Welcome to the SURE-III website. The Survey of Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE-III) intends to collect quantitative data on the benefits of undergraduate research by duplicating and extending the first SURE (Lopatto, 2004a, 2004b). The survey is being conducted by Professor David Lopatto of Grinnell College. It is funded by a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) mini-grant awarded to Prof. Clark Lindgren (Project Director) and Prof. David Lopatto (Lead Analyst), both of Grinnell College.
In duplicating the bulk of the first SURE, we hope to increase the statistical power of the results by including more institutions and undergraduate researchers beyond the original 66 schools and 2021 students. Replication will also allow for an analysis of undergraduate research experiences across a larger time-frame. The survey will be extended to collect data on academic-year research, peer/mentor roles of undergraduate researchers, and non-HHMI-funded undergraduate research programs.
The SURE-III has been approved by the Grinnell College Institutional Review Board (IRB).
The information collected from participating students will remain anonymous and confidential. Names and email addresses will be collected separately for entry into a drawing for one of ten $50 Amazon.com gift certificates. Institutional means and aggregates will be reported back to the partner faculty member or research director and may also be published.
If you are a student participating in the SURE, please continue on to the SURE III student information page.
Initial information on each participating research program and institution will be collected from a faculty member or program director known in the SURE as the Corresponding Program Coordinator (CPC). The information collected from the CPC will be used to create the lists of participating institutions, research programs, and sources of funding to use in the student survey. Other data will remain confidential and will be used to communicate means and aggregates back to the participating institutions. CPCs will receive a summary report of their student responses, including averages. CPCs will also receive benchmark statistics for the overall student sample.
If you are a faculty member or a research director (a CPC) at a partner institution and wish to have your institution participate in the SURE, please continue on to the partner institution data form.
Lopatto, D. (2004a). Survey of Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE): First findings. Cell Biology Education, 3, 270-277. (Available online in HTML and PDF.)
Lopatto, D. (2004b). What undergraduate research can tell us about research on learning. Washington, DC: Project Kaleidoscope. (Available online as PDF.)
Please report any errors in this page to petersos@grinnell.edu.