An undergraduate cross-disciplinary collaborative research project between two- and four-year colleges

Yoel Rodríguez1 and Lissette Delgado-Cruzata2

1Department of Natural Sciences, Hostos Community College of CUNY, Bronx, New York

2Department of Sciences, John Jay College of CUNY, New York, New York

Abstract

The United States is facing an increasing demand for a workforce with qualifications and training in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). However, not enough students graduate from STEM majors. A large number of undergraduates start their college trajectory at community colleges and supporting their STEM experiences there, and promoting a positive transition to four-year colleges can help in increasing the number of STEM graduates. Thus, new strategies and effective pathways to encourage undergraduate students to pursue and remain in STEM careers need to be explored and/or endorsed. Here, we describe an undergraduate research experience in which two- and four-year college students engaged in a collaborative research project. We used validated surveys to evaluate gains in their individual and group collaborative skills at the end of the project. Results indicate that over 82% of the student show satisfaction with the overall outcome of the group collaborative skills gained, and 90% of the students think that the research group work is better than work carried out individually. This experience might serve as a blueprint for creating future STEM opportunities to engage community college STEM undergraduates in research and promote their transition to 4-year institutions.

Introduction

Undergraduate students in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields can highly benefit from engaging in research, and this is particularly true of those of race and ethic backgrounds underrepresented in these fields (Espinosa, 2011). Research improves undergraduate student attitudes towards science. Students report that these experiences are the main motivating force to continue their

career as graduate students and researchers (Harrison et al., 2011; Willows, 2004). Studies have identified many benefits from participating in research experiences, including but not limited to increases in self-reported curiosity, science identity, and confidence (Osborn and Karukstis, 2009; Seymour et al., 2004; Russell et

al., 2007). More specifically, undergraduates engaged in research develop better communication skills and creativity (Lopatto, 2009). They also show gains on their ability to analyze data and interpret findings, as well as their knowledge of scientific content (Ward et al., 2014; Makarevitch et al., 2015; 14; Brownell et al., 2015).

These, in parallel, have been shown to impact academic performance and success by increasing independent learning, retention, and graduation rates (Rodenbusch et al., 2016). While the benefits are well documented, the National Survey of

Student Engagement (NSSE) reports that only 19% of students engage in research during their undergraduate education, suggesting that to increase student success and retention new strategies that have the potential to involve a larger number of undergraduates in research should be considered.

Data from 2017 indicates that community colleges enrolled over 6.8 million undergraduates that represent 41% of all U.S. undergraduate students (American Association of Community Colleges, 2018; Ginder et al., 2018). Community colleges also enrolled a large number of first-generation students and undergraduates from underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities (American Association of Community Colleges, 2018; Forrest Cataldi et al., 2018).

However, research experiences at community colleges are not readily available to students (Hewlett, 2018). The Community College Undergraduate Research Initiative (CCURI) has published a report that discusses the main barriers to offering undergraduate research to community college students including limited financial resources, high faculty teaching load, need of remedial courses for entry levels undergraduates, and the isolation of faculty from the larger research community (Hewlett, 2018). The report also highlights the efforts of many

institutions in involving their community college students in research, and proposes recommendations with the goal of increasing access and participation of community college students in undergraduate research.

One approach to facilitating research experiences for undergraduates is to incorporate them into collaborative research projects. Already a trend in academic research, collaborative work addresses issues such as the lack of resources and time constraints; both common problems in public institutions (Austin and Baldwin, 1992). In addition to helping faculty overcome inherent barriers to engaging undergraduates in research, collaborative experiences have been shown to help students increase their scientific research self-efficacy which in turn correlates with a commitment to science identity and staying in careers in STEM (Frantz et al., 2017). Little is known about the impact collaborative experiences might have in two-year college students engaged in research. Here we describe an undergraduate research experience in which two- and four-year college students engaged in a collaborative project. We use validated surveys to evaluate gains in their individual and group collaborative skills at the end of the project, and explore here the

impact this type of intervention can have in undergraduates engaged in research experiences (Valente, 2018).

Intervention

Collaborative Research Project Plan

Students were recruited to participate in research at Hostos Community College and John Jay College of Criminal Justice both colleges of The City University of New York (CUNY). The project started in the fall of the academic year 2018-

19. One faculty member from each institution recruited the students within their college. Faculty members discussed points of collaboration in their two areas

of research interest, computational biophysics and molecular biology. They also identified topics the students were not very familiar with and agreed to include presentations on these topics through the collaborative experience. A timeline was developed in which students from both colleges met regularly at one of the participating institutions to: 1) attend presentations of faculty in topics of interest;

2) share experimental approaches; 3) discuss research articles; and 4) present their preliminary findings. Faculty presentations at John Jay were mainly focused on cancer biology and experimental techniques used to conduct cancer research to introduce Hostos Community College students, all engineering majors, to this field. Likewise, meetings at Hostos Community College were focused on presenting computational biophysics theory and methods in which John Jay College students, forensics science or cell and molecular biology majors, had the opportunity to be introduced to the field of computational biophysics. Hostos Community College students taught their John Jay peers how to draw, minimize and visualize small molecules and proteins in three dimensions. Similarly, John Jay College students taught Hostos peers how to determine breast cancer cell survival after exposure to chemicals and to measure changes in microRNA levels.

Scientific research articles were provided to students by the faculty and discussed in the meetings to help students more clearly develop research questions that both groups collaboratively had to address, from the experimental and computational points of view, respectively. Student presentations increased the familiarity with the research topic and provided a platform for receiving feedback from their research peers and mentors. As a result of these presentations students explored new approaches and revised previous findings as well as improved their science communication skills.

Student Participant Demographics

Eleven students participated in this project (see Table 1). Females made up 55% of participants, and 91% were from racial and ethnic backgrounds underrepresented in STEM (54% were Black or African-American and 37% were Hispanic). The students from Hostos were pursuing A.S./B.S. in Engineering degrees within the Joint Dual Engineering Degree Program with The City College of New York’s Grove School of Engineering of CUNY. The John Jay students were pursuing

B.S. in Forensic Sciences or in Cell and Molecular Biology degrees (see Table 1). Students participating in this project were mostly sophomores (73%) at either college. Nine students presented their work at CUNY conferences, four at a state conference, and five at national conferences (see Appendix A).

Table 1. Collaborative Undergraduate Research Participant Characteristics

Collaborative Skill Assessment

To gain an understanding of the impact the intervention had on student participants, we used qualitative research methods to investigate gains in individual and collaborative skills after the intervention using as main instruments validated surveys. The group collaborative skill assessment was divided in four main parts:

1) Support between groups; 2) Exchange between groups; 3) Exchange of ideas within research group members; and 4) Satisfaction with overall outcome. The survey totaled 10 questions that were divided in these four themes (see Table 2 and Valente, 2018). Overall students agreed on that there was support between groups, and that exchange of ideas, comments and suggestions took place between groups. Specifically, 100% of the students agreed that Support and Feedback between groups happened, that a group provided help when requested (82% agreement), that a group provided help spontaneously (91% agreement) and that each group asked for ideas from the other (100% agreement) (show in Table 2). The results show

that over 91% of the student participants agree that the exchange of ideas between groups was fulfilled as well as 100% responded positively that the exchange

of ideas within research group members was achieved. Students showed 82%

satisfaction with overall outcome of the group collaborative skill gained.

Table 2. Group Collaborative Skill Survey Results

Table 3 shows the results of the individual collaborative skill assessment in which four different categories were measured: 1) Understanding roles; 2) Supporting other group members; 3) Ownership of the research topic; 4) Assessment of peer’s contributions; and 5) Overall group work satisfaction. This survey also totaled 10 questions that were divided in these five themes (see Table 3 and Valente, 2018). 90% of the student understood their roles and knew the role of other partners, and 80% agreed they knew everyone’s role in the research group. 60% of the students helped their partner and 100% provided help when requested. Ownership of the research topic was evaluated by student’s engagement with the research topic.

While 100% expressed their views/opinions to the research group, 70% of students brought new research topics to the group and 80% presented research articles.

Overall, students felt they could assess their peer’s contribution (70% agreement) and 90% of them think that the research group work is better than work carried out by individuals.

Table 3. Individual Collaborative Skill Survey Results

Conclusions

This study aimed to examine how a collaborative research intervention could help students gain collaborative and individual research skills. Two surveys were administered to the student participants to assess these skills. Over 82% of the student participants agreed that the support between groups took place and also over 82% showed satisfaction with the overall outcome regarding the group collaborative skill gained. In addition, 90% of the students agreed that research group work was better than work carried out by individuals. The collaborative

research intervention also generated new knowledge in areas of common scientific interest that can only result from conducting cross-disciplinary research.

Previous work has highlighted that collaborative research can help by enriching students and faculty knowledge, enhancing faculty productivity and professional growth, expanding collaboration network, and optimizing resources from each institution or group (Cathy et al., 2010). This project directly impacted the productivity of the faculty involved that concluded with their presentation of

a panel titled “Cancer Research at the Interception of Chemistry, Physics and Biology” at the 2019 Society of Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics & Native Americans (SACNAS) National Diversity in STEM Conference in Honolulu, Hawaii on October 31 – Nov 2, 2019. They gave presentations on “Computational Biophysics in Cancer Epigenetics” and “Chemical Compound Disruption of miRNA Biology,” respectively. Their presentations highlighted the contributions of the undergraduate student researchers and proposed collaborative research as a conduit to help bridge transitions of community college students to baccalaureate programs (see Appendix B).

It is worth mentioning that all students directly involved in this research have the intention or have continued their science and engineering majors after graduation. Hostos Community College students all completed their A.S. in Engineering and/ or transferred to pursue their Bachelor in Engineering. Except one student who graduated, all John Jay College students are still enrolled. Future follow-up of

students post-graduate choices would be needed to understand whether participating in this type of experiences has had an impact in their STEM trajectories. The collaborative research experience also provided an opportunity for participation

in local, state and national conferences. Participating in scientific conferences can reaffirm they belong in the STEM fields and have the potential to become great scientists and engineers (Casad et al., 2016). In previous work carried out by Frantz et al., 2017 the authors observed that scientific research self-efficacy and science identity were enhanced in collaborative learning undergraduate research models when compared to traditional research apprenticeship (Frantz et al., 2017). It is possible both, self-efficacy and science identity, were impacted by our intervention. However, we did not measure these metrics here. We will consider them in our future research.

Finally, this intervention is aligned with the need of finding effective pathways to encourage undergraduate students, mainly community college students, to engage in STEM extra-curricular activities. These might help them remain in STEM careers by providing additional skills and knowledge. Community colleges house 41% of the nations’ undergraduates, thus it is imperative to establish successful pipelines between two- and four-year schools in STEM education to guarantee the science and technology workforce that the United States will need in the near future.

Acknowledgments

YR and LDC would like to thank their dedicated research students and the support provided by Hostos Office of Academic Affairs, Hostos Undergraduate Research Program, CUNY Research Scholar Program (CRSP), Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program (CSTEP), Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP), John Jay College Program for Research Initiatives in Science and Math (PRISM), John Jay College Office of the Advancement of Research (OAR), John Jay Office of Student Research and Creativity (OSRC),

NIH, NSF Hostos Engineering Academic Talent (HEAT) Scholarship Program, and Pathways to Student STEM Success (PTS3).

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APPENDIX A. Student Presentations at Local, State and National Conferences, and Research Awards

Students presentation at the State Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program (CSTEP) at The Sagamore on Lake George, Bolton Landing, New York, on April 12 – 14, 2019, the PRISM Symposium at John Jay College on May 8, 2019, the CUNY Research Scholar Program (CRSP) at John Jay on July 24, 2019, the 2019 Society of Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics & Native Americans (SACNAS) National Diversity in STEM Conference in Honolulu, Hawaii on October 31 – Nov 2, 2019, and the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) at Indianapolis, 2018, Indiana on November 14 – 17, 2018 and Anaheim, California, on November 13 – 16, 2019 with the following research projects:

Hostos Community College

• Fatimata Kafando, Ndeye Bakhoum, Lissette Delgado-Cruzata, and Yoel

Rodríguez. Modulation of microRNAs by Epigallocatechin-3-Gallatein Cancer Biology: A Computational Study. (CSTEP, CRSP and presented by John François from John Jay College at SACNAS; Winner for Best Poster Presentation Biology at CSTEP and CRSP)

• • Abdoul Aziz Nignan, Dariel Arrechaga and Yoel Rodríguez. Development of Small-Molecule Modulators of DREAM to Investigate Neurodegenerative Diseases.1 (CSTEP, CRSP and SACNAS) Winner for Best Poster Presentation Biochemistry at CSTEP)
  • Ibrahima Doukoure and Yoel Rodríguez. Discovery of AF9 YEATS Domain Inhibitors Through Structure- and Ligand-Based Virtual Screening.2 (CRSP, SACNAS and ABRCMS)
  • Escarle Beato, Emilio Peña Acevedo, Javier Corro and Yoel Rodríguez. Virtual Screening Towards the Identification of Small-Molecule Modulators of DREAM to Study Neurological Diseases. 1 (CRSP)

John Jay College

• • John François, Nickolas Almodovar, Milena Rodríguez Alvarez, and Lissette Delgado-Cruzata. Bioinformatic Prediction of Neurophatic Pain Signaling Pathways in Rheumatoid Arthritis after High Throughput miRNA Analysis. (PRISM Symposium, SACNAS; Winner for Best Poster Presentation Life Sciences)
  • Chante Guy, Toni-Ann Bravo, Yoel Rodríguez and Lissette Delgado-Cruzata. BRCA1 and microRNA Expression after Epigallocatechin-3-Gallate Exposure in Triple Negative Breast Cancer Cells. (PRISM Symposium, SACNAS)
  • Arianna Mahadeo, Kassie Campbell, and Lissette Delgado-Cruzata. Effect of exposure to Epigallocatechin-3-gallate and Epicatehin in the proliferation of the breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-468. (ABRCMS)
  • Kassie Campbell and Lissette Delgado-Cruzata. Toxicity of breast cancer cells to catechin, catechin gallate and epigallo-3-catechin gallate. (PRISM Symposium)

APPENDIX B. Faculty Presentations at 2019 Society of Advancement of Chicanos/ Hispanics & Native Americans (SACNAS) National Diversity in STEM Conference in Honolulu, Hawaii on October 31 – Nov 2, 2019

Yoel Rodríguez and Lissette Delgado-Cruzata presented in a panel titled “Cancer Research at the Interception of Chemistry, Physics and Biology” and gave two presentations on:

Yoel Rodríguez. “Computational Biophysics in Cancer Epigenetics”

Lissette Delgado-Cruzata. “Chemical Compound Disruption of miRNA Biology”

1. In collaboration with Medicinal Chemistry Institute, CSIC, Madrid, Spain
2. In collaboration with Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York