Early undergraduate research experiences lead to similar learning gains for STEM and Non-STEM undergraduates

Abstract

Undergraduate research is touted as a high-impact educational practice yielding important benefits such as increased retention and notable learning gains. Large-scale studies describing benefits of mentored research programs have focused primarily on outcomes for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) undergraduates. The Students Tackling Advanced Research (STAR) Scholars Program at Drexel University provides research experiences to freshman undergraduates in STEM and Non-STEM disciplines. In the 12 years since its establishment, the STAR Scholars Program has paired over 900 students with nearly 300 faculty mentors. Program outcomes were assessed using the URSSA (Undergraduate Research Student Self-Assessment) tool. Here the program structure, participant demographics and student outcomes are described. In addition to observing expected increases in retention and learning gains, very few statistically significant differences in learning gains and motivations for conducting research among STEM and Non-STEM student populations were found. These data suggest that early research experiences can benefit undergraduate students from both STEM and Non-STEM disciplines.

Keywords:

• undergraduate research
• STEM
• freshman
• learning gains

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank President John Fry, former President Constantine Papadakis, the Office of the Provost, the Pennoni Honors College Leadership, the Drexel librarians and library staff, the Fellowships Office, the Greater Philadelphia Region Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation, and the administrative officers of Drexel University for their strong commitment to undergraduate research; the faculty mentors who have served our students with passion and dedication; and most particularly, the more than 900 Drexel STAR Scholars who have consistently shown us the value of investing in early undergraduate research. Thanks to Vice Provost Dr John DiNardo and Drs Joe Bentz, Dan Marenda, Elizabeth Spudich, and Jules Winters for helpful comments on the manuscript. Thanks to Steve DiPietro and Russ D'Aiello for providing institutional data to support manuscript development. The authors have no financial, commercial, legal, or professional conflicts of interest.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by NSF [grant number IOS 1256114].