Early Undergraduate Research Experience using Affinity Research Groups for Hispanic Engineering Students

Final Paper pdf 280KB

Affinity Research Groups (ARG) is a cooperative learning approach to provide students with struc- tured tasks and activities to strengthen their skills, promoting the success of team members. ARG was used by a group of Hispanic undergraduate engineering students at the Polytechnic Univer- sity of Puerto Rico’s Plasma Engineering Laboratory. The students were provided with training in research, plasma physics, and programming to work in research projects assigned by the fac- ulty members to subgroups of students. The students were required to develop experimental or simulation work as required by the projects, and to present their results in undergraduate research fori. The objective of the project was to study the effect of applying the ARG methodology to students in an early stage of their academic career in terms of engagement, interest, self-reliance, self-belonging, and cognitive factors. Results show a positive change in some of the measured variables and negative change in others.

Author(s):

Angel Gonzalez-Lizardo    
ECECS
Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico
United States

Ernesto Ulloa-Davila    
Sciences and Mathematics
Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico
United States

Omayra Rivera-Castro    
Institutional Research Office
Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico
United States

Joanne Brenes    
Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico
United States

Angie Escalante-Santana    
Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico
United States