2026 Project Descriptions

Each year, we gather an amazing team of mentors who develop potential projects for REU students. Read through these descriptions to get a sense of what we do each summer and pick out your three favorites! You'll need that for the application - we match students with projects and mentors to help ensure a successful summer for everyone!

Project 1: Making group work… work: Exploring social metacognition in a biology classroom

Mentors: Emily Hackerson, Tara Slominski, Jenni Momsen

Group work is a powerful tool that can enhance students' learning, but students often report negative group work experiences. We know that participating in a process called social metacognition leads to positive group work outcomes. Social metacognition is the awareness of other people’s thinking for the purpose of learning.

Here at NDSU we are interested in how students use social metacognitive skills in authentic group work settings, and how participating in social metacognitive activities impacts course performance. The student working on this project will collaborate with Emily, Tara, and Jenni to analyze audio recordings of students working collaboratively in a course and other course artifacts. Specifically you will:

• Develop a deeper understanding of the current literature on social metacognition
• Learn qualitative and quantitative research techniques
• Communicate your science to our community of researchers
• Synthesize research findings in the form of a scientific poster to be presented at the conclusion of the program.

Project 2: Variety is the spice of life: Unpacking variation in introductory biology

Mentors: Jenni Momsen, Daniel Ferguson

Variation is essential to life - and to the long-term survival of any species. The concept of biological variation is elegantly complex, connecting genes to phenotypes, populations, and even ecosystems. How does a first-year biology student make sense of the complexity that is biological variation? In this project, you will explore student ideas about genetic variation, mutation, or phenotypic plasticity, and then help us design instruction and formative assessment to improve our teaching of variation.

The student working on this project will collaborate with Jenni and Danny to analyze students’ course artifacts (survey responses, test answers, etc) and current instructional practices. Specifically, you will:

• Develop a deeper understanding of biological variation,
• Develop instruction using backwards design,
• Learn qualitative and quantitative research techniques,
• Communicate your science to our community of researchers, and
• Synthesize research findings in the form of a scientific poster to be presented at the conclusion of the program.

Project 3: Confidence, Identity, and Engagement: Measuring Impact of a Molecular Biology Camp
Mentoring team: Danielle Condry and Johnny Nguyen

Have you ever wondered if a single week can change how a student sees themselves as a scientist? Each summer, high school students participate in a week-long, hands-on molecular biology camp at NDSU. During this immersive experience, they work with real research tools, explore biotechnology techniques, and meet scientists who share their career paths. But beyond learning lab skills, we’re interested in how this experience shapes students’ confidence and scientific self-concept. This project examines how participation in the camp influences students' views on their abilities, their sense of belonging in science, and their interest in STEM careers. The student working on this project will collaborate with Dr. Condry and Dr.Nguyen to analyze pre- and post-survey data from the first and second years of the camp, and may also help facilitate the camp itself.

Specifically, you will:

• Develop an understanding of research on science identity, self-efficacy, and informal STEM learning.
• Help plan and facilitate laboratory and learning activities during the summer molecular biology camp.
• Assist with data collection and analysis (qualitative and quantitative) from camp surveys.
• Communicate findings to stakeholders and funders of the camp.
• Synthesize your results in a scientific poster presented at the conclusion of the program.

Project 4: Assessment of Students' Knowledge of Green Chemistry

As green chemistry principles become increasingly embedded in undergraduate instruction, there is a growing need for robust tools to assess students’ knowledge in this area. Our research focuses on evaluating two complementary approaches for measuring students’ understanding of green chemistry: selected-response items and constructed-response case comparison prompts. The selected-response component centers on the Assessment of Student Knowledge of Green Chemistry Principles (ASK-GCP), developed to quantify student comprehension across diverse instructional settings. To address the limitations of selected-response formats in revealing student reasoning, we also employ constructed-response prompts in which students compare two reaction alternatives, identify the greener option, and justify their choice. These prompts have been incorporated into organic chemistry lecture and laboratory courses to examine students’ ability to apply green chemistry principles in context. This project analyzes data from both assessment approaches and provides participating REU students with experience in quantitative statistical analysis as well as qualitative coding of open-ended responses.

While working on this project, the student researcher will:

• Become familiar with principles of green chemistry
• Develop an understanding of the research landscape on alternative grading practices
• Code and analyze data from interview transcripts and syllabi
• Practice qualitative and quantitative research skills working alongside a graduate student and faculty mentor
• Communicate their work through a scientific poster and informal verbal presentation

Project 5: Students’ Conceptual Understanding of Fundamental Chemistry Concepts

Mentor: James Nyachwaya

Conceptual understanding in chemistry is a goal that instructors have for their courses and students. One way of measuring or ascertaining the level of conceptual understanding is through assessment. Research in chemistry education has consistently shown that while most students show mastery of facts and memorized procedures, they struggle to demonstrate true conceptual understanding. Through student responses to open ended questions, we seek to characterize students’ conceptual understanding of basic, fundamental chemistry concepts. Our data is drawn from a general chemistry course.

Research Question: What is the nature of general chemistry students’ conceptual understanding of fundamental concepts such as the particulate nature of matter?

In the course of the research experience, participants will:

-Synthesize literature on conceptual understanding in chemistry,

-Analyze student data to determine the nature of understanding

-Synthesize research findings in the form of a scientific poster presented at the conclusion of the program

-Present their research progress in lab group meeting at least once during the summer

Project 6: Title: How Your Brain Does Physics: Exploring Reasoning in Real Student Work

Mentors: Mila Kryjevskaia and Jon Owen

This project stems from research showing that even students who understand physics concepts can struggle to apply them consistently when solving problems. We also know from physics education research and cognitive science that even slight changes in a question can influence how students think about it. Our project flips this idea: given the same physics problem, does the way students are asked to respond affect the kind of reasoning they use? To find out, come work with us. We will use the Dual-Process Theory of reasoning to explore how intuitive and analytical thinking shape students’ explanations and why your brain can be both your worst enemy and your best friend in physics. You will analyze real student responses from a second-semester introductory physics course and uncover why many students find physics difficult while others learn to tame it—and maybe discover something surprising about your own thinking.

During this research project, students will have an opportunity to:

• Become familiar with the literature on student reasoning in physics
• Develop an understanding of cognitive processes employed during problem-solving
• Qualitatively analyze student responses to different question types
• Develop new physics questions that will evoke multiple reasoning types
• Communicate findings through a poster presentation

Project 7: Physicists say WHAT about F=ma?? Analyzing Expert Interpretations of Common Physics Equations

Mentoring team: Will Riihiluoma and John Buncher

In physics, mathematical equations are constantly used to describe physical phenomena or express relationships between physical quantities. One way that students can begin to “think like a physicist” is by developing their ability to see physics equations and translate them into common language–by developing a sense of understanding what the equations are “telling them” as far as what quantities are being related and in what ways they interrelate.

As a part of this project, you will study data collected from expert physicists to see what this skill looks like once extensively developed. This will include both analyzing previously-collected video data of graduate students and professors interpreting equations they are familiar with, as well as collecting and analyzing data yourself from this same population. Outcomes from this project will help us better understand what types of interpretations we may want students to develop as they learn to “think like physicists.”

Through participation in this project, students will:

• Learn qualitative methods, including conducting and analyzing think-aloud interviews
• Present their research progress as part of an oral presentation to their fellow REU participants and other faculty mentors
• Synthesize their findings in the form of a scientific poster to be presented at the conclusion of the program
• Compare their findings on expert interpretations to those for students throughout the physics curriculum

Project 8: What does it mean to “do an integral”? Investigating differences in thinking about math concepts and operations in physics

Mentoring team: Idris Malik and Warren Christensen

Calculus topics such as Derivatives and integrals are often used within physics courses. Even though students get familiar with performing derivatives and integrals in math classes, physics courses place additional emphasis on setting up these operations and explaining their physical significance. The emphasis when setting up integrals and derivatives in a calculus course can feel quite different when compared to physics courses. What do Math Faculty think about what it means to “do a derivative” or “do an integral”? What do they choose to emphasize about these topics to students in their math courses? In this project, you will help create and conduct interviews with faculty to see how they view calculus concepts. You will also compare and contrast how math faculty view these concepts with prior interviews of students in physics classes.

The researcher on this project will:

• Read literature across the domains of mathematics and physics education research
• Help create and conduct interviews with math faculty
• Analyze audio and video recordings of interviews
• Draw conclusions from qualitative data
• Share findings in a presentation and poster at the end of the program

Project 9: Optimizing Student Success: Using optimization problems to enhance student engagement and understanding.

Mentor: Maxx Kureczko

Optimization problems are an important source of real-world applications in any first-semester calculus course. In Math 144, a calculus-based course designed for business majors, we see optimization problems throughout the semester in almost every unit. Hence, this can provide us with a fantastic opportunity to track student progress, understanding, and attitudes towards these sorts of problems and their relevance in their fields of study. In this project, you will explore students’ ideas and attitudes regarding single and multivariate optimization problems in the business world over the course of a semester and then help design instructional materials to improve our teaching of these important concepts.

You will collaborate with Maxx Kureczko to analyze students’ course artifacts (for example: survey responses, exam scores, and attendance) and current instructional methods and materials. In particular, you will:

• See optimization problems through applications in business, from both algebraic and calculus perspectives,
• Implement ideas of backwards design to create formative assessments,
• Learn both qualitative and quantitative research techniques,
• Communicate these findings to other researchers, and
• Present your analysis and work during a poster session at the conclusion of the program.