Group Cohesion

How do you form a science community, and why does it matter?

Building community in your URE is the key to building future scientists. The goal with inclusive UREs is to help students explore science in a way that honors, validates and integrates with their personal and social identities and experiences. Creating a community adds to a sense of belonging in the STEM sciences, which is one of the most important factors in developing scientists.

How we did it:

Here are some of the strategies we used to build community in ARC-Learn:

We built community agreements, both at the research team and entire cohort levels. These agreements were generated by the students and mentors, and covered behavioral as well as logistical expectations. All students, mentors and administrative staff were held to these agreements. We revisited them during the second year to make any changes needed.
At the beginning of each session, we set aside five minutes to share recent accomplishments in any realm of our lives.
During our cohort meetings, we intentionally created activities that would help students mingle with students from other teams, including the online research team. We also chose to hold several sessions entirely via Zoom, and did our best to create activities that would more fully integrate the online team. We frequently asked students to share progress on their projects with the cohort.
We checked on students when their attendance dropped off or when they missed major assignments to see how they were doing and how we could help.
We hosted several meals to celebrate the launching, mid-way point and grand finale of the program.

You would think that developing a community over a long period of time would be an easy task, but it was actually a bit of a challenge! Many students developed strong bonds within their research teams, but the cohort as a whole mostly came together only in the classroom setting, which can feel sterile and awkward at times. The greatest bonding experience of the program seemed to be during the grand finale, where students shared their posters in a practice session and at a symposium.

Considerations for your program:

Group agreements introduce students to how collaborative processes work (important in science) and group decision making. They also give everyone a voice and a sense of ownership, and they establish a sense of security as students know that their peers have knowingly agreed to the same set of behavioral guidelines. This is also a good way of emphasizing logistical necessities (such as texting if you’re going to miss a team meeting or watching the video if you miss a cohort session, etc).

Think outside the box or poll your group to find out what would work best. This could be sharing accomplishments each meeting, bringing treats to meetings, hosting an optional happy hour, organizing science-based outings, etc. Integrate activities that foster cross-team collaboration so students get to know students from other research teams as well.

In addition to the basic considerations of space (such as access to AV, etc.), find a space that is conducive to collaboration, such as a student lounge, meeting room or other space where students can sit closely together to interact. A classroom tends to spread smaller groups out, making for a rather sterile and quiet atmosphere. Smaller spaces with more casual seating can increase interaction between in-person team members.

If your program is thoughtfully designed to support students of color in a community of peers, clearly state that. If it is designed (as ours was) to support non-traditional students who might not otherwise be able to participate in research opportunities, clearly state that. Avoid vague language or overpromising in recruitment and orientation materials, as unmet expectations can lead to students feeling further marginalized through participation in your program.

Consider hosting something similar to the Foursight assessment to help each student anticipate where they will potentially thrive and struggle in the process of completing their project over the long haul. This has the added benefit of identifying areas where team members can help each other most.

Provide opportunities for students to share their work with the college, their fellow students, and even their friends and families. Think outside the box to identify creative ideas, such as opportunities to teach skills to each other, blog posts about their process, community showcases, etc.

One of the benefits of field experiences is the building of camaraderie among a group. This was a drawback of our model, as the students had no formative experience from which to build bonds at the beginning of the program. If funding allows, consider a several-day (as opposed to multi-week), accessibly designed outing to collect data or to tour a facility that collects data similar to what you’ll be working with. However, be thoughtful in balancing the interest to provide a formative field experience with the imperative to reduce barriers for, and address the accessibility needs of, the students you are trying to reach.

One drawback to having each student develop their own research question and find their own data to work with is that they do not get to collaborate with other students. To increase collaboration, belonging, and a sense of community, consider having students on a team work together to answer one larger research question, rather than having students working on different questions tied together by an overarching theme.