MORE R.E.S.U.L.T.S. (Research and Evaluation of Students Using Long-Term Studies) will be a multi-institutional effort to assess the effectiveness of interventions intended to increase interest, motivation, and preparedness for careers in biomedical research among underrepresented minority students. To explore this problem and the methods generally used to address it, the research will compare and contrast the efficacy of various NIGMS Minority Opportunities in Research (MORE) programs at three universities, with appropriate control groups to determine the efficacy of individual elements of intervention within such programs. Over a four-year period, the investigators will study the longstanding MORE university programs at New Mexico State University; California State University, Los Angeles; and San Francisco State University. The research will focus upon three fundamental research questions: a) Are there ways of predicting which students are most likely to succeed based on their academic and personal characteristics (e.g., demographics, interests) at the time they encounter a MORE program? b) Which of the academic interventions provided to MORE program students at these three universities are most effective, and why? And c) How does participation in scientific research impact MORE program students at key stages of their academic development? In addressing these questions and their implications, the program will produce the first major system of aggregated research regarding MORE programs, creating an ability to understand academic intervention programs that has not been possible within limits of current data, and potentially impacting program design and execution at the institutional as well as the national level.
