Undergraduate students bring a strong set of beliefs toward education research as they have spent a considerable amount of time vested in the same environment that education research seeks to understand and improve. These sets of beliefs can serve as motivation for students to engage in education research and also serve as a valuable asset providing insights into the design and development of a project. This presentation describes efforts to meaningfully incorporate undergraduate research into chemistry education research projects by describing three research experiences. First, undergraduate students who have a quantitative bend have contributed toward compiling education research databases such as test scores or a meta-analysis. These databases can then be used to test out students' research questions such as the effectiveness of a pedagogical technique. Second, undergraduate students have contributed toward implementing pedagogical techniques, for example by making instructional videos to aid in the flipped class approach. Finally, undergraduate students have interviewed undergraduates who are participating in the research to learn about response patterns to assessments or study habits. The latter two experiences serve as an example of leveraging students' familiarity with the educational setting.

Undergraduate researchers engaging in chemistry education research

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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