Introduction

Patricia Ann Mabrouk, Editor-in-Chief

doi: 10.18833/spur/5/2/8

Welcome to the Winter 2021 Scholarship & Practice of Undergraduate Research (SPUR) issue. You will notice a few changes in this issue. Dr. James LaPlant, founding Editor-in-Chief, stepped down in June. We are exceptionally grateful to him for his leadership and vision for SPUR, and I am personally grateful for his constructive and motivating mentoring, wisdom, and good humor. Shortly after that, Elizabeth Foxwell, Managing Editor, left as well. Over the last few months, Executive Officer Lindsay Currie, external consultant Evelyn Jabri, and I have worked with Technica Editorial to re-envision the Journal’s management. We have adopted a new, more traditional organizational structure (Associate Editors) for the Journal reflected on the new masthead for this issue. We have crafted new author submission guidelines, and we have also developed a formal set of reviewer guidelines that appear in this issue. We are excited about these and other changes that are still in the works, and we hope you will be pleased, too. If you have suggestions or comments, please write me at p.mabrouk@northeastern.edu. We are here for you. If you are interested in submitting a manuscript, serving as a reviewer, or if you have ideas for issue themes, please contact me.

In this issue, we continue the practice initiated by former Editor-in-Chief James LaPlant (see the Winter 2020 issue – volume 4, number 2 for information on last year’s best article and honorable mention recipients) of recognizing the best paper and honorable mention published in SPUR this past year. We hope that these works inspire you and empower you to consider sharing your novel approaches to the practice and assessment of mentored undergraduate research, scholarship, and creativity activity by publishing in the Journal. We hope that prospective authors will find these articles useful as models in crafting strong submissions.

Though this is formally a non-themed issue, reading, writing, equity, and access are common threads that run through the contributions you will find herein. The first offering by Anne U. Gold (University of Colorado Boulder), Rachel Atkins (North Carolina State University), and Karen S. McNeal (Auburn University) presents a case study of a geoscience research experiences for undergraduates program that used eye-tracking to objectively evaluate the strategies that students use to read scientific papers and graphs. The authors conducted think-alouds and collected eye-tracking data with students before and after their participation in a geoscience undergraduate research program, providing 10 hours of training on reading and interpreting research papers and graphical information. The student data was benchmarked against a convenience sample of geoscientists. The team demonstrated the value of eye-tracking in objectively documenting changes in students’ reading strategies due to their participation in undergraduate research and as a means of probing the cognitive strategies that student readers use. Their work demonstrates this technology’s potential in documenting skill growth in student researchers.

In their contribution, Lisa Bosman (Purdue University) and Kelli Chelberg (College of Menominee Nation) leverage the deep abiding respect that Native Americans have for storytelling as a means of actively engaging student engineers in a pre-engineering program at a tribal college in the US Midwest in the development of a culturally responsive children’s book about engineers and engineering. This activity requires the students to develop their communications and research skills while deepening their understanding of the different subdisciplines of engineering and engineering applications required for their success when they transition to four-year engineering degree programs. This approach can be adapted by faculty in other disciplines and institutions.

Elizabeth Wimberly-Young, Vanessa C. Morales, and Kathleen F. Weaver (Loyola Marymount University) report on the student outcomes for a faculty-mentored summer undergraduate research program at their institution, which transitioned from in-person to remote during the pandemic. The authors provide evidence from analysis of pre-and post-program written reflections, evaluated using the AAC&U value rubrics, and surveys that thoughtfully designed and supported online research programs valuing relationships and community can provide undergraduates with valuable knowledge and skills such as curiosity and initiative and the ability to apply these abilities in new situations.

Alexandria Lockett (Spelman College), Rebecca Day Babcock (University of Texas Permian Basin), and D. Alexis Hart (Allegheny College) present three case studies illustrating several unique ways in which faculty in the relatively new field of writing studies have engaged historically marginalized and underserved students in authentic mentored research experiences early in their undergraduate education. Their contribution closes with a set of practical recommendations regarding how writing studies faculty can engage students from all demographics and communities in undergraduate research inside and outside the classroom working in-person and online and provide them with publication opportunities with far-reaching impact. I believe ideas and opportunities here will benefit all undergraduate research mentors and program directors.

We close this issue with a powerful call to action by a team from Bridgewater State University (Jenny Olin Shanahan, Jeanne Carey Ingle, Jing Tan, Thayaparan Paramanathan, and Kenneth W. Adams). Leveraging their work to re-envision undergraduate research on their campus in response to a series of recent local and national crises, including the pandemic, an institutional budget shortfall, and institutional and societal cries for racial equity and justice, the authors share seven principles outlining policies and practices that undergraduate research program administrators and mentors can enact so all students can fully and equally benefit from the transformative power we all believe participation in undergraduate research affords. The authors argue persuasively and passionately, and we wholeheartedly agree, that re-envisioned for equity and justice, undergraduate research can serve as the fulcrum for widespread “antiracist, decolonial, and equity-minded change” in our world. Let it be so!