Guide To Undergraduate Research

People of color and others with marginalized ethnicities, women and others who experience misogyny, LGBTQ+ people, disabled people, and others who have traditionally been marginalized in society and in physics. According to the TEAM-UP Report, marginalized groups are “groups of people defined by a common social identity who lack adequate social power or resources to design, build, or perpetuate social structures or institutions that reflect the centrality … of their identities, proclivities, and points of view. … They need not be underrepresented or numerical minorities, but often are.” We use the term marginalized groups, rather than minorities, underrepresented groups, or other commonly used terms, because people in these groups are not always minorities or underrepresented, and in order to convey that underrepresentation is the result of marginalization rather than a statistical accident. Another common term is minoritized groups. While we use this general term for brevity and readability, it is important to recognize that the many different groups encompassed by this term face different challenges and have different needs that should be addressed individually whenever possible, to learn the terms that people ask to be called, and to recognize that these terms may change over time.

An ideology that argues that one does not or should not see race, and/or that the best way to address racism is to treat everyone the same and not discuss racism. Many scholars argue that this ideology is harmful because ignoring racism makes it difficult to understand and fight racism, and because people who espouse this ideology are not able to understand the full experiences and identities of people of color, whose lived experiences are profoundly impacted by race and racism. Review article

A document used for curricular design that identifies the learning opportunities designed to address each program-level student learning outcome. An assessment plan typically includes a simplified version of a curriculum map, which shows only when and where in the curriculum (typically in courses) each program-level student learning outcome is assessed. Program-level student learning outcomes may be addressed and/or assessed in curricular and co-curricular activities, including courses, laboratory experiences, seminars, internships, research, and capstone experiences. Robust curricular design and student learning assessment plans don’t merely address or assess an outcome at one point in the curriculum; rather, each outcome is addressed at different levels (introduction, emphasis, reinforcement) throughout the curriculum and assessed in several places and at different degrees of mastery (emerging, developing, proficient). Consult your office of assessment for institution-specific recommendations. For more details, see the section on How to Assess Student Learning at the Program Level.

A document used for curricular design that identifies the learning opportunities designed to address each program-level student learning outcome. An assessment plan typically includes a simplified version of a curriculum map, which shows only when and where in the curriculum (typically in courses) each program-level student learning outcome is assessed. Program-level student learning outcomes may be addressed and/or assessed in curricular and co-curricular activities, including courses, laboratory experiences, seminars, internships, research, and capstone experiences. Robust curricular design and student learning assessment plans don’t merely address or assess an outcome at one point in the curriculum; rather, each outcome is addressed at different levels (introduction, emphasis, reinforcement) throughout the curriculum and assessed in several places and at different degrees of mastery (emerging, developing, proficient). Consult your office of assessment for institution-specific recommendations. For more details, see the section on How to Assess Student Learning at the Program Level.

People of color and others with marginalized ethnicities, women and others who experience misogyny, LGBTQ+ people, disabled people, and others who have traditionally been marginalized in society and in physics. According to the TEAM-UP Report, marginalized groups are “groups of people defined by a common social identity who lack adequate social power or resources to design, build, or perpetuate social structures or institutions that reflect the centrality … of their identities, proclivities, and points of view. … They need not be underrepresented or numerical minorities, but often are.” We use the term marginalized groups, rather than minorities, underrepresented groups, or other commonly used terms, because people in these groups are not always minorities or underrepresented, and in order to convey that underrepresentation is the result of marginalization rather than a statistical accident. Another common term is minoritized groups. While we use this general term for brevity and readability, it is important to recognize that the many different groups encompassed by this term face different challenges and have different needs that should be addressed individually whenever possible, to learn the terms that people ask to be called, and to recognize that these terms may change over time.

A form of mentoring in which a mentor reflects upon how their own culture shapes their beliefs, perceptions, and identity, and seeks to learn about, build on, and validate the cultural context of their mentees. An example training is the Culturally Aware Mentoring program by the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research.

National Science Foundation. Website

National Institute of Standards and Technology. Website

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Website

National Institutes of Health. Website

Department of Energy. Website

National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates program. Website

A document used for curricular design that identifies the learning opportunities designed to address each program-level student learning outcome. An assessment plan typically includes a simplified version of a curriculum map, which shows only when and where in the curriculum (typically in courses) each program-level student learning outcome is assessed. Program-level student learning outcomes may be addressed and/or assessed in curricular and co-curricular activities, including courses, laboratory experiences, seminars, internships, research, and capstone experiences. Robust curricular design and student learning assessment plans don’t merely address or assess an outcome at one point in the curriculum; rather, each outcome is addressed at different levels (introduction, emphasis, reinforcement) throughout the curriculum and assessed in several places and at different degrees of mastery (emerging, developing, proficient). Consult your office of assessment for institution-specific recommendations. For more details, see the section on How to Assess Student Learning at the Program Level.

Faculty, instructors, adjuncts, teaching staff, and others who serve as instructors of record for courses. This term does not include instructional support staff who support the teaching of courses.

A phenomenon in which a person doubts their own skills and accomplishments, attributes their success to luck rather than hard work or skill, and fears that they are an impostor who does not deserve the things they have earned. We use the original term, impostor phenomenon, rather than the more commonly used term, impostor syndrome, to emphasize that this is not a medical condition to be attributed to individuals, but a phenomenon shaped by interpersonal and social contexts that may lead people, particularly those from marginalized groups, to question their skills and accomplishments. Review article

Unconscious and automatic attitudes or stereotypes about groups of people that impact one’s understanding of, actions toward, and decisions regarding individual members of such groups. For example, research shows that many people in the US, even those who consciously believe that all people are equal, implicitly have biases associating Black people with criminality and Asian people with being foreign, and not associating women with science. Implicit bias has measurable consequences in the world, with research demonstrating, for example, that people rate job applicants with names typically associated with women and/or people of color as less qualified than those with names typically associated with white men, and that students rate female instructors as less competent than male instructors. Everyone has implicit biases, and countering such biases requires explicit training and/or intervention strategies such as intergroup contact, perspective-taking, and exposure to counter-stereotypical exemplars. Review article

People of color and others with marginalized ethnicities, women and others who experience misogyny, LGBTQ+ people, disabled people, and others who have traditionally been marginalized in society and in physics. According to the TEAM-UP Report, marginalized groups are “groups of people defined by a common social identity who lack adequate social power or resources to design, build, or perpetuate social structures or institutions that reflect the centrality … of their identities, proclivities, and points of view. … They need not be underrepresented or numerical minorities, but often are.” We use the term marginalized groups, rather than minorities, underrepresented groups, or other commonly used terms, because people in these groups are not always minorities or underrepresented, and in order to convey that underrepresentation is the result of marginalization rather than a statistical accident. Another common term is minoritized groups. While we use this general term for brevity and readability, it is important to recognize that the many different groups encompassed by this term face different challenges and have different needs that should be addressed individually whenever possible, to learn the terms that people ask to be called, and to recognize that these terms may change over time.

Unconscious and automatic attitudes or stereotypes about groups of people that impact one’s understanding of, actions toward, and decisions regarding individual members of such groups. For example, research shows that many people in the US, even those who consciously believe that all people are equal, implicitly have biases associating Black people with criminality and Asian people with being foreign, and not associating women with science. Implicit bias has measurable consequences in the world, with research demonstrating, for example, that people rate job applicants with names typically associated with women and/or people of color as less qualified than those with names typically associated with white men, and that students rate female instructors as less competent than male instructors. Everyone has implicit biases, and countering such biases requires explicit training and/or intervention strategies such as intergroup contact, perspective-taking, and exposure to counter-stereotypical exemplars. Review article

Assessment for the purposes of monitoring progress toward a goal, identifying strengths and weaknesses, providing feedback, and enabling improvement. Formative assessment may be used to provide feedback to students about their learning (e.g., through low-stakes homework, quizzes, or peer discussion), to instructional staff about their teaching (e.g., through mid-semester feedback forms or peer observations of teaching), or to departments about their achievement of program-level student learning outcomes (e.g., through aggregate student performance on designated in-class conceptual questions, homework, and exam questions chosen for their relevance to the particular outcome being assessed; presentations; and projects). Formative assessment is often contrasted with summative assessment, which is assessment for the purposes of measuring the final achievement of outcomes at the end of an event or experience.

National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates program. Website