Opportunities for authentic research experiences have been shown effective for recruiting and retaining students in STEM fields. Meaningful research experiences require significant time in project design, modeling ethical practice, providing training, instruction, and ongoing guidance. We propose that to be sustainable, a new instructional paradigm is needed, shifting from being top-weighted in instruction to a distributed weight model. Our model relies on partnerships where everyone has buy-in and reaps rewards. This works through building teams of students to work together and support each other, adjusting the mentoring model so that participants develop into mentors as they move through the program, serving to inspire and connect with the incoming students, and focusing on supporting and developing the whole student so that they are transformed through the experience.
Collaboration Through Teamwork