yEvo: A modular eukaryotic genetics and evolution research experience for high school students

The resources for carrying out and analyzing microbial evolution experiments have become more accessible, making it possible to expand these studies beyond the research laboratory and into the classroom. We developed five connected, standards-aligned yeast evolution laboratory modules, called "yEvo," for high school students. The modules enable students to take agency in answering open-ended research questions. In Module 1, students evolve baker's yeast to tolerate an antifungal drug, and in subsequent modules, investigate how evolved yeasts adapted to this stressful condition at both the phenotype and genotype levels. We used pre- and post-surveys from 72 students at two different schools and post-interviews with students and teachers to assess our program goals and guide module improvement over 3 years. We measured changes in student conceptions, confidence in scientific practices, and interest in STEM careers. Students who participated in yEvo showed improvements in understanding of activity-specific concepts and reported increased confidence in designing a valid biology experiment. Student experimental data replicated literature findings and has led to new insights into antifungal resistance. The modules and provided materials, alongside "proof of concept" evaluation metrics, will serve as a model for other university researchers and K - 16 classrooms interested in engaging in open-ended research questions using yeast as a model system.

Fostering Creativity and Critical Thinking in College: A Cross-Cultural Investigation

Enhancing creativity and critical thinking have garnered the attention of educators and researchers for decades. They have been highlighted as essential skills for the 21st century. A total of 103 United States students (53 female, 24 male, two non-binary, and 24 non-reporting) and 166 Chinese students (128 female, 30 male, one non-binary, and seven non-reporting) completed an online survey. The survey includes the STEAM-related creative problem solving, Sternberg scientific reasoning tasks, psychological critical thinking (PCT) exam, California critical thinking (CCT) skills test, and college experience survey, as well as a demographic questionnaire. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) yields a two-factor model for all creativity and critical thinking measurements. Yet, the two latent factors are strongly associated with each other (r=0.84). Moreover, Chinese students outperform American students in measures of critical thinking, whereas Americans outperform Chinese students in measures of creativity. Lastly, the results also demonstrate that having some college research experience (such as taking research method courses) could positively influence both United States and Chinese students’ creativity and critical thinking skills. Implications are discussed.

Postbaccalaureate terminal degree and career choices of students who performed undergraduate research

This study analyzed terminal degree and career choices of students who performed undergraduate research. In one analysis, the study compared terminal degree and career choices between a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) and traditional non-course-based undergraduate research experiences at one primarily undergraduate institution (PUI). Students who pursued postbaccalaureate programs chose terminal degrees at levels exceeding 75%, with no significant difference between a CURE experience and a traditional research experience. Analysis of terminal degree and career choices at four PUIs providing traditional research experiences showed a marked difference in the number of students pursuing terminal degrees. Two PUIs showed rates > 75%, whereas students at the other two PUIs pursued terminal degrees <50% of the time. The majority of students not pursuing terminal degrees chose M.S. degrees in education and healthcare. An analysis was also performed among students participating in traditional summer undergraduate research on a research-intensive university (RIU) campus with a medical school. Students were accepted from two programs, an NIH IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) program recruiting students from the RIU and an NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program recruiting undergraduates from rural PUIs and minority-serving institutions, particularly tribal colleges. Analysis showed that >70% of the students who pursued postbaccalaureate programs chose terminal degrees. INBRE undergraduates displayed a marked preference for the M.D. degree (73.9% vs. 17.4%), whereas the REU students chose the Ph.D. degree (75.0% vs. 22.9%). American Indian students were also analyzed separately for career choice and showed an equal preference for the M.D. and Ph.D. degrees when pursuing postbaccalaureate education. Overall, the results provide evidence that undergraduate student research stimulates student careers in areas needed by the nation's citizen stakeholders.

Undergraduates from underrepresented groups gain research skills and career aspirations through summer research fellowship

Undergraduate research experiences (UREs) have proven to be one of the most valuable approaches to increasing the number of underrepresented students earning degrees in STEM fields. However, there are many questions about how these impacts occur. Improving grades, experiencing laboratory work, and working with research staff are important components, but developing a "science identity" is integral to this process. In this qualitative study, interviews with 25 past summer research fellows who are members of groups underrepresented in STEM (underrepresented minorities, persons with disabilities, first-generation college, and persons with financial or social disadvantages) provide insights into this process. The conversations validate that their summer research experiences helped them attain each of the program objectives, but their experiences differed, in part, based on their prior research experiences. Their narratives emphasized the strong impact that the program had on skills (e.g., research design, data analysis and presentation, time management/organization, writing, speaking, network development, math/statistics), confidence, motivation, and research career aspirations. As fellows learned more about research, they saw its relationship to medicine, and many integrated basic or clinical research into their career plans. Three central themes resulted from the discussions: the need to customize program goals for diverse participants, the pivotal role of the research mentor-student relationship, and the powerful impact of participating in a national scientific meeting. Recommendations for URE programs are proposed.

American Cleft-Palate Craniofacial Association Annual Meeting: International Medical Graduate's Perspective as a First-Time Attendee

In the United States, plastic surgery continues to be one of the most competitive fields to match into for medical graduates. However, the process is even more difficult for international medical graduates (IMGs) mostly due to their unknown academic backgrounds and unfamiliarity with US health-care system. While many IMGs pursue of research to publish articles in peer-reviewed journals and obtain letters of recommendations as a means to prove one's potential, networking with well-known plastic surgeons in US plastic surgery programs via national meetings is of utmost importance. These conferences provide the perfect opportunity to learn about the multidisciplinary US health-care system, expand one's network of mentors and colleagues, and demonstrate one's research experience. This article describes my experience as a first-time attendee in the American Cleft-Palate Craniofacial Association 76th Annual Meeting, with the aim to encourage other IMGs interested in applying to plastic surgery residency programs to actively pursue and attend national plastic surgery society meetings.

Monitoring undergraduate student needs and activities at Experimental Biology: APS pilot survey

Life science professional societies play important roles for undergraduates in their fields and increasingly offer membership, fellowships, and awards for undergraduate students. However, the overall impacts of society-student interactions have not been well studied. Here, we sought to develop and test a pilot survey of undergraduate students to determine how they got involved in research and in presenting at the Experimental Biology (EB) meeting, what they gained from the scientific and career development sessions at the meeting, and how the American Physiological Society (APS) can best support and engage undergraduate students. This survey was administered in 2014 and 2015 to undergraduate students who submitted physiology abstracts for and attended EB. More than 150 students responded (38% response rate). Respondents were demographically representative of undergraduate students majoring in life sciences in the United States. Most students (72%) became involved in research through a summer research program or college course. They attended a variety of EB sessions, including poster sessions and symposia, and found them useful. Undergraduate students interacted with established researchers at multiple venues. Students recommended that APS provide more research fellowships (25%) and keep in touch with students via both e-mail (46%) and social media (37%). Our results indicate that APS' EB undergraduate activities are valued by students and are effective in helping them have a positive scientific meeting experience. These results also guided the development of a more streamlined survey for use in future years.

Medical School Ranking and Student Research Opportunities

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to characterize the current state of student research opportunities in a sample of US medical schools ranked in three different tiers.

METHODS

The authors examined the websites for five US medical schools in each of the first, second, and third tiers per National Institutes of Health funding and U.S. News & World Report rankings. Available research opportunities were identified and categorized.

RESULTS

There were 26 schools in the first (n=6), second (n=10), and third (n=10) tiers. From the first, second, and third tiers, 4/6 (67%), 1/10 (10%) and none, respectively, required a research experience (p=0.003); 6/6 (100%), 4/10 (40%) and 1/10 (10%), respectively, offered internally funded one-year research (p=0.002); and 5/6 (83%), 4/10 (40%) and 2/10 (20%), respectively, offered student research days (p=0.045).

CONCLUSIONS

Higher ranked schools provided more opportunities for student research by providing internally funded one-year research, requiring research, and offering student research days. [Full article available at http://rimed.org/rimedicaljournal-2016-10.asp].

Research experiences and mentoring practices in selected east Asian graduate programs: predictors of research productivity among doctoral students in molecular biology

Although doctoral mentors recognize the benefits of providing quality advisement and close guidance, those of sharing project management responsibilities with mentees are still not well recognized. We observed that mentees, who have the opportunity to co-manage projects, generate more written output. Here we examine the link between research productivity, doctoral mentoring practices (DMP), and doctoral research experiences (DRE) of mentees in programs in the non-West. Inspired by previous findings that early career productivity is a strong predictor of later productivity, we examine the research productivity of 210 molecular biology doctoral students in selected programs in Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan. Using principal component (PC) analysis, we derive two sets of PCs: one set from 15 DMP and another set from 16 DRE items. We model research productivity using Poisson and negative-binomial regression models with these sets as predictors. Our findings suggest a need to re-think extant practices and to allocate resources toward professional career development in training future scientists. We contend that doctoral science training must not only be an occasion for future scientists to learn scientific and technical skills, but it must also be the opportunity to experience, to acquire, and to hone research management skills.

Providing premedical students with quality clinical and research experience: the Tobacco Science Scholars Program

Undergraduate premedical students face a formidable decision as they work to determine whether to pursue a profession in medicine. Exposure to clinical medicine and research is essential to inform students what it might be like to be a physician. Undergraduates, however, face a number of obstacles to obtaining the kind of quality clinical and research experience needed to make an informed decision. Growing regulations designed to protect patient confidentiality, though undeniably important, pose a barrier to students seeking patient contact. Traditional passive physician shadowing often does not provide ample opportunities for one-on-one patient interaction or problem solving. Finally, research opportunities available to students typically are not associated with clinical work and therefore do not provide an experiential model of how empirical evidence informs medical practice. This report describes the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health's Tobacco Science Scholars Program, a pilot program designed to address some of these barriers. While fulfilling institutional requirements for patient contact, the program provides students with an active model of clinical patient interaction and problem solving, with a research experience integrated into these clinical experiences so that undergraduates better understand how research informs clinical medicine.

Introducing students to cancer prevention careers through programmed summer research experiences

Training programs in cancer prevention research play an important role in addressing impending shortages in the cancer prevention workforce. Published reports on the effectiveness of these programs, however, often focus on a program's success in recruiting and retaining a demographically diverse trainee population or on academic successes of the trainees, in general. Little has been reported about programs' success in stimulating long-term interest in cancer prevention per se, whether in research or in other choATsen applications. We set out to examine the success of our National Cancer Institute (NCI) R25E American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)-funded summer research experiences program for undergraduates at fostering awareness of and career interest in cancer prevention. Fourteen summer research undergraduates participated in a 12-week structured training program which featured a variety of experiences designed to create awareness of and interest in cancer prevention and cancer prevention research as career tracks. Experiences included career talks by faculty, informational interviewing of role model faculty, career exploration workshops, and structured interactions with graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty. Students were surveyed about the effectiveness of the program via SurveyMonkey 8 months after completing the program. This article reports on the results of the survey and analyzes the relative effectiveness of the various types of programming strategies used. Implications for use in training program development are discussed.