Summer Bridge Research Programs – A COVID Challenge
General description of the project
This presentation will describe the initiation of high impact activities as a mechanism of relationship building and connection building. DOED grant award objectives will be described as a connection to mentored research for the undergraduate. UHD, as an Hispanic-serving and Minority-serving institution, understands the importance of forming cultural awareness and cohort creation. This is accomplished through undergraduate mentored research and a summer bridge program for entering freshmen. The presentation will describe how during the COVID time period of May – October mentored undergraduate research was undertaken while highlighting amazing outcomes for not only the undergraduates, but the professoriate.
Technologies
For this project BlackBoard Learn was used as the portal for all participants (students and professoriate). Also, Zoom was maintained as the video-conference software throughout the summer and fall mentored research. Additionally, GroupMe, a text-based, mobile application with a PC-based format was used between the groups of mentored research students.
Explain project results
38 total undergraduates participated in this program. 10 were summer bridge students. All other undergraduates were novice in terms of mentored research even while we have rising seniors, juniors and sophomores. When ethnicity was reviewed, the program supported 16 Hispanics, 11 Asians, 10 African Americans, and 1 White as part of the program. All 38 produced a DOED-format abstract for consideration of inclusion in the summer conference of all MSEIP programs. Seven teams produced PowerPoints for submission consideration of presentation as part of the summer conference. All students continued in virtual mentored research during the fall semester following the end of July 2020.
Why it should be considered best practice?
Higher education finds itself “remaking” some aspects of what once was normal in order to maintain reasonable activities associated with high impact. Virtual mentored research in the Natural Sciences, Computer Science and Engineering Technology, and Mathematics/Statistics is one of these high impact activities essential to supporting connection, team-building, and persistence especially for first time in college students. This presentation demonstrates how successful this virtual adaptation has been in this regard.
Highlights of your proposed presentation
Highlight of virtual mentored research; Demonstrations of PhD-preparation of this effort; Examples of student outcomes (video, PowerPoints, and post-SURE survey results). Lessons learned and fall outgrowths.
The Evaluation Committee will evaluate submitted proposals based on the following criteria. Each area will be rated on a scale from 1 to 7 (1= non-satisfactory; 7 =outstanding), for a maximum of 63 points.