Freshman Research Initiative

FRESHMAN RESEARCH INITIATIVE

Traditionally, undergraduate students spend the majority of their time engaged in courses instructed by faculty that teach students accepted knowledge in a discipline. Conversely, undergraduates are rarely engaged in cutting-edge research, which tend to take place in faculty-run research groups, and is primarily conducted by graduate students and postdocs.  In response to the need for improvement in STEM retention rates and degree production, as well as the disconnect between research and education, in 2005 UT Austin’s faculty created a program called the Freshman Research Initiative (FRI). FRI combines teaching and research by offering courses in which students start by learning basic experimental or computational lab techniques, build up to advanced techniques, and are given the opportunity to apply these skills to genuine research projects. UTA students are offered the opportunity to join one of ~30 “research streams,” which are research courses based on the work ongoing in the research groups of tenure-track faculty. Through FRI, professors can expand their research groups to include first year undergraduate students by hiring Ph.D.-trained scientists called “Research Educators” to teach each research-based course, and manage the undergraduate students on a day-to-day basis. Through FRI, UTA has been able to provide authentic research experiences to undergraduates as an alternative to standard entry-level courses as well as increase student-faculty interactions through stream’s Research Educators.

In the UT Austin FRI model, students participate in a multi-semester course sequence. Students are given the opportunity to join a research stream for two additional semesters of coursework. Students learn the basic techniques and background required to conduct research in a particular faculty member’s research group, and are given the opportunity to contribute to research projects. Students are offered the optional opportunity to volunteer or receive a fellowship during the following summer term. By the second semester in their research stream, students are fully participating in independent research projects. Following the multi-semester sequence, FRI students are encouraged to continue by peer mentoring new FRI students, continuing research in the stream, joining other faculty research groups, and applying to internships and/or REU programs. 

A critical component of the FRI experience is the research stream that students join.  Each research stream has approximately 35-40 students and is managed by a dedicated Ph.D.-trained Research Educator. The Research Educators foster in-depth, extended mentoring to occur at large scales. The use of peer mentors has been invaluable to the FRI program, since it simultaneously benefits mentors’ understanding of their research streams, while also allowing for more personal interaction with first year students.

In 2005, FRI started at UTA with only 3 streams in one discipline (chemistry) and 43 students. As of 2019, FRI has 30 active streams spanning several fields including chemistry, biology, computer science, physics, mathematics, and astronomy. Approximately 1,000 students participate in UTA’s FRI annually (representing roughly 40% of the students in the College of Natural Sciences) and the program has impacted more than 10,000 students since 2005. Undergraduate students have co-authored over 230 peer-reviewed publications and presented at numerous national conferences. The UTA FRI model has shown to increase graduation and STEM retention rates. FRI specifically targets recruiting students from underrepresented minority (URM) groups and low-income backgrounds so that students statistically more likely to drop out of STEM could benefit. Currently, around 52% of the students in FRI are from URMs or low-income backgrounds. Beyond just graduating, former FRI participants have an increased earning potential of 19% in their first year of work, and are projected to have an increased earning potential of 16% over their lifetimes when compared with their non-FRI peers.

Accelerated Research Initiative

ACCELERATED RESEARCH INITIATIVE

The Accelerated Research Initiative  (ARI) is a CURE (course-based undergraduate research experience) built upon the successful framework of the Freshman Research Initiative (FRI) in the College of Natural Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin. The ARI caters to upper-division undergraduates science majors (juniors and seniors). Students each year engage in project- based learning in the context of research. Many of the students are transfers from other 4-year institutions or from community colleges.  These student-researchers are guided by a non-tenure track professor, several undergraduate TAs, and peers who have prior research experience.  For one of the courses, the overall goal is to identify small molecule inhibitors of an enzyme from an infectious disease organism (bacterial or protozoan). Computational molecular docking software is used to make predictions about which compounds may bind. They then seek to test these in biochemical assays against the enzyme they have made through recombinant DNA cloning and protein expression. In the other course offering, students focus on the implementation of several sensing protocols using organic chemistry techniques in existing analytical devices to further their potential, as well as explore a new approach to selective molecular recognition. Students have the option of extending their research experience by staying on in the lab into the summer or fall semester. Several students go on to present their research in a poster format at local, regional or national scientific conferences.

Inventors Program

INVENTORS PROGRAM

The UT Inventor’ program engages interdisciplinary teams of science and engineering undergraduate students in authentic entrepreneurial projects. Through the Inventors Program, students will…

• gain experience working in multi-functional teams and collaborating across disciplines
• engage in a systems approach to entrepreneurial design and development
• practice career skills such as communicating effectively with diverse audiences
• participate in identifying, formulating and solving real-world problems

Program Components:

• Problem Statement Gathering - Each semester we gather problem/project proposals for Inventor’s Program student teams. Projects could involve design, prototyping and testing, market research, or procedure and policy development. Problem statements are welcome from UT faculty, UT alums, local industry and community organizations.

• Inventor’s Sprints - Each proposal is reviewed and suitable problem statements are selected for an “Inventors Sprint.” The sprints are one-day intensive events, in which a team of students works on a feasibility study and design ideation for a problem statement under mentored supervision. The sprints are used to select the most promising problems for further work. The sprints also help recruit engaged students, give them an opportunity to try out entrepreneurial activities, and identify the skill sets needed on the teams to further approach the problem.

• UT Inventors Course – Each year we run a project-based “STEM Innovation, Invention and Entrepreneurship Practicum”. Projects selected through the sprints process will be further explored by undergraduate student teams in the one-semester course. Generally, a student team will consist of 3-6 students. Depending on the nature of the problem statement, some projects may have a single team or several student teams. The instructor for this course acts as a facilitator and helps guide the process management for the student teams, provides feedback on their progress and helps connect the teams to appropriate stakeholders, subject matter experts, industry consultants and mentors and potential customers. The UT Inventors Course will satisfy a requirement for the UT Entrepreneurship certificate.

• Student Launch – We try to connect engaged and successful Inventors Program teams to further opportunities. For student teams that have developed a viable product, we will help connect them with campus and community incubators, launch programs and accelerators. For promising individuals, we will help find internships and other practical experiences.

Science Sprints

SCIENCE SPRINTS

Science sprints are one-day intensive events bringing teams of 10-25 undergraduates together to work on meaningful and interesting problems.

The goals of Science Sprints are to
- Offer meaningful, non-course-based experiential learning experiences for undergraduate students in science
- Provide mentored environment for students to gain experience working in interdisciplinary teams, including team leadership opportunities
- Provide undergraduate students experiences and science work products they can discuss and showcase to potential employers
- Provide stepping stones for undergraduate students into work in faculty research groups/labs, industry internships and self-directed science projects
- Advance the science research and/or service/outreach work of the College of Natural Sciences

Concentration in Teaching and Mentoring

CONCENTRATION IN TEACHING AND MENTORING

This Concentration in Teaching and Mentoring is a curated set of resources and guided assignments designed to help graduate students and postdocs learn and practice science teaching and mentoring skills. These resources can be accessed via a self-paced online course or by in-person courses. The Concentration in Teaching and Mentoring is designed to help graduate students and postdocs:

• Plan lessons using backward design
• Write learning objectives
• Assess student learning using a variety of strategies
• Identify features of instruction that support learning
• Teach lessons using multiple active learning strategies
• Evaluate and reflect on what makes a lesson effective for student learning
• Reflect on and develop your own teaching philosophy
• Write a teaching statement
• Gain experience in areas of personal interest, such as mentoring, STEM outreach, teaching as research, online teaching, etc.

Training for Research Mentoring

TRAINING FOR RESEARCH MENTORING

[Program Faculty, Graduate Students or Postdocs] will be required to complete training in undergraduate research mentoring.The Office of STEM Education Excellence (STEMx) is a unit within the College of Natural Sciences that supports the educational efforts of faculty and departments and, also, provides direct experiential learning programs for students, such as the Freshman Research Initiative. STEMx has developed an online training module on mentoring undergraduate research. This training is also offered annually and by-request as an in-person workshop. This training module is partially based on Entering Mentoring: A Seminar to Train a New Generation of Scientists by Handelsman et.al. that was developed under support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professors Program. In this training, graduate students and postdocs receive reinforcement for best practices in communicating with mentees, goal setting, providing mentoring for professional growth, resolving challenges, fostering independence, and progressing the research.

High School Research Academy

HIGH SCHOOL RESEARCH ACADEMY

The College of Natural Sciences Summer High School Research Academy (HSRA) at the University of Texas at Austin integrates high school students into College of Natural Sciences research groups so they can participate in ongoing research projects. The students will get to see how research works by being directly involved in research projects on the UT-Austin campus. They will learn advanced techniques while gaining valuable insights and experiences through interaction with UT students and faculty. This is a unique opportunity that will give high school students a real taste of life as a researcher. By being involved in research, students can experience the joy of discovery that is central to being a scientist.

Evaluation Services

EVALUATION SERVICES

Dr. Jane Richards Huk, Institutional Research and Evaluation Coordinator at UT Austin, will serve as the external evaluator for [faculty member's] grant. Dr. Huk has more than twenty-five years of experience conducting multi-method research (e.g., experimental, survey, ethnographic) in the social sciences, with ten years focused on STEM program evaluation and the development of undergraduate student initiatives. Dr. Huk will develop the evaluation schedule and instruments, and plan and oversee data collection and analysis. She also will work in close partnership with the research team to ensure that: (a) the evaluation plan and activities are reflective of and responsive to program components, processes, and activities; (b) the evaluation activities are unobtrusive and easily integrated into program activities; and (c) the results and products of the evaluation are meaningful to all key stakeholders.

The evaluation plan is designed to provide objective feedback at the program fidelity, formative and summative levels. All work will be done in compliance with the Joint Committee Standards for Educational Evaluation (1994), and IRB approval will be obtained prior to data collection. Examples of the project domains to be assessed and research questions are outlined in Table X and will be measured using qualitative or quantitative approaches.