Discipline: Science & Mathematics Education
Subcategory: STEM Science and Mathematics Education
Mark Lee - Spelman College
Co-Author(s): Monica Stephens
Spelman has an exemplary undergraduate science program that responds to student demand for research training. We believe in creating a research active environment that provides innovative science curricular and training resources on par with leading liberal art institutions. The science and mathematics departments emphasize conducting research as a well-established pedagogical tool. This demand for research experiences led to our consideration of incorporating postdoctoral fellows as contributors to research productivity. Herein, Spelman instituted a similar mechanism. In these models, all stakeholders benefited. Undergraduate students benefit from gaining skills and mentoring from the postdocs. Faculty benefit from increased research productivity, more time for course development/improvement, and help mentoring students. Postdocs benefit by developing independent research programs, gaining teaching experience, pedagogical skills and experience mentoring students. We can report that all 6 postdoctoral fellows at Spelman College were able to publish peer-reviewed articles (n=8) during their fellowship.
Funder Acknowledgement(s): Spelman College CURE Research Program- HBCU-UP Award from the National Science Foundation, (Award ID:1436759).
Faculty Advisor: None Listed,