrepresented in the sciences. A total of 53 students from two-year tribal or community colleges participated, and at least 30 students (57 percent) transferred to a four-year institution. Building authentic interactions with tribal colleges and collaborations in tribal college program development, faculty development, and research programs and finding ways to encourage students to enroll in graduate school are ongoing parts of the program.

In 2011, DePaul University established the Arnold L. Mitchem Fellowship Program to support graduate school preparation for first-generation, low-income, and underrepresented second-year students. The program aims to advance students’ academic and career paths through an early research experience where students create literature reviews that reflect their lived experiences, are critical of society, and motivate them to pursue avenues of inquiry within their fields. The program also serves as a pathway for students interested in the federally funded McNair Scholars Program at DePaul. By participating in the Mitchem Program, students can enhance their academic profiles in preparation for future undergraduate research opportunities and graduate school.

Engagement in high-impact practices such as undergraduate research can dramatically improve academic and developmental outcomes; traditionally underserved students (including underrepresented minorities and firstgeneration students) often experience outsized benefits from these academic experiences. The California State University Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (CSU–LSAMP) program provides wide-ranging scaffolding and support to underrepresented students, seeking to increase the participation of individuals who face or have faced social, educational, or economic barriers to careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The authors provide a description of the undergraduate research and supplementary programs supported by the CSU–LSAMP program at California State University Monterey Bay and other CSU campuses and present outcome data highlighting the benefits of leveraging undergraduate research engagement to increase participation of underserved groups in STEM.

For 12 years, Denise Gillman has taught the course Science on the Stage at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia. The plays studied awaken intellectual curiosity and understanding of human nature and complex scientific ideas within the framework of a good story and can do so for students of every major. This article presents how science-themed plays build interdisciplinary bridges in the classroom, create collaborative inquiry-based learning models, and launch creative research pathways for undergraduates. It explores the use of these plays as an interdisciplinary springboard by sharing exercises and writing assignments that engage various learners. It also exemplifies, through student work and two case studies, how students’ research and creative investigation of these plays have originated questions that explore urgent problems and led them into capstone experiences, research projects, and conference presentations.