Research Experiences for Undergraduates: An Evaluation of Affective Impact

• Main Author: Chantry, Brian N.
• Format: Others
• Published: BYU ScholarsArchive 2009
• Subjects: evaluation; REU; affective characteristics; physics; Educational Psychology
• Online Access: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/1933; https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2932&context=etd

Each year the National Science Foundation (NFS) grants funding for universities in the United States to provide a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) summer program. The Department of Physics and Astronomy at Brigham Young University (BYU) has been a recipient of NSF REU grants for several years. This year the administrators of the REU program at BYU requested an evaluation be conducted to determine if their program was effective at helping participants have a significant research experience, as well as determine the impact the program is having on student's attitudes towards the field of physics, graduate school, and research. This report contains the findings of the evaluation and recommendations for program improvement.