Our aim is to engage with students early and often as they progress through the core preparatory courses in the pre-Biology major. BioMentors focuses on obvious motivational and academic challenges to our majors. First, entering freshman biology majors experience minimal mentoring and engagement with biology faculty, and they have no exposure to biology courses until the sophomore year. Second, large, core lecture courses are not complemented by small group discussion sections and thus there is a minimal amount of structured activities and active learning in these courses. The BioMentors Program has three main components: (1) Bio Mentoring and Engagement - a year-long peer-mentoring course for first year pre-Biology students that focuses on developing study skills and problem solving and creates motivated, confident learning groups; (2) Enhanced Introductory Biology courses that employ active learning strategies and guided mentoring sessions for the learning groups; and (3) Development of science education and research courses complemented by a seminar series that will serve to educate and train undergraduate Learning Assistants, graduate student Teaching Assistants, postdoctoral scholars, and faculty. Further, in order to engage first and second year students effectively, we will provide a designated physical space that facilitates active learning. The BioMentors Program will create a Learning Community at UCSB that will have an effect not only in the Biological Sciences, but across all STEM disciplines. Each component of BioMentors is approached from the perspective that it will be a sustainable institutional program if successful. We will compare the learning outcomes (e.g. academic achievement, completion of a degree in STEM) of the students who participate in the learning group programs as compared to matched control groups in order to assess the success of the program. Our hypothesis is that creation of a learning community among our first and second year biology students coupled with guided mentoring and implementation of active learning practices into our courses will lead to greater academic achievement and persistence in a STEM major for all students and especially for those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

You can apply to become a Biomentor here: https://hhmi.mcdb.ucsb.edu/content/application-be-biomentor