By Kari Jensen, EdD

🔗 linkedin.com/in/karijensen1

Research Focus: STEM Undergraduate Education

Type: Completed Dissertation (Doctoral Student)

What research challenge did your dissertation address?

Students in introductory STEM laboratory courses too often leave with a poor experience that pushes them out of STEM majors altogether — a problem that falls hardest on first-generation students, underrepresented minorities, and students from low-income backgrounds, who switch out of STEM at nearly twice the rate of their peers. Jensen traced this in part to the traditional lab format, which relies on predictable, low-stakes exercises that ask students to follow a recipe rather than engage in real scientific inquiry, sidelining curiosity and doing little to build a student’s sense of belonging or identity as a scientist. Her research investigated whether a more authentic laboratory experience — a Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) — paired with a supportive cohort structure, could reverse this pattern and improve STEM identity, self-efficacy, and motivation to persist in STEM majors.

What inspired you to pursue this research?

As a biology instructor in CPS, Jensen saw firsthand how an unsatisfying introductory STEM experience could quietly convince a capable student that they didn’t belong in science, often triggering a change of major early in their college career. The gap between a student’s real potential and the message a poorly designed lab experience sent them about themselves felt like something she could actually do something about. She wanted to know whether redesigning the laboratory experience itself — making it authentic, relevant, and personally meaningful — could change that trajectory.

What was the impact and outcome of your research?

Jensen found that participation in a CURE laboratory meaningfully strengthened historically excluded students’ STEM identity and sense of belonging. Students reported greater resilience, a clearer sense of their role as scientists, and increased personal interest and relevance in their coursework. Authentic and relevant lab experiences enhanced students’ motivation to persist in STEM majors, and the cohort structure amplified these effects through peer accountability and shared support. The study is among the first to show how a cohort-based program combined with a CURE can synergistically support historically excluded STEM students — pointing to a scalable model that other introductory courses serving similar populations could adopt.