Categorizing Student Learning about Research, Nature of Science, and Poster Presentation in a Workshop-Based Undergraduate Research Experience

This paper examines student experiences in a workshop-basedundergraduateresearch experience studying the activity and inhibition of salivaryamylase that provides students with the chance to participate in authenticscientific research prior to the start of their undergraduate studies,following the structure of a course-based undergraduate research experience(CURE). Understanding student experiences at this point in their studiesis important because research experiences at the beginning of universitystudies have been shown to increase retention in STEM. This studyutilizes meaningful learning and situated cognition as theoreticalframeworks and phenomenography as a methodological framework, appliedto data from semistructured interviews with six students. The studentexperiences were characterized as an outcome space detailing the degreeof their meaningful learning with respect to their understanding ofthe research process, nature of science, and the poster creation andpresentation process. The findings highlight that meaningful learningis achieved when research is connected to students' personallives or future job interests. The research process and nature ofscience must also be made explicit to students by emphasizing theiterative nature of research and highlighting distinctions betweenscience and nonscience fields. All participating students displayedan understanding that anyone can partake in science anywhere. Implicationsfor building on this work to develop an understanding of students'senses of belonging and self-identity are also discussed.