Collection

2024 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Nosakhare I. Idiaghe; Jessica Deters

ResearchUndergraduate research is a high impact educational practice that has numerous benefits forstudents [5]. It provides students with the opportunity to experience an education that isgrounded in discovery, enhances students intrinsic motivation to learn, and increases earlyengagement in engineering program [4], [5]. Students acknowledge that engaging inundergraduate research is intellectually stimulating, and believe it equips them with the skillsnecessary to tackle future challenges, particularly in solving engineering problems [3]. Manystudents have indicated that their most effective learning experiences occur when they areactively involved in undergraduate research [2], [5].Additionally, undergraduate research aids in the development of critical

Collection

2024 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Molly McVey; Priscilla L. Shum

large contextual projects as part of their coursework) contributed to the developmentof a professional identity amongst recent graduates. Similarly, for undergraduate students, designexperiences [24], participating in technological innovation competitions [25], enjoyment ofelements of professional engineering practice [26], and engagement in engineering-relatedactivities [27] predicted undergraduates’ engineering identity.A sense of belonging is more associated with positive social and relational experiences. Bothformal and informal mentoring, especially for underrepresented students, were important forfostering belonging [11, 28, 29]. Peer mentors with the same identities as mentees could beespecially effective [30, 31]. Actions of faculty