T4-B: Investigating 2-year STEM Student Motivation for Participating in Undergraduate Research

Location

Bill France B

Start Date

6-3-2018 8:40 AM

Description

Over the past two decades there has been increasing evidence of the benefits to students and faculty regarding their participation in undergraduate research. Student participants build critical thinking skills, increase problem solving, and have more positive attitudes toward STEM. Faculty participants become more aware of student learning needs and outcomes, thus improving teaching in courses that typically do not involve undergraduate research. Despite the evidence of these benefits, challenges remain for increasing the number of 2-year college STEM students who participate in undergraduate research. Therefore of the students who do engage in research at the 2-year college level, it is important to understand the factors that fuel their participation. Yet, there have been very few studies conducted in this area. Consequently, this paper examines the 2-year college STEM students’ motivation for engaging in research activities with hopes of providing a discourse for STEM educators on how to increase student participation.

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Mar 6th, 8:40 AM

T4-B: Investigating 2-year STEM Student Motivation for Participating in Undergraduate Research

Bill France B

Over the past two decades there has been increasing evidence of the benefits to students and faculty regarding their participation in undergraduate research. Student participants build critical thinking skills, increase problem solving, and have more positive attitudes toward STEM. Faculty participants become more aware of student learning needs and outcomes, thus improving teaching in courses that typically do not involve undergraduate research. Despite the evidence of these benefits, challenges remain for increasing the number of 2-year college STEM students who participate in undergraduate research. Therefore of the students who do engage in research at the 2-year college level, it is important to understand the factors that fuel their participation. Yet, there have been very few studies conducted in this area. Consequently, this paper examines the 2-year college STEM students’ motivation for engaging in research activities with hopes of providing a discourse for STEM educators on how to increase student participation.