COS 103-4 - Effects of varying immersive and overnight outdoor experiences on student outcomes in an introductory undergraduate field biology course

Abstract: Immersive outdoor experiences (IOEs), often called field courses, have the potential to increase a student’s motivation to continue in the sciences by positively impacting a student's sense of belonging, science identity, and self-efficacy skills. However, many students are not able to participate in these IOEs because they experience a set of barriers, including financial constraints, limited institutional support, or lack of experience with the outdoors. Here, we ask how instructors can facilitate IOEs that reduce these barriers but still obtain positive student outcomes. One important barrier for students interested in participating in an IOE is the inability to leave family or work for overnight trips. We designed a field biology course, with three different IOE versions: no overnight trips, one overnight trip, and two overnight trips. Undergraduate students enrolled in the course were assigned randomly to one of the three IOE versions. We also compared students' outcomes in the field biology course to a control group composed of new students in an ecology lecture-based course not taking field biology. We used a mixed methods approach with pre- and post- surveys (modified Persistence in the Sciences instrument), interviews, and online reflections to determine change in sense of belonging, science identity, and self-efficacy across multiple student’s identities, such as first-in-family to college, race/ethnicity, and gender. Students enrolled in all three IOEs experienced gains in sense of belonging, science identity, and self-efficacy when compared to the control group. However, students in the overnight IOE versions reported experiences of connection to mentors, peers, and place distinct from those without overnight trips. We found that some of the strengths of IOEs include students engaging with nature, science, and with their peers in more unstructured interactions outside of typical course content. Instructors can facilitate these interactions while decreasing barriers and managing institutional, financial, and cultural expectations. Our results will serve higher education institutions, ecologists, and IOEs instructors to better understand the tradeoffs inherent in different IOE models, with a view to maximizing positive outcomes for all students.