The Biology Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Leadership Council (LC) will lead this project to develop, test and implement an on-line common tracking tool for use by the Biology REU Principal Investigator (PI) community. Data collected from REU program alumni will document the long-term impact of the REU experience on students? future career decisions and provide assessment data to Principal Investigators to use in modifying and updating their programs. In addition, it will allow the Biology REU LC to document program-wide outcomes, including information about the program elements that contribute to success for diverse populations of students, thereby supporting broadening participation in the REU programs. The objectives of this proposal are to: 1) provide Bio REU Principal Investigators with a web-based tool that allows them to efficiently and effectively track their program alumni, 2) work with the Bio REU Principal Investigators to define a set of criteria to create REU program profiles that can be used in the analysis of program-wide assessment and tracking data, and 3) collect and aggregate data from across Bio REU sites using the common tracking tool to assess long-term outcomes of the program as a whole. For more information about this project contact the project directors, Dr. Janet Branchaw (branchaw@wisc.edu) and Dr. Julio Soto (julio.soto@sjsu.edu).
A survey containing 21 questions was developed to collect data on long-term outcomes and impacts of the NSF BIO (Biology) REU Program. These questions will be added to a tool that will be used to track all past student participants of the NSF BIO REU Program. The tracking tool to be developed is awaiting the resolution of the logistical issues of the URRSA/SALG site and its response to the BIO REU community. Survey questions were grouped in different categories: participant demographics, institutional profile, mentoring experiences (at their home institution and the BIO REU site), & academic and professional goals. The student participant demographics questions will provide information about the students' home academic institution, their ethnicity, and the number of times the students participated in different BIO REU experiences. The institutional profile questions will provide us with information about the type of institution that hosted the BIO REU site and the types of research projects students were exposed to. The mentoring questions will provide us with information regarding whether students found research mentoring experiences at their home academic or nearby institutions after their summer BIO REU experience, the type of research experiences, whether these had an effect in enhancing or diminishing their BIO REU experience, and the type of mentoring they received at their BIO REU experience. The academic and professional goal questions will provide us with information regarding students' obtained academic degrees and whether they are pursuing advanced degrees in science. We hoped that the answer to these questions will give us insights about the long-term effects the BIO REU experience had on participants' academic and career goals. We anticipate sending the finalized tracking tool every six months or once a year to past NSF student participants.
