Undergraduate research is often touted as an important aspect of the college experience. The laboratory is intuitively a valuable learning space, in which students can gain hands-on research experience as well as personal mentoring and support from expert researchers. But there are few studies about what student laboratory workers actually learn, or about how their presence affects the work of the laboratory community. To better understand and thereby improve how undergraduates learn research skills and other professional skills, this study investigates the experiences of undergraduate workers and the professors, graduate students, technicians, and others who work with them in two engineering laboratories. Specifically, do undergraduates learn technical skills by working with machines and conducting experiments, or do they perform simple repetitive tasks, such as washing glassware or soldering? Are they integrated into the lab community in apprenticeship-style immersion and mentorship, or are they segregated as "just undergrads"? Do they acquire the skills of a professional engineer, such as how to design a research project and how to present their work, or do they mostly learn general employee skills, such as punctuality and following directions? How are they learning these lessons? How does working in a lab shape students' senses of identity as engineers, including their own race, gender, and class? This study uses the answers to these questions to identify best practices for student learning and personal development as well as for the laboratory community's effectiveness and efficiency, focusing on behaviors and policies that can be achieved by researchers, university research administrators, and undergraduates.
Studies show that students from underrepresented groups benefit significantly from mentoring relationships, and are more likely to continue in science and engineering careers as a result. Yet the processes behind these beneficial experiences are not well understood, because most previous studies examine only quantitative, retrospective surveys of students and faculty. This study applies qualitative research methods, including interviews, participant observation, and concept-mapping activities, to gain a valuable direct view of how students interact with and learn from a lab's principal investigator and other workers. By examining such interactions as instructions, work assignments, questions, and subtle exchanges that immerse students in the tacit knowledge of professional engineering practices and behaviors, this study investigates whether and how students acquire T-shaped expertise (i.e., deep, broad, and interdisciplinary knowledge) and develop a personal sense of identity as an engineer. Understanding these processes will inform the development of best practices to create laboratory communities that are places of learning, work, inclusion, and professionalization. This information will support the future formation of a more diverse, research-savvy, and professionally-skilled population of engineers.
