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Welcome. This page contains links to direct you to surveys of undergraduate
experiences. The three surveys described below - the SURE III, the
Research Follow Up, and the CURE - are supported by funding from the
Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Each survey
takes about 10-15 minutes. The surveys are hosted by a commercial site, Vovici.
The data are analyzed by Prof. Lopatto and Ms. Leslie Jaworski, Electronic Survey
Data Analyst for the project. We report aggregate data for an institution or program
to the designated faculty liaison or program director.
| SURE III | Research Follow Up | CURE |
The Survey of Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE) is a survey for
undergraduates who have recently completed a summer undergraduate research
experience. The survey, including introductory information and informed consent
information, may be found at:
http://web.grinnell.edu/sureiii/
Typically, a faculty liaison or program director contacts Prof. Lopatto
(lopatto@grinnell.edu)
to plan the period of data collection and designate who should receive the report.
The liaison will also be directed to a "partner" form so that we may save contact
information. The partner form is here:
http://web.grinnell.edu/sureiii/
The liaison is responsible for informing the students of the survey, sharing the link to
the survey, and making certain that any local human subjects or institutional review
board issues are resolved. The SURE project has been approved by the Grinnell
College Institutional Review Board. Prof. Lopatto and Ms. Jaworski have completed
online certification for work with human subjects.
SURE III replaces the older SURE II and SURE II ay surveys. It combines the features of
the two surveys and so simplifies the use of the survey. Publication of the results of
the SURE survey project include:
- Lopatto, D. (2004). Survey of Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE): First Findings. Cell Biology Education, 3, 270-277.
- Lopatto, D. (2007). Undergraduate research experiences support science career decisions and active learning. CBE - Life Sciences Education, 6, 297-306.
When the SURE (Summer Undergraduate Research Experiences) survey was created
in 2003, we offered the opportunity for students to revisit the questions on the survey
after a period of 6 to 9 months to capture any changes in their attitudes toward
their experience. Data were collected on this "follow-up" survey for two years, and
the findings were published as part of a book chapter:
Lopatto, D. (2008). Exploring the benefits of undergraduate research: The SURE survey. In R. Taraban & R.L. Blanton (Eds.), Creating Effective Undergraduate Research Programs in Science. NY: Teacher's College Press (pp. 112-132).
In brief, the results showed that student opinions about their summer research
experience sharpened with time, that students participated in a variety of
dissemination activities, and that their behavior changed in the direction of greater
independence and motivation.
Access the follow-up survey here.
It has been modified so that the student completing the survey need not have taken
the SURE survey earlier. The follow-up need not be 6 to 9 months; the survey items
can reasonably be evaluated after longer time periods. The survey procedure
follows the same guidelines as the SURE and CURE surveys. Students arrange to
complete the survey either anonymously or not, depending on their arrangement
with you and your institutional review board. We at Grinnell compile the results and
send you a report.
The Classroom Undergraduate Research Experience survey grew out of a creative
collaboration of faculty from Grinnell College, Hope College, Harvey Mudd College, and
Wellesley College, funded by HHMI. The CURE may be used as a pretest-posttest or
posttest only survey to measure student experiences in "research like" or other
science courses. Pretest questions include:
- Demographic questions
- Reasons for taking the course
- Level of experience on various course elements
- Science attitude questions
- Learning style questions
The posttest survey is parallel to the pretest. Questions include:
- Estimate of learning gains in the course elements
- Estimates of learning benefits that parallel questions in the SURE surveys
- Overall evaluation of the experience
- Science attitude questions
The CURE survey has three components:
1) A brief survey for the course or lab
instructor in which the instructor indicates which common activities are emphasized
in the course.
Access the CURE instructor form here.
2) A pre-course survey to be completed by the students in the course or lab.
Access the CURE pre-course survey here.
3) A post-course survey to be completed by the student in the course or lab.
Access the CURE post-course survey here.
The survey procedure follows the same guidelines as the SURE and Follow-Up
surveys. Students arrange to complete the survey either anonymously or not,
depending on their arrangement with you and your institutional review board. (We
suggest the surveys not be anonymous, as having the student names facilitates
matching the pre-course to the post-course surveys.) We at Grinnell compile the
results and send you a report. Please contact Prof. Lopatto
(lopatto@grinnell.edu)
if you are interested in using this approach to your course assessment.
Published examples of CURE results in support of science education programs include:
- Denofrio, L.A., Russell, B., Lopatto, D., & Lu, Y. (2007). Linking student interests to science curricula. Science, 318, 1872-1873.
- Lopatto, D., et al. (2008). Genomics Education Partnership. Science, 322, 684-685.
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