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For women and transgender/gender nonconforming students, experiencing depression reduced their personal and skills gains from undergraduate research, but higher quality mentoring attenuated that negative effect for personal gains. For men, depression was not significantly associated with their gains from undergraduate research. 

An assessment of latent factors of learning gains and student reflections are used to explore the intersecting factors that impact students practicing science in an immersive, culturally-responsive CURE and describe how these factors may contribute towards building an undergraduate research experience within a Native Hawaiian Place of Learning. 

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) are an effective method of engaging large numbers of students in authentic research but are associated with barriers to adoption. Short CURE modules may serve as a low-barrier entryway, but their effectiveness in promoting expansion has not been studied. The Prevalence of Antibiotic Resistance in the Environment (PARE) project is a modular CURE designed to be a low-barrier gateway into CURE use. In a series of interviews, we track and characterize use of PARE in 19 PARE-interested instructors throughout the Innovation-Decision Process described by Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovations theory. The majority (16/19) implement PARE at least once, and a majority of these implementers (11/16) expanded use by the final interview. Three of four cases of discontinuance were due to a disruption such as moving institutions or a change in course assignment and occurred for community college faculty. Expanders expressed fewer personal challenges than nonexpanders. Overall analysis shows that perception of barriers is nuanced and impacted by the innovation itself, the institutional context, and one’s own experiences. These results suggest that a short duration, low barrier CURE can serve as a catalyst for implementation of a longer duration CURE. 

Teaching assistants (TA) have increasingly been tasked with facilitating course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs). Yet, there is little discussion in the literature regarding the need for or approaches to providing professional development (PD) for this population. This essay is a “call to action” for promoting intentional CURE TA PD. 

This study assesses the impacts of the Science program at Piedmont Virginia Community College and its flagship capstone research experience, Supervised Study, through psychosocial perceptions associated with persistence in science and through a comparative analysis of subsequent science bachelor’s degree attainment. Supervised Study involves authentic, independent projects, a research methods course and learning community, and one-on-one faculty mentoring. The Persistence in the Sciences survey was used as a repeated-measures instrument in four semesters of Supervised Study. Positive trends were observed for self-efficacy, science identity, community values, and networking, while responses related to project ownership were mixed ( n = 13). To contextualize these observations, transfer and bachelor’s degree completion rates were analyzed. Students who earn an associate’s degree in Science ( n = 113 between 2012 and 2019) complete bachelor’s degrees at high rates (66.4%). Moreover, they are two to four times more likely to major in physical and natural sciences than their science-oriented peers, who take many of the same courses, with the exception of Supervised Study. Notably, these comparison rates remain consistent between different demographic groups. These findings further describe a model for research at the community college level that supports persistence in undergraduate science for a broad group of students.