LEARNING THE PROCESS OF SCIENCE: THE CASE OF UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCHERS AND THE NATURE OF SCIENCE This research documents the beginnings of a larger project in which undergraduate physics and biology researchers’ conceptions of the nature of science were probed during their summer research experiences. Expectations of faculty mentors and the conceptions of students were investigated and compared. Although students engaged in undergraduate science research perceive great benefit as a result of the experience, these benefits do not necessarily correspond with the benefits expected by faculty mentors. Adam Johnston; Department of Physics, Weber State University 1 Presented at the annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST) April 1-3, 2004; Vancouver, BC, Canada. Prologue Ten years ago I was working towards finishing a degree in physics. As part of that experience, I had participated in summer assistantships in which I cooled superconducting samples, soldered wires, built low-pass filters, washed some glassware, programmed computers to sample from the external world, and made a temperature controlling system for protein solution samples. I had fun. I was dabbling in science, and it felt as though in some small way I was accomplishing something that was “real.” But during the last semester of my last year of college I was doing my own research, making a thin layer of water with just a little bit of scale like gunk within it (to make the fluid murky enough to see how it was moving around). I remember working in a shop, tapping some holes, polishing a copper plate, mounting a film heater, setting up cameras, writing a grant proposal, and gathering data. I was doing all of the things that real researchers do. In fact, I really think that I became a scientist as a result of this experience and the ones that had preceded it. The thing is, I still don’t really understand what that means. Further, I look back on those experiences and all that I learned and the data I collected in the form of a bunch of mesmerizing pictures, and I now wonder what I was supposed to be learning from all of that. What was it that my own educators thought I was learning from all of this? I truly feel as though I “became” in some way -- it was a kind of right of passage as a researcher (although it is interesting to note that I had to “re-become” and go through a different right of passage in order to do educational research, but that’s another prologue of another paper). Last year, in the process of searching for a new dean for my university’s College of Science, a candidate (the successful one, in fact) emphasized his desire to expand and support our undergraduate research programs. He stated that doing research allows students to understand the “process of science”. Upon hearing this, I wrote it down immediately, for it occurred to me that this is a common sentiment, yet it begs at least two questions: What is this “process,” and what exactly is it that we want our students to learn about it? 1 Contact info: ajohnston@weber.edu or 2508 University Circle; Ogden, UT 84408-2508