Virtual Education Research in STEM Academy

This REU Site award will support the training of 36 students for nine weeks during the summer of 2023 – 2026. Students will be engaged in undergraduate research in the area of discipline-based education research (DBER) in the context of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and the social sciences. The project, "Virtual Education Research in STEM Academy" or VERSA, is an intentionally designed virtual REU project consisting of one week of on-site experiences at the beginning and end of each summer. Faculty and near-peer mentor teams will work with students on a range of DBER research projects and provide training in learning theories, equity and inclusion, qualitative and quantitative methods, and research and communication skills. The primary objective of VERSA is to provide undergraduate students across the United States with an opportunity to engage in the study and transformation of college STEM education through education research that is grounded in various STEM disciplines. In so doing the principal investigators aim to augment students’ thinking about teaching and learning in science, their qualitative and quantitative DBER skills and science process skills, the participants' sense of belonging to the scientific community, and their interest in research- related careers. In addition, the project team aims to expand and diversify the DBER community and its research priorities, thereby contributing to wider efforts to make STEM education more inclusive. VERSA aims to recruit a diverse cohort of students using a three-pronged strategy: i) targeting established DBER networks as well as specialized networks that focus on two-year colleges and minoritized students, ii) leveraging existing partnerships with minority-serving institutions, and iii) producing and promoting virtual resources for DBER. Evaluation of the VERSA project will use a mixed-methods approach to assess short-term outcomes including potential changes in participants’ self-efficacy and interests in research and sense of community, medium-term outcomes including participants’ potential development of their identity as STEM practitioners and their understanding of research as a profession, and long-term outcomes including the potential for ongoing participation in DBER and pedagogy. Students will be tracked after the program in order to determine student career paths. Students will be asked to respond to an automatic email sent via the NSF reporting system. More information is available by visiting https://sites.google.com/ucsd.edu/versa/home or by contacting the PI at mtowens@ucsd.edu. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.