Development of a mentoring ecosystem to support medium duration high impact research experiences (MD HIRES) for students following engagement in a CURE 3892

Description Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) extend to large numbers of students the benefits associated with undergraduate research. At Towson University (TU), with support from HHMI, faculty created more than 25 CUREs that engage hundreds of STEM majors per year. CUREs promote new interest in research and many students seek additional opportunities post-CURE. At TU, a public masters-degree institution, faculty lack PhD students and postdoctoral fellows to assist with mentoring undergraduate students, leading to a situation in which there are not enough research placements for interested students. Students who take CUREs late in their academic careers, including many transfer students, face particular challenges in securing placements. We are developing a model with support from the NSF for engagement of increased numbers of post-CURE students in research. This model, Medium Duration High Impact Research Experience (MD HIRES), facilitates additional research opportunities by engaging teams of post-CURE student researchers co-mentored by an undergraduate peer mentor in faculty laboratories. To support faculty in engaging these teams of researchers, we aim to develop and integrate faculty, peer mentor and student researcher professional development communities of practice (CoPs) and leverage relevant campus partners alongside the CoPs to build a sustainable mentoring ecosystem that can be used as a model for primarily undergraduate institutions nationwide.