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1. Engineering technology, anthropology, and business: Reflections of graduate student researchers in the pursuit of transdisciplinary learning

   Martinez, R; Lucas, D (June 2024, American Society of Engineering Education)

   To pursue transdisciplinary education, bringing together different disciplinary perspectives is necessary. As two graduate researchers, in engineering technology and anthropology, on a National Science Foundation (NSF) Improving Undergraduate STEM Education research project, we want to embody and explore our role in the journey to pursue transdisciplinary education. Our familiarity with higher education as students, our different disciplinary backgrounds and lived experiences, and our training as an engineering technology educator and a social scientist contribute greatly to the advancement of understanding the project. Harnessing our combined expertise enables us to see collaborative co-teaching, group learning, and student engagement in new ways. Often transdisciplinary education research is approached from siloed disciplines or from a single perspective and not inclusive of graduate students' perspectives. We find ourselves working on a collaborative cross-college project between three different colleges, Business, Engineering Technology, and Liberal Arts, where faculty and students are co-teaching and co-learning in a series of design and innovation courses. A key element of this project is gathering and using stakeholder data from students, faculty, and administrators. Midway through our three-year project, the NSF project’s external reviewer highlighted the crucial value added of having graduate researchers looking at transforming higher education towards transdisciplinarity. With that in mind, we offer some guiding thoughts about collaborative research among graduate students and faculty from different academic disciplines. This includes tips on how we collaborated in coding, analysis, and data presentations. Using project examples, we will discuss how we used tools for collaboration such as NVivo Teams and Microsoft Teams; these platforms aided in contributing to the iterative research design of this project and research outputs. Our process was strengthened by active participation in project meetings with faculty, educational community events, and data review sessions to reach data consensus. We have noticed how transdisciplinarity can transform undergraduate learning and encourage cross-college faculty collaboration. We will reflect on the significance of collaboration at all levels of higher education. Furthermore, this experience has set us on the path to becoming transdisciplinary scholars ourselves. 

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2. Assessing Interdisciplinary Competency in the Disaster Resilience and Risk Management Graduate Program using Concept Maps

   Deters, J. R.; Paretti, M. C.; Zobel, C.; Cowell, M.; Irish, J. L. (June 2019, 2019 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition)

   Concept maps have emerged as a valid and reliable method for assessing deep conceptual understanding in engineering education within disciplines as well as interdisciplinary knowledge integration across disciplines. Most work on concept maps, however, focuses on undergraduates. In this paper, we use concept maps to examine changes in graduate students’ conceptual understanding and knowledge integration resulting from an interdisciplinary graduate program. Our study context is pair of foundational, team-taught courses in an interdisciplinary Disaster Resilience and Risk Management (DRRM) graduate program. The courses include a 3-hour research course and a 1-hour seminar that aim to build student understanding within and across Urban Affairs and Planning, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Geosciences, and Business Information Technology. The courses introduce core principles of DRRM and relevant research methods in these disciplines, and drive students to understand the intersections of these disciplines in the context of planning for and responding to natural and human-made disasters. To understand graduate student growth from disciplinary-based to interdisciplinary scholars, we pose the research questions: 1) In what ways do graduate students’ understandings of DRRM change as a result of their introduction to an interdisciplinary graduate research program? and 2) To what extent and in what ways do concept maps serve as a tool to capture interdisciplinary learning in this context? Data includes pre/post concept maps centered on disaster resilience and risk management, a one-page explanation of the post-concept map, and ethnographic field notes gathered from class and faculty meetings. Pre-concept maps were collected on the first day of class; post-concept maps will be collected as part of the final course assignment. We assess the students’ concept maps for depth of conceptual understanding within disciplines and interdisciplinary competency across disciplines, using the field notes to provide explanatory context. The results presented in this paper support the inclusion of an explanation component to concept maps, and also suggest that concept maps alone may not be the best measure of student understanding of concepts within and across disciplines in this specific context. If similar programs wish to use concept maps as an assessment method, we suggest the inclusion of an explanation component and suggest providing explicit instructions that specify the intended audience. We also suggest using a holistic scoring method, as it is more likely to capture nuances in the concept maps than traditional scoring methods, which focus solely on counting factors like hierarchies and number of cross-links. 

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3. Recruiting and Developing Faculty Mentors to Improve STEM Retention and Success

   Joiner, David; Morreale; Patricia; Hug, Sarah; Swinton, Derrick; Qi, Feng; Spaccarotella, Kim; Rosen, Dina; Amador, Nancy (November 2025, 2025 IEEE Frontiers in Education (FIE( Conference Proceedings)

   This research-to-practice full paper describes a cohort-based undergraduate research program designed to improve STEM retention through structured mentoring and community building. Drawing on the Affinity Research Group (ARG) model, the program fosters faculty-student research collaboration and integrates faculty mentorship training, student-led peer mentoring, and structured interventions, such as research skills workshops and networking events. Each year, faculty from biology, chemistry, computer science, environmental science, and mathematics lead small-group research projects with recruited students who may participate for up to three years. Faculty and students receive ARG training to promote consistent mentoring practices. A credit-bearing, major-specific first-year orientation course supports recruitment and reinforces students’ scientific identity. Faculty also engage in professional development workshops to strengthen student-centered mentoring approaches. Data collection includes surveys, interviews, retention tracking, and weekly journaling to assess STEM identity, belonging, and skill development. External evaluators reviewed the faculty focus groups to assess mentoring effectiveness. Initial findings show strong faculty engagement with the ARG model, with many adopting adaptive mentoring strategies that enhance student support. Students report increased confidence and belonging within their disciplines. However, cross-disciplinary collaboration remains limited, highlighting the need for more intentional networking within the cohort. Students also emphasized the value of peer collaboration alongside faculty mentorship. These results suggest that undergraduate research can serve as a powerful tool for building community and supporting persistence in STEM. Ongoing efforts will focus on expanding networking opportunities, strengthening peer collaboration, and evaluating long-term impacts on student retention. 

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4. Review Of Researcher Experience in a Collaborative Research Program – Phase 1

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--57142  

   Lucietto, Anne; Mungo, Monita; Rodriguez, Mia; Yang, Jason; Archer, Joshua; Kumar, Revathy; Berhan, Lesley (June 2025, ASEE Conferences)

   This study, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 2023, aimed to investigate the motivations behind students' preference for engineering technology over other engineering and STEM disciplines. Our primary goals were to understand these motivations and provide insights that could better inform educational policies and practices to support underrepresented groups in STEM fields. Throughout the project, we accomplished several key objectives. We successfully engaged diverse stakeholders, including graduate and undergraduate students, faculty members, and community partners. This collaboration enriched the research process by integrating various perspectives and expertise. We also navigated the complexities of interdisciplinary collaboration, addressing challenges related to differing work and communication styles, and established clear communication channels and shared goals early in the project. Our core findings revealed that several factors, including the perceived practicality and applicability of the discipline, the availability of role models and mentors, and the supportive learning environments within engineering technology programs influence students' preference for engineering technology. Additionally, our research highlighted the importance of cultural competency and trust in building strong relationships with research participants, which was crucial for collecting meaningful data. This paper provides a comprehensive view of the collaborative research process by documenting our experiences and the explicit contributions of each team member. We offer valuable insights into the dynamics of interdisciplinary collaboration, the importance of adaptability and responsiveness to participant needs, and strategies for fostering trust and rapport with underrepresented students. Our findings and reflections aim to equip future researchers with the knowledge and tools to navigate similar projects effectively, ultimately contributing to advancing diversity and inclusion in STEM education. 

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5. Early Career Critical Zone Science Workshop Outcomes

   https://doi.org/10.22541/essoar.175034148.88097851/v1  

   Miller, Hannah; Wang, Lijing; Adamchak, Clifford; Johnson, Keira; Donaldson, Amanda (June 2025, ESS Open Archive)

   Critical Zone (CZ) science investigates the interconnected processes occurring from the top of the vegetation canopy to the base of the groundwater. Recognizing the need to foster cross- disciplinary collaboration among early-career researchers (ECRs), graduate students organized two workshops in 2024 and 2025 aimed at building community, sharing research approaches, and discussing the future of CZ science. These workshops brought together participants from diverse disciplines, institutions, and career stages, and included research talks, structured discussions, and community-building activities. Survey results demonstrated increased confidence in cross-disciplinary collaboration and highlighted the value of supportive, in-person settings for networking and broadening scientific perspectives. Recommendations include expanding support for small, ECR-focused workshops and prioritizing institutional structures that sustain collaborative, transdisciplinary CZ research. 

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