Supporting an Entrepreneurial Mindset to Improve Undergraduate Biomedical Research Experiences

Introduction: : Undergraduate research experiences can be rewarding [1], even for students not interested in pursuing graduate school, but these experiences can also be frustrating and cause students to abandon research prematurely [2]. The ultimate goal of this work was to improve research experiences for undergraduate students in a Biomedical Engineering laboratory setting. Through a KEEN entrepreneurial minded learning (EML) based workshop, activities were developed for research mentors focusing on sustaining curiosity, professional development, maintaining regular and meaningful communication, overcoming research obstacles through resilience, and building independence. The long-term goals are to expand to other laboratories to improve retention of undergraduates in research beyond one semester, increase participation of undergraduates in conference presentations and peer reviewed publications, and increase resilience and persistence in problem solving through research experiences.

Materials and

Methods: : A total of 17 undergraduate, 7 graduate, and 3 postdoctoral researchers have participated in these activities to date. Several initiatives were explored including aligning mentor-mentee expectations early by creating a compact with expectations of the research student and the research advisor. Tools were used such as the Effective Communication Styles Inventory [3] to proactively identify potential communication challenges and potential solutions. The main educational enhancement included adding a weekly reflection prompt to be discussed in individual and group meetings, in addition to traditional data and experimental planning reporting. These reflection prompts [4] were based on the 3 key constructs related to EML – curiosity, connections, and creating value. The first week of the semester always started with, “What one thing do you want to accomplish in research by the end of this semester?” and the last week of the semester always ended with, “What piece of advice would you give to future research students?” Other sample reflection questions included, “In what ways did you self-reflect and evaluate preconceived ideas, thoughts, and accepted solutions this week?”, “What is the most interesting research insight you had this week?”, “How have you overcome challenges and leaned into opportunities?”, “In what way(s) has your research connected with your classes or with your life?”, and “What has surprised you the most about research this semester? How has your research identity changed over this semester?”

Results, Conclusions, and Discussions:: To overcome challenges associated with answering responses individually, the reflections were shifted to a slide presented to the whole group. Discussion of weekly prompts at the research meetings often led to increased curiosity by students, primarily the undergraduate students. These students would pose additional questions, both related and unrelated to the original prompt. Discussion of failure in research came up often and was normalized, demonstrating that "failure" in research happens often, even to more senior researchers (including the faculty members). This led to further discussion amongst students about what keeps them going in research in light of these persistent failures (resilience). In general, trainees have found the questions to be helpful and the engagement led to building community. As a specific example, undergraduate students expressed feelings of both relief and empowerment when they saw that PhD students and postdocs, and even the faculty advisor, also had similar responses to several prompts. While no significant differences have been noted to date in retention beyond one semester or publication rate, the number of first author conference abstracts by undergraduate students has increased, and 85% of the undergraduate researchers who have graduated since this was piloted have gone on to graduate programs in science, engineering, and medicine. The most common EML related construct that emerged was Connections – the students were constantly making connections between the literature and their project, research and their coursework, research skills and their future careers, research and their personal lives, and establishing collaborations. The secondary EML related construct was Curiosity – the students were curious about career paths and technical aspects associated with theirs and others projects. While additional factors could not be controlled, this appears to have impacted undergraduate researcher mindset. In future iterations of this work, the reflection questions will be tweaked to elicit more responses related to Creating Value as all three constructs are needed to support an entrepreneurial mindset.

Acknowledgements and/or References (Optional):: The authors acknowledge The Kern Family Foundation’s support of this work.

References:
[1] Zydney AL, Bennett JS, Shahid A, Bauer KW. Impact of Undergraduate Research Experience in Engineering. Journal of Engineering Education, 91:151-157, 2002.
[2] Bass P, Washuta N, Howison J, Gonzalez R, Maier C. Benefits and Challenges of Undergraduate Research. In 2018 ASEE Southeastern Section Conference, 2018.
[3] Effective Communication Styles Inventory. Wanda Hackett Enterprises, 1998.
[4] Swindle-Reilly KE. Using EML to Improve Undergraduate Biomedical Research Experiences, KEEN Card, https://engineeringunleashed.com/card/3267.